Speed 3 (XB1) Review

FRAMES, CHAOS, AND MEDIOCRE RACING

The developer is Lion Castle Entertainment. Their slogan: “Games that make the world smile.”

Well that was a lie. Between this and Slide Stars I am uncertain who is smiling (except the publisher/devs when anyone pays $30 for this mediocre racing experience).

PLATFORMS: SWITCH, PS4, XB1
MSRP: $29.99
PRICE I’D PAY: $0.99

Also, I have no idea why it is called Speed 3 because there is no Speed 1 or Speed 2 from Lion Castle… or any developer for that matter. I have to assume the devs are somehow trying to relate it to the Speed series of movies that only made it to Speed 2, but this game has no plot so I have no idea if that’s the case.

The gameplay is racing. It’s extremely basic, the cars are seemingly all the same, the goal is get in first, and there’s a total of six courses. Wow. THIRTY DOLLARS! This whole game looks like a mobile game, with its large graphics that feel less like menu options and more like big buttons that are meant to be touched with fingers. The graphics are only fine at best; they never look great and the frame rate tanks when there’s more cars on screen.

There’s no way to segue into the combat (?) portion of this game, which tracks takedowns and crashes, but I didn’t really understand what it was for other than irritating me.

Oh and the courses are so boring… except the Japan track. Racing through the streets of a neon tinged Japan with racing cars is sort of enjoyable. But why am I racing Formula 1 cars? Why are all the other courses just standard race tracks? WHY IS THERE ONLY SIX COURSES THAT THE GAME MIRRORS TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE THERE’S MORE COURSES?!

Also the music was kind of okay but the sound of engines covers it up entirely.

This game is not good. It plays fine at best but there is nothing else of value to experience. This is shovelware and feels like something that would be a dollar or two on the app store, and looks like it too. There is no reason why this game should drop in performance as much as it does. The nerve to ask THIRTY DOLLARS for this. There’s better ways to spend $30 and better racing games… my god there are waaaaaaaaaaay better racing games.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.

Good
  • It runs
  • Music is alright
  • Racing is fine
  • Japan was pretty
Bad
  • It runs and runs poorly
  • Music is obscured by engine sounds
  • Game doesn’t look great
  • Performance is bad
  • The crash system sucks
  • THIRTY GOD DAMN DOLLARS
4
Sub-Par
Written by
Anthony is the resident Canadian. He enjoys his chicken wings hot and drinks way too much Coca-Cola. His first game experience was on his father's Master System and he is a loyal SEGA fanboy at heart.