Old School Racer 2

Genre: 2D Stunt Racing

Players: 1

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Review:

Old School Racer 2 is a 2D Stunt Racing game that’s slightly similar to the Trials series where players race on a shifting course trying to reach the goal as quickly as possible while collecting pickups along the way. This game was released on the Nintendo Switch in 2019.

The presentation here is decent but nothing spectacular, using hand-drawn 2D visuals and a completely forgettable rock-inspired soundtrack. There’s just not anything really exceptional or horrible going on here.

As for the gameplay, Old School Racer 2 does do one thing that’s a bit unique for the genre – land deformation, where the ground shifts as you ride over it. This can add a surprising element to the game, but also ties in with one of the major problems I have with this game.

That problem is how much this game makes playing through its levels a “trial and error” sort of thing. Players will be constantly encountering “leap of faith” style jumps where they will have to jump without seeing the landing point, they’ll be running at full speed only to slam into a wall they don’t have time to slow down to avoid, or they’ll be moving along and suddenly find the ground shift in a way they won’t have time to react to, resulting in a crash. So players will repeatedly crash due to circumstances that aren’t their fault, and then have to replay the last section of level armed with the knowledge of what happened. Or, if they want to make a perfect run of a level, simply replay the level. As you might imagine, this is extremely tedious and frustrating.

I appreciate that Old School Racer 2 is doing something a bit different in its genre, but what unique qualities Old School Racer has to offer the 2D Stunt Racing genre are swallowed up in the sinkhole of frustration and tedium of this game’s flaws. You’re better off sticking to the Trials games unless you absolutely need to play every game in this genre.

tl;dr – Old School Racer 2 is a 2D Stunt Racing that’s loosely similar to the Trials series, and it offers a somewhat unique land deformation mechanic. Unfortunately, this mechanic and other game design issues combine to make this a tedious, frustrating experience where players will repeatedly crash due to circumstances out of their control. Skip this game unless you’re a huge fan of the genre.

Grade: C-

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