Harrison Abbott reviews Disney Speedstorm…
Monetisation can be a touchy subject for gamers. Ever since the birth of this medium, shrewd businesspeople have been devising craftier and craftier ways to make our wallets that little bit lighter.
In the late ‘70s, many arcade machines had their difficulty levels artificially inflated — so that they could guzzle up extra quarters — and history is rife with examples of 16-bit titles that were conveniently far too hard for anybody to beat in a single rental period. More recently, we’ve had scandalous DLCs (horse-armour anyone?), full-price releases that were carved up and later sold in piecemeal scraps (Evolve), and extortionate season passes (Batman: Arkham Knight).
The latest and most contentious tactic, however, is surely the extortionate microtransaction. To be clear, games obviously need to generate their revenue somehow and, if they’re going down the free-to-play route, then incorporating smaller purchases into the experience is a completely legitimate way of going about it.
Of course, a distinction must be drawn between the paragons of this business model and those that are just blatant rip-offs. Although it’s by no means perfect, Fortnite has generally managed to stay on the right side of that line, with a straightforward economy that clearly translates into real-world money and only cosmetic items getting locked behind a paywall.
Conversely, you have greedy swindlers like Star Wars: Battlefront 2 that explicitly tied your progress to how much dough you were willing to cough up (before regulators threatened to get involved at least). With that game, if a profligate spendthrift took out a second mortgage at launch, then they would immediately be granted access to all of their childhood heroes. Meanwhile, the rest of us cheapskates had to suffer through an arduous grind before we were even given a chance to play as Darth Vader. And don’t get us started on those bloody loot boxes!
Anyway, the point is that microtransactions are not inherently predatory. They can be implemented in a way that is palatable, and they can also be utterly misused by avaricious hucksters with dollar signs in their eyes.
Speaking of which, when it comes to bleeding fans dry, there is arguably no company savvier than Disney. Whether they are capitalising on nostalgic properties from our youth, merchandising the ever-loving midichlorians out of Baby Yoda, double-dipping with in-app purchases on their streaming service, or charging you an exorbitant fee to skip the lines at a theme park; they know how to make us forget all about being responsible, frugal grown-ups.
And to be fair, it’s not like they ever pull the wool over our eyes. We know precisely what they’re doing yet we’re still too powerless to resist the allure. I know I am personally guilty of this, having invested half of my lifetime salary on frivolous trips to Orlando.
With that said, there’s no telling what kind of devastation they could visit upon one’s bank account with a free-to-play game that lets you control your favourite characters from the likes of Pirates of the Caribbean, The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast.
Which brings us to Disney Speedstorm, a new Kart Racer that has the very real potential to bring countless parents (not to mention Disney Adults) to the brink of financial ruin. It’s a supremely addictive title for sure, and one that’s ideal for playing with a bunch of friends.
Yet, even in its current early-access form, it will likely set off alarm bells for those who are turned off by excessive monetisation. What with its dizzying amount of storefront pages, premium unlocks, multiple progression systems and overlapping currencies.
Before we get into any of that messiness though, it’s worth reiterating that this is a fundamentally enjoyable product. Developed by Gameloft, it takes the well-worn tropes of the Kart Racer genre and gives them a charming House of Mouse overlay. One that’s sure to delight anybody with even a passing interest in the multimedia brand.
There isn’t anything particularly ground-breaking about the overall experience, but they do nail most of the essentials. Its controls are tight and responsive, there’s an exhilarating sensation whenever you put the pedal to the metal, and all of the tracks are well-delineated.
Tearing through the streets of Olympus (from Hercules) is a very different experience to zooming along the vines of an Indian rainforest or drifting around a topsy-turvy version of The Great Wall of China (inexplicably filled with rollercoaster-style inversions here). Meanwhile, other highlights include the Monsters Inc. scare floor — which transitions into the snow-swept Himalayan mountains part-way through — and one that has you crashing through a cinema screen into an old-timey, black & white cartoon.
Each stage has a distinct visual aesthetic that pays homage to its corresponding Disney IP and a unique gimmick to keep you on your toes. That being said, most of them do have pretty direct one-to-one counterparts in Mario Kart, so there’s not a whole lot of innovation going on here. For instance, the Steamboat Willie level borrows its trampoline platforms from Mushroom Gorge and the Mulan track essentially has its own equivalent of Thwomps. The only other thing you need is a Space Mountain circuit to substitute for Rainbow Road and you’ve basically got the whole shebang.
One area that consistently impresses though is the soundtrack. There are several musical accompaniments for each course, with remixes of both classic Disney songs and orchestral pieces being featured. Everything from the jaunty “Yo Ho” shanty to the hummable “Bare Necessities” and the showstopping anthem “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” is in rotation, and they’re all given a propulsive, electronic beat that really helps get you into the competitive spirit.
Granted, it is a little jarring to hear the Mickey Mouse Club theme song being performed as some kind of acid house rave — almost as if Goofy is gonna start distributing glowsticks and MDMA to the rest of the Magic Kingdom— but it’s still preferable to having a generic background loop. After all, Disney is known for its catchy tunes, and it would be a major oversight not to include them in a crossover extravaganza like this.
Speaking of which, the core appeal of Speedstorm is obviously that you get to cherry-pick from a range of iconic characters and then pit them against one another. The roster will naturally be expanded over time but at launch, it’s already looking quite strong now.
Among others, you’ve got the OG Mickey gang, Captain Jack Sparrow, Baloo and even Figment from EPCOT. While the Pixar brand is curiously underrepresented at the moment (with only the Monster’s Inc. crew available), that gap will presumably be filled later on down the line, with either a Toy Story or Inside Out update.
The best part is that these racers are not just interchangeable avatars with slightly different body shapes and alternative voice lines. On the contrary, they actually have very distinct playstyles, stats and abilities for you to master.
The most obvious variation between them is how they all have access to a unique collection of power-ups. In traditional kart racers, everybody is drawing from the exact same item pool (bananas, red shells, mushrooms etc.) for the sake of keeping things on an even keel.
Yet in Speedstorm, the equipment that you roll is entirely dependent upon your character’s class. So, for example, brawlers have a much greater chance of landing on offensive skills, while speedsters are more likely to get something akin to an instant boost or a shield that prevents them from getting hit and losing precious momentum.
In addition to this, each hero has an exclusive skill that can be drawn at random. Truth be told, these range from incredibly useful to downright hindering on an almost character-by-character basis.
At the lesser end of the spectrum, you’ve got Mickey Mouse, who can trigger a brief period of invulnerability and acceleration for himself. However, there is a fatal drawback to this. Whenever the status is activated, Mickey will also inadvertently leave behind a slipstream that applies the exact same benefits to any rivals following in his wake. So, it’s a risk-reward situation that forces you to carefully judge when you want to use the ability and when you ought to hold off instead.
On the other hand, some racers don’t have to worry about any such trade-off. Mowgli can summon a pack of spectral wolves that will stun nearby motorists and give him a buff at the same time. There’s no downside to it whatsoever and it doesn’t feel remotely balanced.
In fact, I’ve noticed that — when it comes to ranked matches — the podium positions tend to be dominated by a couple of usual suspects (namely, the aforementioned man-cub and Belle). That’s not a huge problem right now, given that the title is still in early access, but it does need addressing at some point. Otherwise, you’re not going to see much diversity in the character selections when it comes to playing competitively.
The final consideration to bear in mind when picking your racer (besides their performance stats of course) is how you’re going to manage that all-important boost bar. Again, this is mainly contingent upon your chosen class and will dramatically influence your playstyle.
While brawlers need to eliminate other drivers in order to fill their Nitrous gauge, tricksters should always be on the lookout for opportunities to pull off elaborate aerial stunts, showy drifts, and rail-grinds. It behoves you to remember this if you want to stand even the faintest chance of winning in tougher lobbies.
What’s great about this system is that it encourages you to actively engage with all of Speedstorm’s interrelated mechanics, so that you can in turn go faster. Chaining together a sequence of jumps, 360° flips, side-collision takedowns and perfect bomb-throws feels so invigorating here, and you get a pleasing sense of velocity if you can manage to keep that boost combo going and going.
It also means that it’s not automatically game-over if somebody knocks you back to last place with a cheap shot. After all, you can still make up for the lost time by just playing it smart and steadily climbing your way back up the leaderboard. Indeed, the boost system has resulted in some unbearably close photo finishes for me, with final stretches that have felt every bit as nail-biting as they would in a more serious-minded game like Forza.
The surprising level of depth extends to the number of modes on offer as well. There’s a lengthy solo campaign (that acquaints you with all of the rules before you brave those online servers), limited-time events that net you desirable rewards, and various gameplay modifiers to choose from. Not to mention, there’s even a split-screen multiplayer option, which you might think is a no-brainer for this type of experience, but it’s become depressingly rare for a lot of racing titles nowadays. And rarer still for those that fall into the live-service bracket.
Taken in isolation, Disney Speedstorm is a remarkably solid outing then. The core gameplay is fun, there’s tons of replay value and you can see the potential for future expansions. What else is there to say?
Well, it’s finally time for us to address the pink elephant in the room.
This game features a veritable smorgasbord of just about every annoying monetisation tactic under the sun. There are loot boxes, daily log-in rewards, a grand total of three separate currencies, character-specific resources, store page countdowns (pressuring you into making rash purchases) and a premium “golden pass”. With the latter, you can even make additional payments afterwards in order to hasten your progress, although God knows what kind of poor, desperate soul would be willing to follow through with such a thing.
Furthermore, every individual racer requires “shards” to be levelled-up, their respective vehicles need matching upgrade parts, and you also have to build up their pit-stop teams who (surprise, surprise) can only be found in random crates. Naturally, all of this faff has either an associated price tag or, if you choose to forgo spending, a considerable grind.
The way it’s all communicated to you is incredibly flummoxing too, with menus hidden beneath menus, a hideously cluttered interface and obtrusive pop-up notifications that simulate the experience of stumbling across a dodgy website. Even after sinking a fair amount of time into the game, I’m still struggling to decipher where everything sits and how the disparate elements fit together (if indeed they do).
As an experiment, I tried to concentrate my efforts on unlocking Figment as a playable driver. When I did, I was directed to a particular loot box that I was told might contain the lovable purple dragon, but that it more than likely would not.
According to the drop-rate statistics (which they are at least transparent enough to post up front), I stand a 0.67% chance of getting him whenever I open one of said crates and, suffice it to say, every attempt thus far has resulted in me getting saddled with a bunch of crap that I don’t want.
To return to the point made at the very beginning of this review, microtransactions are not innately evil. They just need to be deployed with a modicum of restraint. Alas, that is not the case here and it’s even tackier when you consider that this is a game broadly intended for children. Having what is effectively a slot machine dictate which items you can unlock feels plain wrong. Especially when a lot of this stuff isn’t even cosmetic.
I’d be lying if I said I fully understood the economy of Disney Speedstorm as it stands. All I know is that it gives me an icky feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever I am marshalled over to that confusing, Kafkaesque hellscape of a shop.
It’s easy to envision a kid innocently bankrupting their parents here because they really wanted to get a specific outfit for Elsa or whoever. And, as someone who is a self -proclaimed sucker for the Disney brand, I can see myself going down a similar road if I’m not careful.
It’s a shame to have the experience marred like this because, otherwise, I wouldn’t have any major reservations whatsoever.
Pros:
+ Undeniably fun gameplay
+ Diverse environments
+ A surfeit of game modes
+ A great soundtrack
Cons:
– Balancing issues
– Horrendous menu navigation
– Red flags with the monetisation
Rating: 7/10
Disney Speedstorm: Founder’s Pack Code provided by publisher. Reviewed on PS5 (also available for PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch and PC).
