Beach Buggy Racing (Kart Racing) [XO, PS4]

[Cyan]

Beach Buggy Racing

Size:
247.79 MB
Release date:
29/05/2015
Price:
£7.99, around 10€/$, and £6.49 or 8€/$ for Gold members

This is an incredibly fun (unlike others like Project Root which I purchased thinking it was good and it was so bad) indie title by Vector Unit, with lots of modes and graphically cute, and most of all, it is perfectly stable, it never falters, framerate wise.

The game runs at native 1080p and 60 fps. In that sense it's technically perfect. The only downside is that for a racer where you see a lot of road ahead of you, the AF is low, about 4xAF.

It features split-screen for up to 6 players and it is a great game for families, to play with friends, or to play alone.

I think this game deserves a Digital Foundry article.

It has a lot of car models, but not the kind of cars you expect, there is a bit of everything, even a lunar car . You can unlock game modes, championships, several CC -100HP, 250HP, 500HP and 1000HP- (afaik, gotta check if there is a 750HP mode-).

Some vehicles behave better on some surfaces like others. i.e. a sports car excels in the typical road tarmac and other flat, stable surfaces, but have a harder time in other surfaces, like clay and stuff. That's where other vehicles excel, but maybe they aren't that good in the tarmac as the sports car.

You can upgrade every vehicle. It is a game that can get you easily hooked. To paraphrase the developers: "Test your skills in 6 different game modes on 15 imaginative 3D race tracks, against a pack of tropical-loving rivals with a serious case of road rage!".

The game is rated E for everyone --great for families as I said, too. The Use of Tobacco message in the ratings killed me off.

http://www.hardcoregamer.com/2015/05/29/beach-buggy-racing-hits-the-xbox-one/151098/

Official Company Homepage: http://www.vectorunit.com/beach-buggy-racing/

 

[Arwin]

Looks like it's roots are a mobile title:
https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/beach-buggy-racing/id882119723?mt=8

But there seems to be no multiplayer at all in there, except leaderboards ... So that's a big boon for the Xbox One version I'd say.

 

[Cyan]

Looks like it's roots are a mobile title:
https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/beach-buggy-racing/id882119723?mt=8

But there seems to be no multiplayer at all in there, except leaderboards ... So that's a big boon for the Xbox One version I'd say.

Yes, the company made Hydro Thunder Hurricane -no mobile version for that- on the Xbox 360 and Riptide GP2 on the X1, which I have. However Riptide GP2 was a direct port of the mobile version, and performed well but was super ugly and lacked colour and everything (pop in was everywhere too).

This game is different, it is a good looker and runs smooth as silk. It doesn't look like a mobile game anymore.

The leaderboards are nice to have, you can compare your times and sometimes if you get intrigued by your friends' times, you give it another try wanting to get close or beat that time. Think of Trials Fusion, for instance.

In career mode the several cups are "locked" to a certain amount of HP in the vehicles, so you can go back and replay those tracks knowing that you aren't outpacing your rivals because you upgraded your car more than what is *normal* for that category (100 HP, 250HP, etc).

Then there are several championships for different categories of vehicles.

haha, I see you created an article on your webpage, you are amazing.

 

[Cyan]

Solid reviews so far -one of them is featured in Arwin's Techingames, but I found it on the page wegotthiscovered.com -: (still gotta learn how to add them to your site @Arwin )

Score 7 out of 10:

http://www.trueachievements.com/Beach-Buggy-Racing/reviews.htm

Overall Beach Buggy Racing has brought all the fun from the mobile version of the hit game with it plus some amazing tracks to experience, all with fantastic detail which makes the game very fun to play. The large amount of different power ups allow you to cause utter destruction in your quest to become the ultimate Beach Buggy racer. There are a wide array of different modes to play that should suit most gamers and all the elements make for some great entertainment and at such a bargain price Beach Buggy Racing should be a must. split screen multiplayer gives the game some added fun especially on a night in with friends, the only downside is the lack of online gameplay with only leaderboards to show what could have been.

Beach Buggy Racing is full value for money.

6.8 out of 10:

http://articles.gamerheadquarters.com/review177beachbuggyracing.html

The Conclusion
Beach Buggy Racing is a great title for the console and fills a definite void that no one else has been aiming for. There's great length in the campaign and definitely a ton to do. The splitscreen is neat if you have that many friends though honestly online multiplayer would have been great. It also clearly looks like a port since the graphics don't stretch quite that well to the big screen though it won't bother the targeted group at all. Many will definitely enjoy this more casual, yet aggressive racing title for their console.

6 out of 10:

http://wegotthiscovered.com/gaming/beach-buggy-racing-review/

Passable
Beach Buggy Racing comes to consoles as a decent but flawed experience. Its mobile roots show, and its catch up AI becomes frustrating rather quickly, yet it still manages to be fun during short sessions.

A picture worths a thousand words. Youtube review from a British guy -judging from the accent- who says the game is very fun and highly recommended:

 

[Arwin]

Adding is super easy. Just log in with your google account or create an account, and then you go to the game and to the 'Reviews' tab, and click Add Review. You can then use the tags to link all reviews here automatically, and it supports video reviews as well (just as long as the youtube url is a normal www.youtube.com url).

so, this should work:



(The layout could be a bit cleaner now that I see this in a post for the first time - I'll work on that tonight )

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I played a lot of kart racers in the PS1 days, and a few since, and, despite a simple formula, few capture the joy of the kart game. ModNation Racers and LBP Karting both fell flat for me. For us - played with friends and the insane between-level times on LBP Karting meant we bought Crash Team Racing (PS1 game) and played that instead. CTR and Speed Freaks were the closest to MK.

Very glad to see split screen in this, 6 players even. A dev actually supporting couch coop!

 

[Sigfried1977]

Why would a cart racer that still looks like a phone game despite being on XboxOne warrant a lengthy df analysis?

 

[BRiT]

From looking at the official homepage of this title, it's available on Xbox One and mobile platforms of Android, through the Google and Amazon Store, iOS throughApple Store, and Windows Phone with a Windows Store. The also have a link to PC Windows Store too.

It has local multiplayer on the Xbox title but no network multiplayer from what I could see.

They also have a link to the Playstation Store so I assume its available on PS4. I tried loading the the PSStore but it just sat there loading for over 5 minutes without showing anything, so I assume its just typical Sony with horrible store experience.

 

[Arwin]

Found it in the US store for PS4 as well, yep:
https://store.playstation.com/#!/en...cing/cid=UP0789-CUSA02291_00-BEACHBUGGYPS4000

 

[Cyan]

Why would a cart racer that still looks like a phone game despite being on XboxOne warrant a lengthy df analysis?

Because the game is cool and it is well deserved, it runs very fine. Sometimes DF could switch the chip, change their way of thinking, just sometimes. IT's not always AAA tests. This game reminds me of Mario KArt and Diddy Kong Racing.

Imo the best Vector Unit game to date, although I liked Hydro Thunder Hurricane very much and even created a thread about it.

From looking at the official homepage of this title, it's available on Xbox One and mobile platforms of Android, through the Google and Amazon Store, iOS throughApple Store, and Windows Phone with a Windows Store. The also have a link to PC Windows Store too.

It has local multiplayer on the Xbox title but no network multiplayer from what I could see.

They also have a link to the Playstation Store so I assume its available on PS4. I tried loading the the PSStore but it just sat there loading for over 5 minutes without showing anything, so I assume its just typical Sony with horrible store experience.

Thanks for adding the platforms. I wasn't sure on which platforms the game runs on and I left the title empty in that regard, as I didn't want the owners of different systems to think the game wasn't going to be released on their console or PC.

The game is also out on PC. Didn't you add the PC tag to the title because the PC and consoles forum are separated forums now?

Regarding the PS Store, I found this:

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/beach-buggy-racing-ps4/

BUTTER SMOOTH PERFORMANCE

Battle your way to victory at 60 silky frames per second and crystal clear 1080p resolution.

The game runs at 60 fps on PS4 confirmed. I am registered in your webpage since time ago, Arwin, btw.

 

[BRiT]

The game is also out on PC. Didn't you add the PC tag to the title because the PC and consoles forum are separated forums now?

Correct, I make certain PC is not in the console thread titles because PC has their own forum section for games.

 

[London Geezer]

My iphone could run this at 60fps. Why the excitement? We didn't buy Ps4 or X1 for this dross.

 

[Cyan]

I played a lot of kart racers in the PS1 days, and a few since, and, despite a simple formula, few capture the joy of the kart game. ModNation Racers and LBP Karting both fell flat for me. For us - played with friends and the insane between-level times on LBP Karting meant we bought Crash Team Racing (PS1 game) and played that instead. CTR and Speed Freaks were the closest to MK.

Very glad to see split screen in this, 6 players even. A dev actually supporting couch coop!

One of the games I played the most with my best childhood friend was Crash Team Racing for the PS1. We had tons of laughs and so much fun playing it. I've never played Speed Freaks, but CTR felt like a Mario Kart.

Correct, I make certain PC is not in the console thread titles because PC has their own forum section for games.

Have you ever thought about merging the consoles and PC forum? It has been proven a total success in other places, and it'd enrich both communities.

See the first post from @tabs here to know what I mean.

https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/diablo-3-gamepad-edition.55102/page-32

Plus, I learnt a lot about Diablo 3 from the PC folks and you have here people like @pjbliverpool or @Davros which are examples of peaceful coexistence -without cohabitation- .

I think merging a forum into one rather than split them would both benefit the great community here, the forumers and Beyond3D in general.

 

[Cyan]

Adding is super easy. Just log in with your google account or create an account, and then you go to the game and to the 'Reviews' tab, and click Add Review. You can then use the tags to link all reviews here automatically, and it supports video reviews as well (just as long as the youtube url is a normal www.youtube.com url).

so, this should work:



(The layout could be a bit cleaner now that I see this in a post for the first time - I'll work on that tonight )

I tried to edit the review entries, to fully update the game's section of your webpage with them, because I think not all of them are represented, but I got this message instead:

Access Denied
You need 1000 points to be able to edit games

My iphone could run this at 60fps. Why the excitement? We didn't buy Ps4 or X1 for this dross.

The game has some improvements in the console version, consoles offer a more colourful tone and the graphics of course are just better, plus, from the page Arwin has shared before, the game takes up 93MB on the phone and 270+ MB on consoles.

Important question: Have you played it in the first place to call it dross with any degree of authority?

Because the game is so fun. And that's what matters. It's not others fault that you have played a lot of bad games of the moustache race. -smartphones-

 

[Arwin]

Hi @Cyan, you don't need to edit the game, just go to the game main page by clicking the title, then choose the Reviews tab, and then click Add Review. Let me know if you still have trouble?

 

[Cyan]

Hi @Cyan, you don't need to edit the game, just go to the game main page by clicking the title, then choose the Reviews tab, and then click Add Review. Let me know if you still have trouble?

Thanks Arwin. It works! I added two reviews, problem is... I think I messed it up with the scores. I just wrote 7 for a score (it should be 700, I think), and then wanted to add a 6.8 -with a dot and a comma- but it should be a 680, right?

The first time around I didn't hover the cursor over the Add review feature. I am very visual and it would be easier if it was highlighted somehow.

 

[Arwin]

Fair point, I'll see what I can do visually. I notice you added two User Reviews - normally that should be your own review, and under Reviews you can link reviews that are published elsewhere.

In addition, you can always edit your own contributions. You are right about the score, so you can fix that, but in this case you may just want to delete them under User Reviews and then add them under Reviews.

 

[Cyan]

Fair point, I'll see what I can do visually. I notice you added two User Reviews - normally that should be your own review, and under Reviews you can link reviews that are published elsewhere.

In addition, you can always edit your own contributions. You are right about the score, so you can fix that, but in this case you may just want to delete them under User Reviews and then add them under Reviews.

Ah, sorry for my clumsiness. I can't find the option to remove my user review or just the score.

If I click on Delete, I get this.

"Access Denied
You do not have sufficient rights or aren't logged in."

 

[Arwin]

Did you click the right delete, the one under the review? I'll check, maybe I limited that. I'll delete them for you ...and done.

 

[Cyan]

Did you click the right delete, the one under the review? I'll check, maybe I limited that. I'll delete them for you ...

Thanks. Yes, I am sure I did. I also tried Edit and Details, to no avail, it gives me the access denied message.

Btw, the Critical Reception says 600 in the pane dedicated to the game below. And you added the TrueAchievements review that scored the game with a 7. But only the other review is shown, aren't they averaged? Say, Critical Reception score...650.