The type of arcade driving games Mobile devices are going through a somewhat particular moment, the result of the lack of real innovations and developers capable of creating experiences with a strong personality. It is therefore no coincidence that Asphalt 9: Legends is still taken as a benchmark on iOS and Android today.
Well, NetEase has tried to give its opinion by also bringing its latest title to the West, an immediate and spectacular racing game that takes advantage of turbos and special maneuvers, as well as a series of gacha elements, to attract the attention of an audience that always seems more distracted.
How did it go? We tell you in Ace Racer Review.
style and structure
Let's start by saying that stylistically Ace Racer is based on aspects that today seem quite dated, see theexaggerated sexualization of some characters and a tone that, from the introductory sequence, seems out of place and out of time. Who knows, maybe certain stereotypes are still strong in China. Everything is possible.
Luckily, leaving this approach aside, the game shows its cards and seems to be able to count on one. structure very rich, which includes a practice mode, a race that will see us face increasingly complex races within nine different scenarios, the classic Time Attack, a competitive component and even a section dedicated to Gran Turismo-style "licenses", with short but intense tests. and multiple choice questionnaires in which we will be asked about the characteristics of the game.
Inevitably, the basic system is spiced with a lots of free mechanics, which are revealed in the thousand rewards that we must collect every time we reach a goal, as well as in the effort we face when a race is too difficult and an upgrade for the car is urgently needed, which however can only be carried out carried out when certain resources are possessed.
Faced with this situation, it is clear and evident that you have to put your wallet and resort to microtransactions It can speed up updates and everything that comes with it, including unlocking new cars and new modes, but in reality during the first hours we did not even notice the presence of a ticket system that regulates the fuel needed to participate in races. . since it is replenished in abundance from time to time. In short, you can play for free without too many worries.
Gameplay: turbo and skid
At first the game Ace Racer's game seems largely inconsistent and bland, but fortunately it's just an initial sensation, which fades as the challenges become more demanding and the driving system is able to express its quirks. Decidedly arcade in all its aspects, the NetEase title focuses on the use of the turbo slips.
La career, which is the core of the single-player experience, alternates races in which you simply have to cross the finish line within a limited time with races with checkpoints or challenges in which the objective is to collect coins along the way, so There is a variety fair.
I Controls The touch does not involve the use of the accelerometer and with the standard design (but there is also a simplified one) the gas is automatic, it is guided by two arrows located on the left side of the screen while on the right side we find the buttons for drift and three different types of impulse. Pity the support for the controller in our case it didn't work: maybe it will be fixed with the next updates.
The fact that there is no brake gives a good idea of how the experience aims to be immediate and spectacular, and in fact the final result is a bit like a synthesis of the different arcade racing games, with an absolute emphasis on Drifting, that must be done to charge the different power-ups, which will be activated as soon as they are available to try to beat the stopwatch and reach the finish line before the countdown ends: a formula that is not at all original. , but in the case of Ace Racer works quite well.
Clearly the numerous real cars that make up the park. Car, which are unlocked by playing or making purchases within the application, and which in the same way must be updated, do not present peculiarities on the track that make one vehicle preferable to another, but this is a limit of many clearly arcade productions.
Technical realization: between SEGA and fanservice
As mentioned at the beginning, Ace Racer indulges in a lewd out of time, with some touches of fanservice that do not fit well with the genre to which it belongs and are generally out of place, but beyond this aspect the technical realization It is very solid and steps on the accelerator on the iPhone 14 Pro, pushing the terminal to the limit when the graphic settings are set to maximum quality at 60 fps.
The settings, in any case, allow the experience to be scaled for older terminals and thus obtain sufficiently fluid gameplay without finding the mobile phone overheating after a few minutes. That said, the graphics It works a lot in terms of quantity but the artistic depth of the game leaves a lot to be desired, and in fact the numerous scenarios available do not offer great emotions, not like those we talked about when analyzing Asphalt 9: Legends.
A general sense of aliasing and clipping of polygons over the distance, along with frequent references to the sun and sea, reveal how the developers at NetEase have clearly been inspired by the great SEGA classics, with the result, without However, if they were in his hands they ran visually lacking in thickness, which lacks personality.
An approach that is also reiterated in terms of the sound effects and the dance-style musical accompaniment, truly frivolous and insignificant.
Conclusions
Tested version iPhone digital delivery app store, Google Play Price Free Holygamerz.com 7.5 Readers (8) 7.3 your voteAce Racer moves quickly between the numerous corners of a free-to-play structure inevitably full of coins, rewards and microtransactions, but which at least in the first hours does not limit progression too clearly: paywalls, although present, are can be overcome with a little commitment and experience, and this positive idea emerges within a deeply arcade gameplay, which embraces turbo and drifting as key elements of a formula that is surprisingly enjoyable and has all the necessary numbers to entertain you for a long time. a while.
PRO
- Traditional but fun arcade game.
- Full-bodied race, good challenges.
- It doesn't lack content, nor does it lack beautiful graphics.
AGAINST
- Many currencies and microtransactions, fortunately optional.
- Unlocking new cars takes a little time.
- Visually generic, it lacks personality.
