It’s hard to judge a game when it has something that doesn’t bother some players but is seen as a dealbreaker for others. Disney’s Speed Storm then a particularly difficult course to navigate, because it has two of them.
So let’s solve this problem first so as not to waste some people’s time. If you’re the type of person who won’t accept a kart racing game if it doesn’t run at 60fps, then you should probably move on at this point, as you won’t be satisfied with what you find. here.
Likewise, if the thought of a live service game drives you crazy, we suggest you pretend this review doesn’t exist and jump straight to the next article on this site, because because if you can’t get along with the seasons and brooding and all that shit you’ll be left at the starting line with this one.
Still here? Still interested? Then continue. Disney Speedstorm is Gameloft’s attempt to break into the karting genre, and we mean the right one (its long-dead mobile games) Rayman kart And Shrek Kart pretty throwaway). The publisher is no stranger to racing games thanks to its long history asphalt series, but anyone who doesn’t like those games should rest assured that this isn’t just Asphalt with a pair of Mickey Mouse ears worn on the hood.
The game’s handling is solid: a bit sensitive at times, but responsiveness to the system drift is extremely satisfying. If we compare it with another racing game, we will say that it feels the closest to Sonic & Sega All-Stars / Sonic Racing Team series developed by Sega and Sumo Digital: certainly nothing bad, as some players (including this writer) would rank that particular series second only Mario Kart in category.
At launch, there were 18 characters to choose from, including eight different IPs. These range from the obvious (Mickey, Donald and Goofy are in it, of course) to the somewhat unexpected (such as Elizabeth Swann from But the pirate of the CaribbeanLy Thuong from Magnolia Flowerand Mowgli from Forest book).
It’s an eclectic mix and a good match for future updates, as it doesn’t seem like Gameloft is willing to just play it safe and roll out the usual favorites: instead, looks like they’re not afraid to dig deep to keep Disney dead happy. Case in point: the most confusing character debut to date is Figment, the purple dragon who is one of the mascots at Disney World’s Epcot Center.
The most representative string on the first day is Monster, Inc., which features four characters to choose from: Mike, Sulley, Randall, and Mike’s snake-haired girlfriend Celia. This isn’t due to any weird bias on the part of the team, it’s because the game’s first live service season was dedicated to Monsters, Inc. and maybe this means Randall and Celia are introduced as part of this. We then expect future installments to focus on different IPs and add new characters (and hopefully tracks) to each, in a similar fashion to Disney’s Dream Valley of Light adds a bunch of new characters every few months.
What excites us most about this potential is not just the promise of more familiar (and forgotten) faces, but the fact that Speed Storm ensures each character plays differently with the introduction. Character classes and unique moves. Each character fits into one of four groups – Speedster, Brawler, Trickster, and Defender – each of which adjusts the racer’s stats to that racing style, but also affects how the game is played.
For example, a Brawler racer will stun another rider if they lunge at them and can increase their boost bar faster by attacking the opponent. Meanwhile, a Guardian will instead gain a shield if they lunge at another and can increase their boost bar faster by racing in the opponent’s flow.
Add to that the fact that each character has their own choice of four power-ups drawn from the eight available, as well as their own, unique power-ups that they earn after leveling up. a bit and that’s no exaggeration. says that every racer really has a different feel, with each player almost certainly having their own preferences that suit their playing style.
After that, the lineup was fun, and the tracks were similarly enjoyable, although the number of environments at launch was a bit limited. Whether you’re racing through Beast’s castle from Beauty and the Beastglide through the Pirates of the Caribbean island or step onto the movie screen and glide along a Steamboat Willie-Inspiring follow-up, obviously a lot of imagination has been put in to ensure each course reflects its source material well. Alas, there were only nine environments on the first day, although most of these had multiple circuits. The Hercules For example, the track has eight different course layouts.
Special mention must also be made to the soundtrack: it’s definitely divisive but we absolutely adore how it’s fearless. It’s a huge amount of dance and electronic remixes of classic Disney themes and leaves us alternating between nodding to the beat and laughing out loud because the whole thing is ridiculous. You haven’t heard anything until you’ve heard The Bare Necessities’ heavy dubstep remix. Yes really.
So it played well, sounded great, and obviously there was a lot of care and attention given to the characters and the music. Caught what? This is where we return to the beginning of the review and those two potential sticking points. First and foremost, at launch, Disney Speedstorm ran pretty hard on the Switch. While other console versions hit a pretty solid 60fps, the Switch port aims for 30fps and really struggles to maintain that speed at times, especially when starting out. the beginning of the race when there are a lot of characters on the screen, power off, that sort of thing.
It’s not unplayable due to its docking, but it’s certainly remarkable, and anyone who’s ever used the near-perfect 60fps of the original Mario Kart 8 Deluxe can come across it. difficulty adapting to a game that feels like it’s constantly tense. These performance issues extend to the main menus, which are sometimes quite troublesome as they try to keep up, and local split-screen multiplayer, limited to two players on the Switch instead of four on the Switch. other control panels.
Racing is especially bad in handheld, where erratic frame rates are accompanied by levels of blur that make Eternal DOOM See it as an eye exam. As you can see by the handheld monitors on this page, it really doesn’t look good at all, and we’d say that if you have a Switch Lite or plan to play mostly in handheld mode, the whole thing so poorly optimized that you should probably wait and see if the updates improve things. Consider this a strictly anchored experience when it comes to what is acceptable.
Another major problem – and one more tasteful than tolerance – is the game’s heavy insistence on its direct-service model. Every element of the game is built around leveling up your character with various collectibles and racing currency. There’s a Basic Warmup Round where players take part in a series of races and unlock gifts along the way (and take an hour or two to beat) and this is supported with Seasonal World Tour events more limited time where you get a bunch of new singles. -Players race every week during the ongoing season.
Once these are ticked, however, the only thing left to play at launch is the multitude of Events that spawn each day and last for a short time. These keep things changing every day, but they also serve primarily to help players earn more upgrade items and currency so they can improve their existing characters and try Unlock new characters. Character unlocks, incidentally, use the Shard system that many free-to-play mobile games use, where you must collect a number of character ‘shards’ before you can earn them or increase the star rank of them.
This is a game that really makes it possible with the standard Mario Kart-style Grand Prix mode for those who just want to do some racing and can’t be bothered with constant grinding and collecting. There’s a local Free Play mode, which allows you to do single races on any track with any character (even those you haven’t unlocked, which is a godsend for split screen) two players), but there’s no incentive to do this because there’s no sense of progress there.
Another major area where Disney Speedstorm’s lifespan can live or die depending on your preference is online multiplayer. The game offers both Rated Multiplayer (it looks like it can get unsettling pay-to-win over time) and ‘Regulated Multiplayer’ (in which people seems to have the same kart level), each mode has its own progression system with more stuff Unlocked. In particular, the ratings have individual unlock paths for each character, meaning you can find a huge chunk of the game’s playtime there if you’re into that sort of thing.
Since the game’s launch, we’ve been able to find online races fairly quickly in both Ranked and Regulation modes, mainly thanks to the fact that Speedstorm is cross-game, meaning players from consoles Other controls also participate. Of course, though, the handheld’s performance and blur issues mean you’ll still be at a disadvantage when playing with some other people (we also played the Xbox Series X version and it ran at 60fps for sure, which makes handling more responsive).
That said, playing fair with Gameloft at least guarantees full-featured parity (ignoring the split-screen multiplayer part aside), meaning that while the Switch can sometimes struggle in order to make everything run smoothly – and that’s a real mess in handheld – the development team didn’t do so Not only removed some modes and gave Nintendo players less experience about options.
