We All Pay Down Here

Combat kart racers aren’t anything new at all with the likes of Sonic, Crash and the king Mario all stars of their own games. A simple concept, a racing game with some dope tracks, a killer soundtrack and some fun combat items and baby you got a game. Honestly it is more shocking that Disney is just now sticking their hat into the ring; I mean who on earth has a more recognizable cast of characters than the ‘House of Mouse’? Well partnering with Gameloft, Disney has brought us the new (soon to be) free to play racer Disney Speedstorm.

If you raised your eyebrow at the use of ‘soon to be’ ill explain, see Disney Speedstorm is available now by purchasing a Founders pack. These packs include various amounts of bonuses and quick unlocks for characters that would otherwise have to be earned by grinding gameplay. That’s because Disney Speedstorm is a free to play game that is masquerading as a paid one. Characters are unlocked and subsequently leveled up through acquiring shards; which are acquired from loot boxes or participating in various races. This practice is commonplace in the f2p video game market space but the fact that its included in a game where the most expensive (and has the most rewards) is upwards of $100 makes this require more than a spoon full of sugar to help go down.

MSRP: $29.99 (Founder’s Pack)
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC

Oh, and spending all this money doesn’t net players all the characters, there are still plenty behind this wall of grinding. But what makes it worse is that it’s not just the characters but literally EVERYTHING. Want a new paint color, grind. How about some new tires, oh boy that’s a grind. You want a pit crew to buff your stats, well laddie have I got some grinding for you. It wouldn’t be as bad as it sounds if Speedstorm allowed progress through whatever mode players like. But no, everything has a separate currency which means it’s entirely possible for players to be forced to play a mode they hate in order to improve their characters. Again, this sort of thing would be fine if this was just a F2P game but the fact that players must pay so much to even get into the game, and they still don’t own everything, is really messed up.

The real crime here is that behind all these god awful F2P tactics lies a solid racing game. The starting roster is a smattering of various Disney properties from the mouse himself to heroes like Hercules and Jack Sparrow. Of course, Disney Speedstorm also has a battle pass which allows players to unlock the duo from Monster’s Inc; Sully and Mike W. This pass is included with the founders packs but will be the usual $9.99 for the next one. Graphically Speedstorm is as bright and colorful as any other Disney world, each track is based on a property such as Pirates of the Caribbean or Steamboat Willy. Each level has a remixed theme from each property like songs from Hercules and ‘Pirates life for me’ for the Pirates of the Caribbean. It helps immersion into Disney’s world, but I feel like Gameloft missed an opportunity by not allowing the characters themselves to influence their individual karts. Each of the cast of characters exude so much personality on the big and little screen, it just seems odd that it didn’t carry over to this game.

Gameplay is king and in Disney Speedstorm I think players will find the most approachable kart racer out there. Controls have a variety of accessibility options that will help newcomers as well as grizzled kart veterans like myself. One of the best things in the game is the ease of use with the drifting mechanic. In a lot of games, it is very sensitive to when players go into and exit a drift move, but in Speedstorm the game is extremely forgiving and allows entering and boosting out of a drift move to happen fluidly and with ease. The combat items that players will pick up on the course is the usual suspects like missiles and shields, they each have a base function as well as a charged one. For instance, the missiles will just fire forward and go longer range but if players charge them, they will lock on albeit at a shorter range. Each of the characters have a special attack but they must be star level 2 in order to use them, which means grinding races for shards.

I don’t hate Disney Speedstorm, worse I just feel kinda cheated. I didn’t mind that it was a F2P game, but the fact that the founders pack doesn’t unlock everything available at launch is disappointing. Especially when you look at how much grinding has to be done to get a toon up to a receptible level for multiplayer races. I loved the tracks and the music that blasted over them but being hit over the head constantly with so many of these free to play mechanics just makes this game frustrating to play and its really a shame.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • Fantastic music on the race tracks
  • Easy to get into
Bad
  • TOO MUCH F2P GRINDING
  • For the price everything should be unlocked
  • Lootboxes and Battle Passes welcome to 2010
5
Mediocre
Written by
Terrence spends his time going where no one has gone before mostly. But when not planning to take over the galaxy, he spends his time raising Chocobo and trying to figure out just how the sarlaac could pull Boba Fett’s ship with its engines firing FULL BLAST into it’s maw with relative ease; yet it struggled with Han Solo who was gripping *checks notes* SAND!