Offroad Racing – Buggy X ATV X Moto

Genre: Arcade Racing

Players: 1

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Review:

Offroad Racing – Buggy X ATV X Moto is an Off-Road Arcade-style racing game released on PC in 2019 and ported to other platforms in 2020… but I would argue this game is even older than that. See, a while back I reviewed a Nintendo Switch game called ATV Drift & Tricks that was a great deal like this one. It shared many of this game’s flaws, featured the same drift-trick system, and the two even share some of the same tracks. So the question is, is this a shameless rehash, or has it noticeably improved over its predecessor?

Much as with ATV Drift & Tricks, the trick-boost system here is still superb and makes for a fun bit of multitasking while racing, requiring you to time button presses to gain a boost after landing a jump or trick. However, this time around, the gameplay is enhanced further by three different types of vehicles to choose from, and to the game’s credit all three of them feel noticeably different.

Much as with the prior game, I find the gameplay here to be a delight, as are the game’s creative and memorable courses, although this time around I give this game a bit less credit for that as some of those courses are simply being recycled.

In terms of improvements, this game does seem to have improved on one of my bigger criticisms of ATV Drift & Tricks, the visuals. While still not exactly great, this time around the framerates seem better (though not spectacular), and while there’s still pop-in, it’s not quite as bad. On the plus side, this game retains the good use of lighting its predecessor has.

Unfortunately, the other major flaw of ATV Drift & Tricks remains here – the complete lack of any sort of multiplayer. Those who read my game reviews will note that I consider this a severe flaw in almost any racing game, and it’s no less disappointing here.

In the end, I would say that Offroad Racing is an improvement over ATV Drift & Tricks, albeit a marginal one. This game adds new vehicles and seems to have stabilized the visuals somewhat, but the visuals still aren’t fantastic, and the lack of multiplayer is still disappointing. Still, if you’re looking for a worthwhile off-road racing game on the Nintendo Switch, you’ll find this to be an engaging one as long as you don’t mind playing solo.

tl;dr – Offroad Racing takes the same basic gameplay (and courses) from ATV Drift and Tricks, adds in two more vehicle types, and improves the visuals. The result is an Arcade-style racing game that’s surprisingly fun, but sadly still lacking multiplayer. However, if you’re looking for an off-road racing game to play on your own, you’ll find this to be a good one.

Grade: C+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2020 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Laziest Copycat

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