I have this for the PS5 and platinumed it, so my hours are more like 120.

Race Mechanics: Good. The drifting and handling are less complex than someone might like, but it is fun. The skill ceiling is very much visible, as it's more about learning the tracks and being consistent. There isn't any crazy tech you can do to get above everyone else except for the insanely cheeky skips you could do on release. Nowadays, if you perform skips, the game gives you no coins or credit for cheating in online races, but they are required to beat some of these time trials.

Content: Campaign content consists of a bunch of races and some time trials. The time trials in the first part of the game are easy, and the expac ones are complete ball-busters. For some of them, you have to learn how to do skips to get it done.

Custom Car paints and tracks: The car painting part of the game is done well, and you get rewards if you make a skin people are downloading. I've spent hours making skins and seen people recreate The Mystery Machine. One of the greatest is someone turning the bus into the evil patrick spongebob meme and the garbage truck into a Waste Management truck etc. The Community tracks are hilarious and fun, but you can only play on the tracks you've made in public lobbies if you get insanely lucky and it gets drawn as an option during the lobby vote for a track.


Car Acquisition and upgrading: Pretty terrible. You basically get in-game loot boxes (you can't buy them for real money) and pray you get the ones you want. Cars have hard-set stats that you cannot tweak except for an upgrade 4 times, which boosts the stats they already have. This results in some cars being so terrible for online play, as some vehicles have more overall stats than some cars if you add them together. This is the area that the game takes a brutal hit in, as just having these static cars with no tweaking makes the gameplay shallow once you realize that five cars will consistently outperform the others.

Get it on sale if you like Arcade racers like crash bandicoot or mario, but don't expect the mechanical depth of those games but expect a higher degree of visual customization and race track variety via the community

I have this for the PS5 and platinumed it, so my hours are more like 120. Race Mechanics: Good. The drifting and handling are less complex than someone might like, but it is fun. The skill ceiling is very much visible, as it's more about learning the tracks and being consistent. There isn't any crazy tech you can do to get above everyone else except for the insanely cheeky skips you could do on release. Nowadays, if you perform skips, the game gives you no coins or credit for cheating in online races, but they are required to beat some of these time trials. Content: Campaign content consists of a bunch of races and some time trials. The time trials in the first part of the game are easy, and the expac ones are complete ball-busters. For some of them, you have to learn how to do skips to get it done. Custom Car paints and tracks: The car painting part of the game is done well, and you get rewards if you make a skin people are downloading. I've spent hours making skins and seen people recreate The Mystery Machine. One of the greatest is someone turning the bus into the evil patrick spongebob meme and the garbage truck into a Waste Management truck etc. The Community tracks are hilarious and fun, but you can only play on the tracks you've made in public lobbies if you get insanely lucky and it gets drawn as an option during the lobby vote for a track. Car Acquisition and upgrading: Pretty terrible. You basically get in-game loot boxes (you can't buy them for real money) and pray you get the ones you want. Cars have hard-set stats that you cannot tweak except for an upgrade 4 times, which boosts the stats they already have. This results in some cars being so terrible for online play, as some vehicles have more overall stats than some cars if you add them together. This is the area that the game takes a brutal hit in, as just having these static cars with no tweaking makes the gameplay shallow once you realize that five cars will consistently outperform the others. Get it on sale if you like Arcade racers like crash bandicoot or mario, but don't expect the mechanical depth of those games but expect a higher degree of visual customization and race track variety via the community