Ultimate Racing 2d Review on Xbox

Ultimate Racing 2D is best described as a Ultimate Racing 2D runs as a top-down racer with a visual style that is reminds me of Micromachines from Codemasters. The developer Applimazing has gone all out with a plethora of options that will keep even the most hardened of racing fans occupied.

Whilst the game gives you a variety of choices, it pushes you to become the ultimate racer by going through 35 different racing classes, with more than 40 tracks and over 300 vehicles!

Gameplay

The game is mostly a single player experience, but does allow local and online multiplayer for up to 8 players. To be the best you will need to take part in a number of races spread over multiple modes. The one that most will use from the start is the Quick Race option, which is available for anyone wanting to hone their skills, as this lets you pick any vehicle class, specific team from in that class and a track of your choosing. Before racing you get the option to specify the number of opponents (approx. 20 in all) and laps, up to a whopping 250, should you wish to do so. 

There is also a spectator mode in place for those wanting to just set some racing on for the kids to watch. Beside this, there are qualifying options, pit stop, tyre wear, boost ability and a variety of weather elements available if you require, which really gives players a huge choice when determining, what and how to play. You can also edit teams, should you wish to bring in the current seasons racers to make things really interesting. Now besides a basic Championship mode, and the main Career mode, there are an Event Mode, Season Mode and Coin Mode available for your pleasure.

I found Event Mode to give you the most gameplay as it gives you the chance to work your way from the bottom of the racing ladder. You start from the Go-Karts, through Quad racing, Stock Cars, Monster Trucks, Super Cars, Speedway Bikes, pushing into proper Formula categories, eventually concluding as a Formula A driver. This is a huge amount of racing and will take you some time to reach the pinnacle of that mode. Before you begin any mode you get the option to either go fixed (i.e free cars) or buy (one id recommend), as you then buy your way through classes with in-game earned coinage.

This brings me onto the actually track racing. The difficulty is hard, but there is the option to scale down the AI’s aggressive tactics. Also, whatever car you choose, it does appear to get a massive boost compared to the AI, so generally you should be able pass even the most erratic of drivers. However, there is one fundamental flaw I found when playing. No matter the car I chose to play with, the car felt as if it was sliding about on ice. The sensitivity setting for the cars is way too high and a slight nudge on the stick will often shoot you the opposite direction. Team this up with an aggressive AI and one nudge from them, and an attempt to counter it, would often lead me into the grass. A scaler would be perfect for this game, otherwise I fear that players will get frustrated too quickly and put this down to being generally awful to control.

Another item that doesn’t help the player is the penalty for skimming the grass or wall, which is extremely severe! It is to the point that no matter where I was in the pack, I’d find myself right at the back in no time. This is especially problematic when going near tight corners, as the AI will have no trouble knocking you off course with the smallest of nudges. I would recommend using them to guide you around bends until you can counteract the sensitivity issue.

Graphics

The simple but lovely 2d art style works well and at no point did I see any crashes or framerate issues. Tracks have had lots of attention to detail into making these simplified tracks, still be instantly known, and you will be delighted to easily recognise them, from a top-down viewpoint. My favourite by far though is the historic icons, which have been included, which bring back a twinge of nostalgia and perfect in recreating some great historical racing.

Vehicles are easily recognisable with their vibrant colours, however, when you are in the middle of a pack it can get a bit confusing which car you are when surrounded by a similar colour. The different vehicle types being able to drive on all tracks however, really give this game its edge. I mean who wouldn’t want to race a forklift truck around an F1 track!!

Sound

For me, this is the weakest element of the game. There are a variety of engine screams, some tyre squeal with the odd sounds of metal clashing against each other. But overall, the sound is very limited and every thing sounds recycled after a good couple of races.

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-

Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Ultimate Racing 2D is "on sale’’

This is really a weird one for me, I can see what the developer was trying to accomplish and really want to give this game the praise it deserves. On one side there is a huge amount of options and content that most Triple A game developers don’t bother to add. But at the same time, there are some real issues which bring the games playability down, that most will find frustrating. The sensitivity of the control system and penalty of skimming, really hindered my enjoying of this to its full potential. And for those thinking its just me, I went back and tried out similar games like Micromachines and Mantis Burn Racing, and i had no issues with their control system. So whilst learning how to counter this is the best option, I can see people just giving up and not trying. A good patch here would transform this game and make it more accessible to a larger audience. 

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £8.89 or approx $10, and depending on skill and patience would give you about 30 hours worth of gameplay to get through all modes, but many more hours to enjoy if you so wish to tweak the plethora of options.

Applimazing have done a good job with this 2D top down racer, but I do hope they continue to update it to get it to its full potential. There is an audience that will love this retro style of gaming and abit of tweaking, this can be at the top of the most wanted list.