Beach Buggy Racing Review

With Mario Kart often being players number one racing game you do wonder if a developer could take what makes Mario Kart great and improve it in a way that people won’t just call it a copy. Beach Buggy Racing is the new racer in town trying to be the new number one, with its own set of characters and own set of tracks to race through. Mario Kart is a legendary series, there’s a lot for Beach Buggy Racing to live up to.

Beach Buggy Racing is very similar to Mario Kart in terms of being a kart/combat racer. There’s a career mode to get to grips with that consists of events that contain several races within each event. You earn stars by finishing on the podium, the more stars you earn then the more races you can open up. At the end of each event is a boss which if beaten then opens the next event. Other modes include Championship mode; these are randomly generated races, Quick Race; single race and Daily Challenges which usually consist of beating a lap time although there are some more unique challenges to play with.

In Beach Buggy Racing you win coins depending on how well you drive. These can be used to improve you car and upgrade the usually traits such as acceleration and handling. It’s very easy to upgrade quickly because you can replay races straight away thus gaining some very easy coinage. The handling of your vehicle at the start is quite cumbersome, we understand that your kart won’t be fantastic at the start but the slow turning speed is enough to turn Beach Buggy Racing off. Eventually once you start to upgrade this does improve but the handling just doesn’t feel that intuitive or natural. As you progress more characters/karts can be unlocked but they are nothing you wouldn’t have seen bettered in other titles. The kart combat side of things is quite fun with the usual mix of sticky substances and rockets thrown in, there are a lot of power ups to play with so Beach Buggy Racing does well in that respect.

Graphically Beach Buggy Racing is colourful and bright with an oceanic setting for the most part. The characters whilst bold are a tad on the unimaginative side. The cars suit the characters but again there’s nothing new here. The tracks have several short cuts and are reasonably designed, the characters abilities can be used to good effect on certain tracks. Soundtrack wise Beach Buggy Racing does tend to grate on you, the car effects sound fine whilst the music is what you would expect but together it can get a little annoying lap after lap.

The best part of Beach Buggy Racing is the depth. There are a fair amount of characters to play with, there are 12 tracks, where you explore dinosaur-infested jungles, lava-spewing volcanoes, beautiful beaches, and even mysterious swamps. Each unique race track is packed with hidden shortcuts and surprises and with over 25 totally unique Powerups, like Dodgeball Frenzy, Fireball, and Oil Slick with more  coming!. Add this to multiplayer options and leaderboard scores, Beach Buggy Racing has the ability to take up a lot of your time if you let it. Single player can become repetitive though as one of two things tends to happen, you’ll become an early leader but then near the end you’ll have a 50/50 chance of being beaten as you’re on the end of a race ending power up. Beach Buggy Racing isn’t difficult, you’ll win a lot of races quite easily but after a few races you’ll notice the pattern.

Unfortunately Beach Buggy Racing just isn’t a contender. Obviously there will be Mario Kart comparisons but that’s unfair to both Marion Kart & Beach Buggy Racing. There’s quite a bit of depth to Beach Buggy Racing but there’s nothing here that gives it a podium finish, there’s just too many rough edges that bring down the entertainment value. If you want a kart racing experience on the PS4 or Xbox One then Beach Buggy Racing could offer some enjoyment but you’ll soon retire Beach Buggy Racing after a few laps.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Sony Playstation 4 code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.