Game: Electro Ride: The Neon Racing
Genre: Arcade, Racing
System: Nintendo Switch (also on PC)
Developer|Publisher: Sylwester Oak | Ultimate Games
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Everyone
Price: UK £9.89 | EU €11,99 | US $11.99
Release Date: November 27th, 2020
Review code provided with many thanks to Ultimate Games
Start Your Engines
Electro Ride is a racing game with a neon-infused graphical style and a Sythwave soundtrack. It has the looks and the sounds but does this racer have the goods under the hood to make a mark on Nintendo Switch?
Just like with any racing game, your goal is simply to race against a number of AI opponents around a large track in an attempt to come first. When I started story mode I only had a single car to control and a single track to race. In order to progress to unlock new cars and tracks, you need to come first in each race. This seems an odd design choice since most racing games don’t require complete perfection unless you’re looking to beat your best time or show off. The AI opponents appear to function based on a sort of rubber band mechanic that some may be familiar with from Mario Kart. When you are out ahead the other cars seem to comfortably follow behind just waiting for you to make a small mistake to overtake. When you drop down a position the cars also seem to be easier to catch up to.
This design is fine but often when I was just about to reach the final goal a car sneakily came out in front winning the race and preventing me from progressing. This issue was made even more frustrating since the races go on for a substantial amount of times easily over 5 minutes each. Repeating the same race over and over did not leave the best first impression of this title.
Once I clawed my way past the first three races I got to unlock a new car from a selection of vehicles inspired by Eastern Bloc’s classics. Once I had one with better stats I found the rest of the game more manageable hitting only the odd brick wall. The games does offer three difficulty tiers and progress still unlocks even if you drop down to the easiest setting.
On Ice
Control-wise it felt like I was often driving on ice. The cars are incredibly sensitive to control turning left or right too much, quickly sends your car into a spin or potential crash. If you make a mistake though a press of the ‘y’ button will place you back on the track the right way up. The game does this interesting mechanic with boosting. Your car will either have a neon colour of yellow, pink or blue. You can change this colour by picking a different colour on a power up on the track. If you then hit the same colour boost marker on the road it will catapult you ahead. A cool feature indeed but I often found the boosts to be more of a hindrance than a help. Hitting them often made my car stutter and made it even more cumbersome to control. Mildly helpful if I was lagging behind but avoided when I was in first position.
Neon Graphics
The graphics and art style are unique and will clearly draw the attention of gamers scanning the eShop. While there are some notable rough textures on the sides of the cars and environments, it still stands out from the mediocrity of a run of the mill racing title. The 80’s feeling is strong with this game and the accompanying music kinda makes you want to go ride a convertible with a nice pair of sunglasses at night. Although I would not recommend doing this since in the UK at least you’ll probably be in for a chilly experience. That or you’ll get rained on.
A Standard Ride
Once you’re finished with the story you can head into ‘quick race’ where you can choose a mode, customize some game settings like AI opponents and laps. You can race across a choice of 20 tracks, across 5 European and Russian cities provided you’ve unlocked them in Story mode. There is also split-screen which is always welcome. Sadly you can’t bring a friend into story mode to help you unlock things which feels like a missed opportunity here.
Conclusion
Electro Ride is a decent racing game. The graphics and music are the clear highlights but the gameplay and basic racing design doesn’t make this particularly special.
The difficult start may put off gamers new to the racing genre. If you want a simple racing game that gives you some 80’s vibes there is fun to be had here. Just don’t expect much more.
Final Verdict: I like it
