Short Reviews - Music Racer (Switch)
By: RJ (@rga_02)
I don’t even know here to begin with this game if I’m quite honest with you. On paper, Music Racer should of have been a home run. Music and racing games go hand in hand - just take a look at the Ridge Racer series. But Music Racer isn’t a home run, and it doesn’t even deserve to be called a strikeout.
Music Racer attempts to mix the racing and music genre together, but there’s no racing and it barely scrapes by being a music game. You first pick a car, anywhere from a Trueno to a decked-out Santa Claus mobile. Then you select your world, track, and off you go.
There are four modes in this game, standard, zen, hard, and cinematic. Standard is the default difficulty mode, hard mode will automatic fail you if you hit an obstacle, zen takes out the obstacles, and cinematic is fancy screensaver.
Like I said earlier, there’s no racing. So all you do here is gather up notes along the way avoid obstacles. That is pretty much it. Imagine playing Audiosurf without any of the fun–that is what it feels like playing Music Racer.
Once you complete your “race” you earn points which will allow you to buy other vehicles and tracks. There are 14 tracks to choose from, taking inspirations from Kyoto to outer space.
The game features 20-plus tracks that are all EDM in nature. A lot of the 80s inspired songs feels like they follow the “near distant 1980s future” trope to the tee. The other tracks draw upon cultural stereotypes (Desert Voices), while others seem fit for a party held in a Jewel-Osco parking lot (Calling). But music taste is subjective and what I might not like, you might find amazing.
Visually, the game looks pretty. They nailed the aesthetics (or should I say ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣＳ). If there is anything that Music Racer has going for, it is the presentation.
It is really hard to recommend Music Racer. Once you get past the nice visuals, there’s nothing to do here other than drive around with no end goal. I suggest checking out WipEout if you want want to play a racing game with a nice EDM soundtrack.