Disney Speedstorm

Genre: Kart Racing

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Split-Screen), 2-8 Competitive (Online)

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS

Disney Speedstorm is a free-to-play (after an initial paid early access period that has since expired) Kart Racing game released in 2023 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This game features high-tech races with courses and racers inspired by classic Disney franchises, including Mickey Mouse, Mulan, Toy Story, and Pirates of the Caribbean, to name a few.

Before going on, I need to talk about what I feel is the elephant in the room. While I have mixed feelings about microtransactions, I usually feel they’re reasonable in free-to-play games, within limits. One of those limits is games targeted squarely at children, which this clearly is. Thankfully, Speedstorm doesn’t inflict its young players with some of the worst monetization practices we see these days, but you still have premium currency and advertisements encouraging players to spend money to unlock their favorite characters. Gross.

In addition, players gradually upgrade racers’ stats over the course of the game using in-game items that, while usually earned, there are also a few included in the paid “starter pack” meaning that this game technically qualifies as “pay to win”. More gross.

However, if you can get past that… there’s a lot to love here.

Players may or may not care for the way the game reimagines these various Disney characters to fit into this game’s cartoony futuristic aesthetic, but apart from this matter of personal taste, it’s hard to argue that this game isn’t an absolute feast for the eyes and ears. The Nintendo Switch version of the game sadly only runs at 30FPS compared to the 60FPS on other modern platforms, and the resolution isn’t as clear (though I don’t have numbers for the resolution, sorry). However, despite these visual downgrades, this game still looks stunning on Nintendo Switch.

In one course, rain falls in sheets on the roads as puddles reflect the neon glow of signs above them, in another, you’ll be racing in the midst of a massive volley of explosions between two boats engaged in a pirate battle, and in yet another, the entire course is depicted in old-timey monochrome as if you’ve driven into a classic pre-color cartoon. It is an absolute delight to partake in each new location and see the creative spirit present here. What’s more, the characters all look nicely-detailed and animate fluidly in ways that accentuate their individual personalities.

Of course, as you might expect, all of the characters are voiced, and while some are clearly voice-alikes, you still have the genuine article for others – Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, and Annie Potts all reprise their Toy Story roles as Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, and Bo peep, for example. Overall, it’s quality work, and helps build the immersion that these are the actual Disney characters, even if their designs are somewhat different here.

However, the real treat here may well be the soundtrack, which remixes a variety of classic Disney tunes in a techno style to be better-suited to a high-speed race, with some being subtle, and some being very much not subtle. Some of the better examples of this are The Castle (Beauty and the Beast), Main Hall (Gaston), Mount Olympus (Zero to Hero), Stone Bend (I’ll Make a Man Out of You), Trail of Roots (Trust in Me), Cup Runners (Mickey Mouse Club Theme), Chasing Doors (If I Didn’t Have You). And just to show they had some originality, there are some great original themes too, like Starter Circuit, Legendary Hero, Cityscape, and Arbee’s Arena.

As for the racing itself, what’s here is mostly really good, with some great racing mechanic, fun power-ups that vary from character to character, and four ways to boost – there are on-track boosters, you can use some items to boost, you can drift-boost, and you can build up button-activated boost energy by drifting. As such, one of the challenges of this game is to balance out your boost usage between these various methods to best take advantage of all of them, rather than accidentally doubling up on them. And as mentioned before, the course designs are quite imaginative.

Unfortunately, as of right now, there aren’t many of them. The game currently only has a dozen courses, which may not be too terrible for a free-to-play game, but it looks paltry when you compare it to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s 96 courses.

However, if I had to point to the biggest flaw this game has, it would sadly have to be rubber-banding. This game has some of the worst rubber-banding I’ve seen in a racing game, up there with Cruis’n Blast with just how bad it can get at times, and it’s terribly disappointing that this game would go so far as to give players no less than four different ways to boost, only for you to finish a string of these and find the other racers nipping at your heels. It kinda’ makes any great driving on your part feel a bit more hollow.

Still, while it definitely has its flaws, Disney SpeedStorm is still a joyous fast-paced race through nostalgia that looks and sounds great and is fun to play, even if I have to add all sorts of caveats and qualifiers to say that. I really wish I didn’t have to add all those qualifiers, because I feel like this could have been a much better game, but even as-is, it’s worth checking out if you’re looking for a fun, free-to-play Racing game on Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – Disney Speedstorm is a free-to-play Kart Racing game featuring high-tech races with courses and racers inspired by classic Disney franchises. I have some issues with the microtransactions here, the lack of courses, the rubber-banding, and the Nintendo Switch version definitely suffers a graphical downgrade from other versions of the game… but despite those numerous flaws, this is still a wonderfully fun, fast-paced racing game with an outstanding presentation and a great soundtrack. As long as you can tolerate this game’s flaws, I think you’ll find it to be a great addition to your Racing game collection.

Grade: B-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2023 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Driving/Racing Game, Best New Free-To-Play Game, Most Underrated (65), Worst Monetization / Scam

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Disney Speedstorm

Genre: Kart Racing

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local Split-Screen), 2-8 Competitive (Online)

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Review:

WARNING: THIS GAME HEAVILY PUSHES MICROTRANSACTIONS

I expect this is to the surprise of most Nintendo Switch 2 owners, but Disney Speedstorm is the first third-party Nintendo Switch game to get a Nintendo Switch 2-specific overhaul after the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2. It’s surprising not only because this is a game that wasn’t generally warmly-received, but didn’t sell super-well back when it was released as a paid game, and I highly doubt that it saw massive numbers of new players once it went free-to-play. However, since the game is free-to-play and did receive a free Nintendo Switch 2 update, it does deserve another look.

This update comes alongside the Season 14 patch for the game, inspired by the Toy Story franchise. The publisher has released patch notes for the update, and the Nintendo Switch 2-specific upgrades are as follows:

• ^{The FPS cap has been raised to 60, delivering buttery-smooth racing compared to the previous 30 FPS limit.}
• ^{Enjoy 1080p in handheld mode and up to 1440p when docked for a crisper, more detailed look.}
• ^{A number of other visual improvements such as better shadows, anti-aliasing, and shader quality to bring even more visual polish to every track.}

Okay, but what’s my own take on this upgrade for the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game?

Well, right from the start, I can’t help but feel like they’re being modest here, because I immediately noticed one huge difference that isn’t even on the list: loading times. On Nintendo Switch, it took me 49 seconds to load up the title screen, and another 24 to load into a race (just against bots, so I wasn’t waiting on other players). On Nintendo Switch 2, both of those times got reduced by more than half, to 23 and 11.

As for the quality of the visuals, I already felt like Disney SpeedStorm was a graphically-nice game on Nintendo Switch, but the Nintendo Switch 2 patch does indeed make a noticeable difference – the smooth 60FPS framerates in particular are a wonderful upgrade, and the higher resolution makes for much cleaner visuals overall too. The other improvements are more subtle, and I’m not sure how much you’ll notice them in an intense race, but they’re nice to have all the same.

Overall, the performance and presentation get a major boost here, making this a clearly superior version of the game compared to the Nintendo Switch version. And the core gameplay is still every bit as great. That said, the nasty monetization is still every bit as nasty, and the rubber-banding is still just as rubbery. On balance, this still works out to be a fine Racing Game, but the nasty monetization makes it hard for me to give this a full recommendation.

tl;dr – Disney Speedstorm is a free-to-play Kart Racing game featuring high-tech races with courses and racers inspired by classic Disney franchises. I have some issues with the microtransactions here, the lack of courses, and the rubber-banding… but despite those numerous flaws, this is still a wonderfully fun, fast-paced racing game with an outstanding presentation (greatly-improved over on Nintendo Switch 2 compared to the original Nintendo Switch) and a great soundtrack. As long as you can tolerate this game’s flaws, I think you’ll find it to be a great addition to your Racing game collection.

Grade: B

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