Music Racer: Ultimate [Xbox]
Developed by AbstractArt alongside Light Road Games, Music Racer: Ultimate is a very bright, psychedelic rhythm racer that is an upgraded version of the previous title, Music Racer, where you can now play along to your own tracks. There are a surprisingly large variety of vehicles to unlock, ranging from sports cars to pop culture vehicles such as the DeLorean; all with slightly changed names as to not cause any issues with copyright! These can be unlocked as you progress using the points gained by completing levels, and you can customise their appearances. New level designs can also be purchased using points, and again, there are an unbelievable number to choose from, ranging from easily unlocked tracks costing just 1000 points, to expensive ones costing 10000 or more.
You can play levels in a few different ways, with a Standard mode, Zen mode, Cinematic mode and Hard mode available. We thought Zen would have been a slower, more relaxed version, however it is just as speedy as the rest - instead opting to remove any hazards from the tracks; and cinematic, as it sounds, offers a more cinematic style view - with no beats to hit whatsoever, so that you can just enjoy the music along with the visuals.
Levels are gorgeously designed, but it unfortunately feels almost redundant in the main game mode, as you have to pay such close attention to the patterns in order to succeed, that you don’t get a real chance to look at the environments aside from in your peripheral vision. Thankfully, utilising the other modes allows you to take more advantage of the scenery, with Zen being more relaxed, and Cinematic solely being designed to show off the level designs. I should point out that some of the levels are extremely strobe-y, so this is not a game to play if you experience epileptic seizures. The way that the levels react to music, particularly when playing with tracks you select via the Audius and Link options, is mesmerising and is definitely one of the better aspects of the game.
Being called Music Racer: Ultimate, the music is obviously a big part of the game, and is filled with a bunch of fantastic tracks that are really enjoyable to listen to. Using the Audius option that allows you to race along to any track you please, is something that just makes things so much more fun, as not only are you getting to enjoy the game - but you’ve got more control over the music than usual - and getting to play along to Lil Peep, Terror Reid and Juice WRLD is right up my alley. Even looking through the ‘trending’ tab was great, as I got to pick some cool remixed versions of tracks such as Depeche Mode’s Personal Jesus and Kelis’ Milkshake, and there’s a Search option available alongside the ability to connect your own devices to use any other tracks. Admittedly, I didn’t test out the ability to upload any tracks myself, as the process is pretty convoluted and requires you to download an external app, then upload the tracks you want to that for you to then find in game, but I just stuck with the tracks already uploaded by other players.
My only gripe is that I wish the gameplay that went alongside them was better, as the endlessly twisting tracks can become a bit of a nuisance, taking away from the rhythm styling and making it more frustrating as many of the mistakes are out of your hands, so I frequently would stick to Zen mode (since it’s free from punishment!) and using the Retro track, since it’s a little flatter and easier to see the upcoming beats. You can also adjust the camera to pull it back a little bit, which helps a tiny bit with how much you can see, but just not quite enough.
Overall, I love the idea behind Music Racer: Ultimate, and found that it grew on me the more I played, though it definitely has its flaws. I found the visuals to be headache-inducing after a while and had to stick to just playing in short bursts. Taking on levels was unnecessarily challenging, even in Standard mode, due to the twisting tracks obscuring the beat changes and hazards whilst not giving you enough time to react, and this felt really unsatisfying and unfair - almost forcing me to stick to playing in Zen mode. Likewise, playing with the included soundtrack just wasn’t quite doing it for me, despite them being enjoyable to listen to, as it became repetitive quite quickly - however, on the flip side of this, playing along with your favourite music is a game-changer, as you have a bit more understanding of where the lane-changes will be required and you don’t get tired of the music when you’re getting to sing along happily.
Priced at £5.79 on the Xbox Store, but with a saving of £1.16 bringing it down to £4.63 for a limited time, it’s a great price, especially since the gameplay is pretty much endless once you factor in all of the available music you can try out. There’s also tonnes of unlockables that will require a fair amount of grinding for points, so that will definitely keep you busy for a while. The flaws do detract from things, but the ability to play along to almost any song bumps this back up a little in the fun factor.
In the end, we decided to give Music Racer: Ultimate the Collecting Asylum rating of 6.5/10.
Are you interested in Music Racer: Ultimate? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Sometimes You for the Music Racer: Ultimate Xbox review code!
