Beach Buggy Racing Review Xbox One
Beach Buggy Racing Xbox One
Publisher: Vector Unit
Developer: Vector Unit
Genre:
PEGI: E
Comments: (1)
Beach Buggy Racing seems to be another attempt at the legendary Super Mario Kart. It has a lot of upside but sure doesn’t live up to the legendary Mario Kart. For several years there have been a lot of publisher games trying to imitate the success of Mario Kart but to no avail. All of the previous Kart type games and Beach Buggy Racing are good in their own way and a decent alternative to Mario Kart for each of their respective consoles. Since there has been a few years gap on Kart style games the market is open for a fun game like Beach Buggy Racing on Xbox One. Vector Unit has filled that void with their mobile port of Beach Buggy Racing.
First impressions in Beach Buggy Racing were very positive as you have a decent selection of tracks offered to be raced on. We have a different set of characters to play as once you unlock them. As well as the game has upgradeable and customizable vehicles. Speed, acceleration, strength and control all being available for upgrades on your vehicles. There are four championships to beat, with each championship containing four races. All of that is offered in Beach Buggy Racing before we even discuss the career mode included in the game.
In career mode you start out in a 250 HP Buggy with your goal being to win as many stars and money as possible to unlock additional career races. With the money you earn you are also able to upgrade your vehicle to reach the next level of HP. You will also be able to compete in harder competitions with an upgraded buggy. Once you make your way to the end of the sections you are faced with a boss race. Win that race and you can unlock that character and move onto further career tracks. Following through the career section of Beach Buggy Racing it’s important to say that you do not just race in your career, some of the “levels” are shooting galleries or last one’s out style activities. In a section where you would play the last racer is out, every 15 seconds the player in last place is eliminated. The goal for you is to make it to the end and remain in first place to win it all. In a shooting gallery type of section you would be tasked with shooting targets as you are driving to collect the points declared at the start of the race.
There is good action to be had when racing in Beach Buggy Racing. There are many tributes to Mario Kart with the power-up items you can select. The infamous blue shell is replaced by a screaming creature, Nitro Bottles replace the mushrooms for speed boosts. Along with the two most popular and fun items in Beach Buggy you also have the confusion power up which cause all the drivers in front of you to turn the incorrect direction. All in all, there are a lot of fun items to use in each race to your advantage but also your disadvantage if they are ever to connect with you.
The game itself runs at 60 fps but the visual appeal in the distance does seem to suffer a bit with detail. You only notice it from time to time and not always so it’s not all so bad. The visuals within the levels are very colorful and fun throughout. As we have seen with past Mario Kart games there is a lot of great background and frontal imaging to enjoy in this one. The sound isn’t anything special to enjoy. It’s average at best with nothing special besides the common kart racing sounds.
While Vector Unit have given an awful lot of content and decent visuals, there are many aspects of the game that are average at best. The catch-up logic is a huge concern as once you fall out of the top four there is almost no way to make your way back in to win. Another concern in the game is that we only are able to have six racers at any given time during a race. Rounding out the flaws is the fact that we do not have online multiplayer. In an age when online multiplayer is standard, it was disappointing to only have the Daily Challenge and Leaderboards to be available online.
Vector Unit has put forth a decent attempt at bringing this kart racer to the Xbox One. It does fall short in instances but is still a fun game to play from time to time when feeling like bringing out that type of racing game.
Beach Buggy Racing is available now on Xbox One and you can add it to your download queue here.