Aqua Moto Racing Utopia

Genre: Watercraft Racing

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local Splitscreen. Local Wireless, Online)

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Review:

Aqua Moto Racing Utopia is a personal watercraft Racing game, which will undoubtedly cause Nintendo fans to draw a direct comparison to Nintendo’s own Wave Race franchise. As with those games, this game has players racing on waterways in a Jetski (no, not the name brand product, but that’s what everyone calls them, so I’m doing that too), cornering around buoys, and trying to take first place.

Graphically, this game looks pretty good. The framerates are stead, the resolution is good, and there’s a lot of detail in the courses, even the ground under the water. There are a few areas that could have used a bit more work – the racers themselves look a bit chunky, and I feel like the water itself could have used a bit more attention, but over all this is a decent-looking game.

The sounds here are decent, with some nice but forgettable music, and okay environmental sounds. The announcers are annoying as hell though, and I was grateful for the ability to mute them.

In terms of content, this game has a lot to offer, with 50 races in 10 environments, and 44 Jet Skis. This game also has full support for 4-player play in local split-screen, local wireless, or online, with local split-screen dropping the resolution and framerate somewhat, but still within an acceptable range. Don’t expect to find anyone to play with online, though – the online lobbies are empty. However, in local play, in addition to racing and competing in stunt competitions, players can enjoy four extra party game modes, including a Rocket League-esque hockey game, a king of the hill competition, a tag-style capture the flag match, and a game that has players collecting rubber duckies and stealing them from each other.

So the big question then is, how does the game actually play?

I’m kinda’ torn on that question. Sometimes while playing this game, it plays like a dream, but other times I find myself frustrated that the waves have me bouncing around like a pinball machine, or my Jetski doesn’t seem to be responding to my command to turn… or I can hold down the button to make a sharp turn, which sometimes makes it spin around too fast. Suffice it to say, the controls in this game could have used some work.

There’s one other element of this game that’s problematic, and that’s the way boosts work. Players earn boosts by doing stunts, SSX-style. However, boosts in this game are an all-or-nothing affair. Players can’t use them until the boost meter is full, and when they use their boost, they have to use all of it. With much of the racing in this game requiring making tight turns between buoys, forcing players to take all of their boost at once really limits their options, and feels really poorly thought-out.

Oh, there is one other thing that absolutely kills this game – the price. This may very well be the worst example of “Switch Tax” I’ve seen yet. At $40, the Switch version of the game is twice as expensive as the exact same game on the Wii U, and three times as expensive as the PlayStation 4 version. This level of price gouging is outright insulting, and there’s simply no excuse for it.

It’s a shame that this game’s issues bring it down so much, because there’s a lot to like about Aqua Moto Racing Utopia. The visuals are good and there’s plenty of content. However, the frustrating control issues combined with the infuriating and ridiculous price-hike on the Switch version of the game make this one that most players will want to skip unless they can catch it in a very, very good sale.

tl;dr – Aqua Moto Racing Utopia is a Jetski Racing game that visually looks good and has a healthy amount of content, but is undone by frustrating control issues and a price tag that’s an insult to Switch owners. This may be worth looking into if you can catch it in a very good sale, but otherwise it isn’t worth your time.

Grade: C+

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