fantamage

Crossplay is completely BROKEN and does not work. I purchased to play with friends, now I get to purchase it again since eshop does not allow refunds. If you try to play online with friends, you will be very disappointed. You can join a party but you can't actually take any turns. Terrible value for what you have to pay. False advertising - it's very disappointing to watch Nintendo let 3rd party publishers get away with this kind of thing, time and time again. Besides that: Fun game, graphics are surprisingly decent for the Switch platform. Tutorial is very smooth for what is a pretty dense game. Short load times. Solo mode is fine, but this game is meant to be played cooperatively...

Like many others, I first played Cruis'n Blast in the arcade. I had so much fun with it and the group I was in and we played a lot of it. The tracks are so visually appealing and well crafted. I was delighted, after spending roughly 50 bucks at the arcade, to see a Switch port for 40 dollars (US). maybe it was the adrenaline, but I bought it when I got home. I have since regretted this purchase. Let me start by saying what I like about this game: The performance is top-notch. 1080p with a very fluid framer ate, and this handles very well in 4 player splitscreen. The vehicle selection is great: lots of licensed car brands but also silly vehicles for variety, though the stats of these cars don't seem to matter very much (more on that later). Customization, too, is really well done. you have all kinds of colors to pick from, and you can add neon and some decals as you progress. Also no microtransactions or lootboxes for any progression! I love that. I mentioned it before, but the track design is simply superb. I didn't like the one-lap model at first but I think it fits well. So now, the negative side of things. This design of this game is so frustrating. I never thought rubberbanding could be so harmful until I played this game. During a race, you are in a roster of 10. You will not see first place until the last 20 seconds of the race, every single time, every single track. It is intentionally designed this way and gets worse when playing with a friend. there is NOTHING you can do to get away from each other. My gf and I tested this. If you're neck and neck with someone, and use your nitro boost (equivalent to a mushroom in MarioKart), you will add no distance between you and the player that's just holding down A. The reason for this is that each track has proximity-triggered events that only happen when all players are near them. That means that if you are going faster than your friend, the game will speed your friend up to make sure they don't fall too far behind. Same goes for the AI: any car below 3rd place is just worthless, any above that is virtually untouchable until the game gives you an opening, which is always the last 20 seconds of the game. So the only viable strategy is to save all your boost for the end. There is no other way to win, regardless of your car's speed or shortcuts you took. obviously, there is a bit more to it than that. you want to make sure you can be as close to first place as possible to have that chance of winning, so shortcuts, jumps/stunts, earning extra boosts can definitely help. but your car's stats? I've found them completely irrelevant. This also makes 2-player splitscreen nearly pointless. You will always be at odds with each other, and never have a chance to outdo the other until you're at the finish line. it is a gameplay loop that is frustratingly and transparently repetitive. My partner and I don't even find it fun to try to beat the cups together, because you have to consistently finish in the highest position to unlock the next cup and your biggest threat to that is the person who wants the exact same thing, so it encourages you to let the other person win. Where is the fun in that after every race plays out the same? Instead of capturing what made the arcade version so good, it reveals just how shallow of an experience it is. The fact there's no online is just absurd. Sure, you couldn't do a full roster, but couldn't they have at least included the 4P mode that already exists?? At the end of the day, this is an arcade racer that wasnt refined for console release. It's perfect to play with your friends if you are all drunk, or if one of your friends really **** at Mario Kart. Not worth 40 dollars. Maybe worth 20, but that even seems high. It will be a long time before I have the itch to play this one again. Also, I agree with everyone here: the theme music ****.