Review: Disney Speedstorm – Reviving the classics of an era
But will Disney Speedstorm be enough to unseat games like Crash Team Racing or, the other titan of the video game industry, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe?
You mean, MUSCLES!
In the first instance, Disney Speedstorm is presented as a new interpretation of the most classic franchises of Disney, now all of them as racing drivers. Among the licenses that are now available are: The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hercules, Mulan, Mickey and his friends and an exclusive character from Disney World amusement parks. As a beta, it’s offering its first fully Monster’s Inc-themed season pass. So, Disney definitely knows what it’s doing.
Each of these films is assigned a minimum of two pilots, finding a cast of characters that we have rarely seen from Disney: Mowgli, Megara and Celia have been among the ones that have surprised me the most. However, just like any F1 driver, the drivers can also be helped by a team that supports them and raises stats, including several characters who return in the form of tokens, literal, and with their own uniforms as part of the team. to which they conform.
Fuente: Gameloft
However, as Megara says: “If they cheated, they gave prizes…”, each of these pilots, as well as the support character tokens, must be acquired by playing and advancing through the title. Several of them will come out in a “gatcha” system, as if it were a mobile game and it will take a while before you are racing with your favorite drivers.
It should be noted that, the most surprising thing is that this does not apply in the local game for up to two people; where all the runners will be unlocked, with standard levels, balancing the game experience if you decide to play with someone else. However, this game mode is by no means the focus of this proposal.
Disney Speedstorm style racing
What is need, no more, and forget about worry
Although Disney Speedstorm gives a very bad impression when starting it: crude and unordered menus, as well as a bad organization that makes you doubt if you are playing the right way; the game offers you several ways to begin to understand the gameplay per se.
Like any kart racing game, the tracks will be dynamic, offering various paths for all players; as well as turbo, drift and item options throughout the fight to help you reach the acclaimed first place.
Fuente: Gameloft
Your game experience will be divided into several modes: The Start circuit will give you the necessary items to start playing, as well as a learning curve for the game mechanics; while the Limited Events will grant you items and experience for your characters and the Season Tour will fill you with the necessary experience to advance the season pass at a more than fair pace without having to go out of your way in online modes.
As such, this first season pass grants you items to level up your characters, especially those from Monster’s Inc, gives you access to some characters, as well as colors and costumes for other pilots.
Karts with RPG elements? Disney Speedstorm has them
But… levels, objects? Welcome to the Himalayas! That’s how they read it. Disney Speedstorm features RPG elements that provide a more immersive gaming experience, leveling up your characters with items you acquire, turning up the difficulty of opponents, and being ruthless when you need to be.
In terms of difficulty, it would not be compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (which is unfair enough) but reminds me of the now extinct Diddy Kong Racing at times; placing not only the classic “come first” but trying to give variation to the tracks, eliminating the opponents who go last if a certain time passes, making all objects explosive mines or placing objects in the sky, making you jump to get them.
Fuente: Gameloft
This training and upgrading of your characters will not only be necessary to advance the game’s default modes, but also for the online system. That by dedicating a little time a day (and not necessarily daily), you will be able to move without any problem through everything.
Keep in mind, that the game aims to be free in the future and that this is a paid open beta. So the game will support you with currency, for example to get the first season pass; so at this time obtaining the characters is easier contrary to what we expect in the future.
Men (and women) of action in Disney Speedstorm
What most catches any fan of this company, beyond the characters, is the possibility of visiting settings based on the films to which they correspond.
The way Disney Speedstorm works is that it is a huge track that is divided into different circuits that you have to race through. Therefore, when you visit “The Great Wall” or “Mount Olympus” it will not always be the same route as on the previous occasion; which, with the little variety of scenarios, gives you a possible solution to the monotony.
However, and what I wanted to mention the most, is that I have no words to describe how surprised I was with the music in the game. Being a racing-based game, with a defined artistic style, all the songs are techno remixes of the classics of Disney that we all know, in English. That is, when you get to the Hercules track you will hear the muses sing, while the Mulan tracks will have various interpretations of “Men of Action” and Pirates of the Caribbean receives the classic tune that you can hear in the Disney parks. The best, and just like with the circuits: It’s not always the same song and, just as there are very good remixes, there are one or the other that sound quite generic.
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We played Disney Speedstorm on Nintendo Switch with a code provided by a Gameloft representative in our region.
