Rally Racers

I have to imagine that releasing a kart racing game on the Switch after Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a lot like trying to upstage The Beatles at Shea Stadium in 1965. It just can't be done. But part of me applauds and even wants to root for those brave souls who throw caution to the wind and try anyway. I want to be here to champion a game like Rally Racers as a worthwhile alternative to one of the best racing games of all time, but I can't. I can't because this brand new racer from West Coast Games somehow manages to get just about everything wrong.

This is the story of Wacky Racer Rees and his on-going fight with his evil brother, Droog. You know how most families will wage war through passive aggressive comments and tantrums at Thanksgiving dinner? Well, Rees and Droog take a far more civilized approach. Instead of making a scene, they settle their conflicts through a series of heavily-weaponized kart races full of action and explosions.

There are three goals to complete in every stage. The first thing you want to do is place close to the top, preferably in first. Then you'll want to collect the large oranges floating around the stage. And if that wasn't enough, the game also wants you to earn points by pulling off a series of simple air tricks. Once you've done all that, you'll move on to the next stage where you'll need to place first, collect oranges and pull off tricks all over again.

This isn't like a lot of modern racing games that mix things up with several different race modes, because every single stage plays out exactly the same way. The only deviation from this formula is when you have to go head-to-head with a boss. Unfortunately, it's always the same boss. The challenge is to catch up with the evil Droog, who not only gets a sizable head start, but also has a bad habit of throwing out ghost cars. The problem is that there's no strategy to these boss fights. All you need to do is spend enough money to upgrade your car and speed to the front, which is every bit as easy as it sounds.

Seeing as this review is already starting to go negative, perhaps this is a good time to mention the two things I liked about this game. For as much as I talked about Mario Kart at the top, I feel like West Coast Games has done a good job of creating a kart racing game that doesn't just feel like another clone. I also appreciate the amount of work that went into creating the wide assortment of locations, including a tropical island, snow-covered mountains, sandy deserts and more. These two elements are a nice foundation for what could have been another great racing game on the Switch.

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Unfortunately, this is not a great racing game or even a good racing game. I dare say that this is a borderline broken racing game. From a gameplay perspective, there's not much here to like. I was genuinely shocked by how poorly the game played when I first booted it up. I spent the first few races bouncing around like I was driving through one of those air castles you see at birthday parties. The handling improves as you spend money on upgrades, but even at its best, the gameplay is loose and a tad squirrely.

And if you think going forwards can be frustrating, just wait until you're forced to shift into reverse. Even if you press the right trigger oh so gently, you'll still race backwards as if you jammed your foot on the gas pedal. This may seem like a minor nitpick, but the way they handle the reverse made it impossible for me to get back in the race. It got to the point where I chose to restart the race instead of fiddling with the broken reverse mechanics. And this isn't a small thing, because Rally Racers is the type of game where you'll constantly get hung up on the borders of the tracks. The game is annoying like that.

The problem with the gameplay is only compounded by the woefully inconsistent frame rate, which seems to fluctuate based on the location. This is especially frustrating when you look at how simplistic the graphics are, especially when compared to pretty much every other racing game on the Switch. It's not that the game looks bad; I've certainly seen worse. But there's nothing about the presentation that stands out in any way, sort of like the generic name.

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On second thought, there is one thing that stands out for all the wrong reasons -- the character designs. The racers are all short with big ugly heads, all of which kind of look the same. These aren't the likable characters you usually get in a kart racing game, but rather the grumpy people you hurriedly walk past at a subway station. Even the game seems to know these characters suck, as they allow you to pair each racer up with a cute animal companion that offers an added perk. West Coast Games probably would have been better off just making these animal friends the main stars of Rally Racers.

At this point it feels like piling on, but it's worth mentioning that this Switch game is plagued with technical issues. I've already touched on the inconsistent frame rate, but there's also a lot of background and texture pop-ins. And if that wasn't enough, the game has this habit of crashing after certain events. When it happens so many times, it's hard not to see it as a sign to move on to a different game.

This is the kind of thing you hate to see. While I'm sure the developers at West Coast Games have a killer kart racer in them, it definitely isn't Rally Racers. From the loose gameplay to the ugly characters to the rampant technical problems, it sometimes feels like every aspect of this game is incomplete. I know Switch owners are starving for new racing games, but you can do a lot better than Rally Racers.