Review: Music Racer

I was just rid of my addiction from Avicii: Invector and now another rhythm game found the way to my mailbox. This popular mobile game races its way towards Xbox One, without the option to play from your own music library though, a feature that works great on the mobile version. That’s a small bummer but likely not possible on Xbox, so with that in mind I took a look at what Music Racer has to offer for us console players.

What we liked!

• Really fun in short bursts: Music racer isn’t the kind of game that you play for hours on a free Saturday. This is an experience that you play in bursts so the repetitive nature doesn’t kick in. To be honest, I did play this for four hours straight but I’m a real rhythm game addict. It is just such an easy game to play and still very challenging too, it is completely possible to play this with one hand, collecting all the notes and avoiding obstacles is done by pressing right or left. That’s it! Childish easy but it still gives you edge of your seat situations if you want to get good scores.
• Motivational unlock system: Each note you hit earns you 2 unlock points, at the end of a song you get your points from all the notes you hit + your biggest combo streak. With this, you can unlock some fancy cars like the Delorean or KITT from Knight Rider. Not only cars can be unlocked as Music Racer also has a playable robotic bird or a motorcycle. As a bonus, each of the unlocks earns you Achievements too! It will require a lot of playtime to earn everything but I guess that’s only positive, right?
• Surprisingly beautiful: Music Racer has some impressive and especially colorful vista’s, I would not have guessed that this was a mobile game. The futuristic effects are stunning and the lighting is very well done. Most levels are locked behind the unlock system but every single one of them brings something new and fascinating. The sense of speed is remarkable too, it is slightly migrainous if you play it for long but well done nonetheless.
• Song selection: We can’t play our own songs like in the mobile version, a shame… but the present song selection is decent enough. While more diversity in the music genre would have been welcome, this kind of game just screams electro music and that’s what Music Racer brings us. Together with the fancy visuals, it is simply a joy to listen and experience.

Somewhere between

• Modes: You have the default mode, a cinematic mode, and a hard mode but there is not much difference between them. Why you would play the cinematic mode is beyond me as this doesn’t earn you the much required unlock points. Hard mode is pretty interesting but the lack of a leaderboard doesn’t really motivate me to play it. It is basically a rogue mode. Get hit and the level ends immediately, it goes faster too and has a lot more obstacles.
• Menu: It took me a while to understand the menu layout, as everything has an icon but you don’t know what it will do. So the start of Music Racer is rather confusing, picking your car, choosing what level, changing the color and picking your song is all done by the same menu layout. The usage is fast once you know how to use it but I would have preferred an easier way to select everything.

What we disliked

• No leaderboards … WTF?! Come on! How can you overlook a basic and much-needed feature like this? I was hoping to battle it out against my friends that love rhythm games but that’s not an option with Music Racer. “insert a pretty big crying emoji!”

Music Racer isn’t something all of you will enjoy but the rhythm game fans will absolutely adore this thing! Perfect to play when you have limited time or when you want to get a rush of adrenaline. It is cheap enough (below €10) and will provide you with a few hours of enjoyment!