Collidalot

Genre: Arcade / Party Game

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Collidalot is an Arcade/Party game where up to four players are piloting jet-propelled bumper-cars riding on an arena of rails, with the goal being to knock players far enough out of the arena that they can’t get back.

As concepts go, this is fairly original, and I can’t think of anything else that quite plays like this. That said, it’s a bit unwieldy and the controls don’t feel very natural. Players move around on the rails at high speeds, and there’s a dash button to go even faster, as well as a button to hold if you want to dash off of a rail and jump rails… then there are bonus moves that you power by painting the rails as you ride on them.

It’s a lot to take in, and given the fast and competitive pace of the game, it’s hard to get into. It also doesn’t help that I frequently felt that the game wasn’t moving me in the direction or way that I wanted to go. Frequently when rails split off and I wanted to move one way on the split, I would move the other way. Frustrating.

The presentation here is okay, but seems a bit off. The visuals seem to have a grungy sorta’ post-apocalyptic look to them, but the soundtrack seems like lighter techno-esque fare that doesn’t quite fit. Also the game makes use of hazards that blend into the background, and I honestly wish this game went for a simpler look that better suited the gameplay.

It bears mention that the developer of Collidalot, Grunka Munka Games, has shut down, and this game is being removed from the eShop, if it hasn’t been taken down already. And while Collidalot didn’t really grab me, it is nevertheless a shame that the developer has gone out of business and the game is no longer available – I may not have been thrilled by the game, but I’m sad that others who may have enjoyed it won’t get the chance to try it out.

In the end, I give Collidalot credit for presenting an original concept, and it’s always sad when the developers of original ideas aren’t rewarded for taking those risks. Having said that, I simply wasn’t thrilled with this game – As far as I was concerned, Collidalot’s fast pace and frustrating controls felt like they were the biggest collisions in this game.

tl;dr – Collidalot is a game that has players competing to bump each other off of rails in an arena. It’s a really original concept for a game, but unfortunately I felt that the game’s fast-paced nature and frustrating controls kept it from really resonating with me.

Grade: C+

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