A fun Kart Racer, if you don’t mind the grind | Review - Disney Speedstorm

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Disney Speedstorm is a free-to-play kart racing game that brings together iconic Disney and Pixar characters for a fun racing experience. Developed and published by Gameloft, this game offers players the chance to compete on themed tracks from beloved films while enjoying the thrill of kart racing and unique character abilities.

🟩Pros

+Fundamentally fun Kart Racing mechanics

+Plethora of Disney characters to unlock, with more coming soon

+Visuals are impressive and console-like

+Local play and Regulated Multiplayer game modes that distance themselves from the grindy progression and monetization

+Playable offline with local play and practice game mode

🟥Cons

-Grindy progression and a huge chunk of characters are locked at the start

-Fixed and non-customizable graphics settings

-Poor performance, heavy frame drops and stutters

Disney Speedstorm was released in stages on various platforms. It entered early access on April 18, 2023, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. A soft launch occurred on August 1, 2023, for iOS and Android platforms. The game is planned to exit early access and have its full release on September 28, 2023.

Disney Speedstorm offers two control schemes, assisted and manual steering, making it accessible for players of all skill levels. While acceleration is automated, players can still drift, use boosts, and utilize character-specific abilities found on the tracks. The racing physics are definitely made for casual consumption, but as far as enjoyment goes, it's a very fundamentally fun experience and satisfying to play especially combining it with the abilities and skills of each racer

Characters in the game are divided into four classes: Speedster, Brawler, Defender, and Trickster. Each class possesses distinctive abilities that contribute to a varied and strategic gameplay experience. The abilities are carefully designed to match the character's traits, providing a sense of uniqueness to each racer and adds a bit of strategy to the game allowing players to adapt the skills they are getting more to their preferred playstyle.

So far the lineup includes Mickey Mouse and his friends, characters from Pirates of Caribbean, Hercules, Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book, Mulan, and Monsters Inc.  While not extensive compared to the entire Disney lineup, more characters are anticipated, starting with the Toy Story franchise in Season 2 and Lilo and Stitch in Season 3.

Disney Speedstorm offers two primary game modes: Singleplayer and Multiplayer. The single player mode follows a chapter-based progression system, offering missions and challenges that unlock new characters and content. Multiplayer introduces local play with friends, ranked online matches, and a unique regulated multiplayer mode that focuses solely on player skill and all unlocks and upgrades are disabled. While ranked online multiplayer is expected, the addition of local play and regulated multiplayer distinguishes it from many other monetization-oriented games that neglect player experience.

While the core mechanics are solid, the game's progression can feel somewhat grindy. Unlocking new characters, car parts, and skills requires dedication. Unfortunately, the game falls short in providing new players with choices, limiting options to just a few. This could be disheartening for those eager to play as their favorite heroes right from the beginning. Additionally, the tutorials do a poor job of explaining the monetization and currency systems in place.

The game features impressive graphics, resembling the console versions but with slightly toned-down visuals and resolution. The visuals, especially the lighting effects, are remarkable, often looking like a pre-rendered Disney movie at times. However, the complete lack of customizable graphics settings is disappointing. I found myself stuck with an upscaled blurry resolution and low FPS limit while playing the game on my Snapdragon 888 device. Even with default graphic settings, and despite the blurry resolution, performance is unsatisfactory, resulting in significant FPS drops during races, even during supposedly less resource-intensive scenes.

While the game operates as a live service, it remains entirely playable in offline mode, thanks to the aforementioned local play feature. Regarding account requirements, popular services like Google Play or Facebook do not offer login options; and players will need to create a Gameloft account.

Conclusion:

Overall, Disney Speedstorm is fundamentally doing it right as a kart racing game. The mechanics are sound, and the racing is indeed fun. However, its grindy progression and locking many characters behind paywalls leave much to be desired. Fortunately, it still allows players to participate in regulated matches and allow local play, which is perfect for friends looking for a party Kart game to play on mobile or those looking to forego most of the grind progression — still making it a worthwhile game to have installed on your device, especially if you love Disney and its characters, and Mario Kart-type of games.