You may have heard that Disney Speedstorm is coming as a free-to-play kart racing game from the team behind Gameloft’s long-running Asphalt series. In fact, you may have heard this because that’s what we told you about it when it was launched last June. Yes, that has changed. It’s still an Asphalt team kart racer, but it won’t really launch officially in free-to-play state until late 2023 or early 2024. What we have in its place is the version. Speedstorm’s “early access” just… costs money to play – of course, that’s how all good video games worked before the gaming industry started copying the gambling industry’s homework. Still, despite packing a franchise of arcade racing action that’s perfectly suited to the track, Speedstorm’s gacha guff levels and free-to-play DNA can make those paying a fee to play feel a bit silly. silly.
For those of you curious about how Speedstorm’s Early Access program works – and what you’ll get for your money aside from being able to play it – a 5,000 words FAQ is waiting for you on its official website. This is about 4,950 words more than I usually like to absorb before playing what appears to be a family-friendly kart racer. Anyway, if you think Speedstorm is a mobile game masquerading as a PC and console game, know that in its current Early Access state, that’s a pretty accurate way to describe it. .
The bare necessities
This is unfortunate for a number of reasons, though none other than the fact that, on track, Speedstorm is an intrepid little arcade fighting kart racer. In particular, it has a great sense of drift, with easy mid-slide adjustments allowing us to open them up into long, low-angle slides. There is also a really pleasing ability to switch between drift directions very smoothly. With responsive control and a good sense of weight for karts as they jostle on track and return to cruise after a jump, I really don’t have any complaints about handling – and That’s obviously a hugely important part of any kart car’s racer equation. That, and four-player split-screen – thankfully Speedstorm does, though only on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. PS4, Xbox One and Switch have only two players.
There are also some interesting classes in combat, with items that can be used in different ways depending on how you activate them. For example, you can tap a fire truck to create licking flames from the side of your kart, which will stun any opponent you touch or charge for a few seconds to ignite. Activate an explosion around you that can take down many other racers at the same time. Collecting jellyfish can be activated to make you temporarily invisible, or it can be charged to become an attack force field that will actually explode and take down opponents. The battle here has a bit more depth than usual and I can appreciate that.
Each character also has a unique themed power. Donald Duck, for example, gains a protective raft that turns into a spooky fist. I like these close range attacks more than ranged attacks, and they seem to work well with my driving style as well as Speedstorm’s tight racing focus. I also spend a lot of time with Donald Duck because he is very angry, a World War II veteran and he is too proud of his pants.
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On that note, the darts approach to Disney characters showcased in Speedstorm has resulted in a rather random list of characters and soundtracks to debut, with The Jungle Book, Hercules, The Pirates of the Caribbean, Mulan, Beauty and the Beast and Monsters, Inc. make the cut with Mickey and his friends. The modern racing suits are a cute touch but I suppose the art team missed a little trick with the cars, which seem super vanilla compared to the karts of the likes of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, full of personality to match their drivers.
Choices were made for tracks with different enough atmospheres — from wet pirate harbor to Monsters, Inc., and from Disney’s black-and-white origins to the opulence of Olympus — but they’re not particularly technical and don’t tend to feel very different from each other in the race from moment to moment. The bigger problem is that, despite seemingly boasting several tracking ribbons per environment, the courses reuse such important pieces that I could simply never tell them apart. in positions. The remix tracks are more diverse than the racing tracks. As a result, Speedstorm starts to feel very repetitive very early on.
It doesn’t help that this solo racing format is actually a bit boring – and when your opponents are incumbents like the untouchable Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and the awesome Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, that’s it. issue. Obviously I’m fully aware that, destined to be a live-serve game, there’s no doubt a whole bunch of new tracks in the pipeline will come periodically – but they’re not here yet. So what are you buying right now? Some digital tokens and an exclusive racing suit letting everyone know you were here before they arrived? It’s a hard sell.
God, bother me to see you, Gacha
Which brings us to the point where this 40-year-old dad tests both physically and mentally, because the gacha-style, mobile-inspired upgrade and currency system is like absolute kryptonite To me. To be clear, the huge amount of overlapping and meaningless economies in the menu in Speedstorm is simply absurd.
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The token is blue. You earn these from completing objectives in races and leveling up rewards, and we will obviously be able to purchase Tokens for faster access to locked content. Then there are the tokens alike Token, but yellow. This is Seasonal Money. You get these when traveling through the Golden Pass, which is the equivalent of Speedstorm’s battlepass. I bought that thing with Golden Pass Credit. that is other the currency that comes with the Early Access plan, which is separate from the Tokens and Seasonal Coins. Then there are Season Tickets and Universal Box Credits, which look like Tokens but they are purple.
Also separate are the Multiplayer Coins, which are native tokens that come from competing online. There’s the ranked multiplayer race, where you take your characters to whatever level you have, and the “ruled” race, where the racer’s stats are normalized. I won both races, but kart racing seemed pretty lifeless when racing against strangers and I couldn’t understand the appeal. It belongs on the couch, if you ask me.
However, you’ll have to do that if you want to use the Speedstorm store, because sometimes things value Multiplayer token. However, some other things have blue token values and some things have yellow token values. Sometimes they cost a purple one, why not? Sometimes the items are just there, a la carte, and sometimes they’re in sealed containers. Did I mention there are different types of boxes? There are different types of boxes.
Then there’s the Racer Shards, which are basically another individual character-specific currency that you use to unlock racers and level up your character’s stars, and then there’s the upgrade materials, which are also basically stacked on top of each other other the currency you also need to upgrade your character. You’ll need to do that to keep up with the competition. This Items can be found in the loot boxes you earn playing, rewarded through the Golden Pass, or simply purchased from the store in one of the many currencies. Maybe in a box. Maybe not. With 1,200 Tokens, I bought 20 Mulan shards, which were automatically exchanged for a Mulan star. I want to make my Mike Wazowski faster, but now I need four Fear Tanks, a turbocharger and four wrenches, and I’m missing two wrenches. Did anyone say this out loud?
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Are you still following? Because honestly I don’t think I am anymore. The mechanical monkey in my brain just jumped off a building. I haven’t even gotten to the crew mechanic part yet, looks like JPGs of other random Disney characters here others you need to upgrade. Or Loot Points. Or Collection Levels, which are points, but different. Are children meant to understand this? This doesn’t look like a game; it’s like a job.
