Music Racer Review for Xbox

Music Racer is best described as a musical arcade game, where you ride to the end of the track, dodging obstacles to the rhythm of the music and picking up blocks which gives you points. 

To differentiate it from others, Music racer has its own unique Neon style and vehicles that seem to be inspired by films and games from the 80’s.

The game boasts a nice 23 songs, 14 tracks and the ability to customize the colour 25 vehicles.

Gameplay

You start of by choosing a vehicle and customizing it your preference. From the start there are four free, but you can soon unlock more by completing tracks and gaining points. Once done, its then a track to choose, but much like your vehicles, most are locked off by awaiting for you to spend enough points to unlock them. We then move onto choosing a song from the 23 on offer, all which are free. And finally not least, you are asked to choose a mode.

Now there are four different game modes, each with a unique aspect for you to enjoy. Zen is a no-stress version where you have no risk and just have to shift lanes to pick up the collectibles. Normal is your standard option that throws in a few obstacles for you to dodge and Hard is the true sense, that has additional obstacles where hitting one of these, means game over. Between all three of these modes, there is no difference in the amount of points you can collect, which I found disappointing. Id have at least liked to get more points on hard for all the effort I’m going to be putting in. The last mode is in my opinion, the best. Cinema mode keeps the car centered and is akin to watching a music video, except here, you get to control the camera.

Once on the track, its up to you to shift between lanes picking up blocks, to boost your combo and gain points to spend on unlocking tracks and vehicles. The control system is easy and you can choose between the D-pad or left analogue stick to control the vehicle. You can choose from a simple strafe mechanic or complete freedom in options menu. For me I stuck with strafing as this was easier and I preferred the D-pad as it felt a lot more precise. Overall the game was fun to play, and regardless of the song, I did enjoy trying to get a perfect score, however one thing that did annoy me was it didn’t keep a record of how well you did on the tracks.

One thing to mention is the settings do deserve some recognition. I have noticed a few reviewers for some reason criticizing the game on its visual elements without taking the time to look here. You can adjust motion blur, bloom, screen shake and lighting and a camera distance to suit your needs. Something which I found great as you can find it visual bombardment from the standard option. The camera distance was especially welcome as it helped me spot the blocks easier, which was great as I play on my 49’’ TV sitting about 3 meters away.

Graphics

The biggest element of the game is its beautiful neon, retro wave style graphics. Each run is a visual feast for the eyes that if not properly adjusted in the settings, can make you feel like you are sitting inside a kaleidoscope. Whilst the style of the world is chosen, each tracks speed and mood is created in real time, and determined by the sound track. However, obstacles are only sound track generated, and are identical regardless of the world you choose.

Sound

One thing I have noted is that this based on the PC and mobile game of the same name and sadly the console version doesn’t allow you to upload your own MP3 files. This would have been amazing to do, and really give the game some longevity using its auto generator on your own music. However, the tracks available are a great collection and one that has inspired me to get them for my personal use.

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-

Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Music Racer is "On sale’’

The game is fun to play, visually stunning and has enough to keep you playing for awhile. However, it does suffer from repetition from a limited amount of tracks and a difficulty that doesn’t scale your rewards. Once you have everything, unless they add more content, you wont be coming back which is a shame.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £4.92 or approx $5, and depending on skill and patience would give you about 15 hours worth of game play if you wanted to collect all the vehicles available.

Music Racer is fun, however, it suffers from one big aspect, in that there is a better version out for mobile that’s free. So in essence, get that, as it gives you more options and will in turn provide you with more fun.