Whip around tight corners, spin those tiny wheels, and smash friends into walls in Mini Motor Racing X, the newest installment of Mini Motor Racing legacy. Publisher NEXTGENREALITY and developers The Binary Mill expanded upon an already fantastic racing simulator with new VR and party modes releasing today, Sept. 17,, 2020 on the Nintendo Switch eShop for $19.99 USD.
(Note: The Binary Mill is giving Mini Motor Racing X to owners of Mini Motor Racing EVO for free)
Mini Motor Racing X at first glance resembles an RC racing derby with its tiny kit cars, small lapped courses, and arcade aesthetic. Playable from top-down, first-person, and third-person, Mini Motor Racing X keeps a simple core and lets the players toy around in its well-tuned sandbox.
Gameplay
Without an engaging control system, no racing game can ever provide the immediacy, engagement, or simulative aspects that make other greats in the genre fun. Thankfully, Mini Motor Racing X has tight and fluid steering which changes according to car models and their upgrades. The handling has a RallyCross feel to it–every car is capable and must drift around slippery corners, bumping and drifting off each other in quest of hitting that straightway with a can of Nitro roaring out your tailpipes.
Learning is iterative and encouraged in multifaceted ways through upgrades, personal bests, and variable car models. As soon as I learned I could upgrade a school bus with 7 tanks of Nitro it became my racing destiny fulfilled. My bus specialized in blazing down straightaways and making tight turns at the expense of any upgrades to top speed or acceleration. My playstyle was rewarded and that made me want to keep trying out other combinations.
Aesthetics
The art in Mini Motor Racing X is as well-polished as the mechanics. Each venue has its own racing identity, and crucially, a matching theme. Jungle Ruins are tight and cramped, the Airport is hectic in one place with long runways in between, the Alpines feature drastic elevation changes, and just about every course shares a synergy between theme and mechanics.
Similar to the rest of Mini Motor Racing X, the music and SFX find their groove. It’s no blockbuster soundtrack, but it holds it own over long periods of playtime, effectively working towards that arcade aesthetic throughout the rest of the game.
Replayability
Put simply, Mini Motor Racing X is chocked full of content. There are 4 career modes with progressive difficulty and unique rewards, 4 mirrored X-Mode careers, a Bumper Ball mini-game, a Mini Motor mini-game, and quick race modes all available to be played online with or against friends–and it’s compatible with VR too, which I was not able to experience.
Each Career Mode race rewards players with Career Cash used to buy new cars or upgrades, and those upgrades can be partially refunded, effectively encouraging players to try out different cars with different upgrades. For me, this was the big kahuna keeping me fishing. I wanted to keep racing, to keep getting money, to keep upgrading my bus, to keep racing, to keep getting money, to keep upgrading my bus etc.etc. My bus started out as a meager form of public transportation, a few hours passed, and it turned into a turbo bat-out-of-hell.
The X-Mode, one of the main selling points of this iteration, wasn’t as wow-inducing as the rest of the game. It doesn’t hold a candle to the party play of Mario Kart (as nearly no other racers do), but it does add a spicy element of chaos to an already great multiplayer racer.
Conclusion
The Mini Motor Racing franchise has been around for nearly a decade and its good games have only gotten better. Offering an innovative VR mode as well as a new party-friendly X-Mode are cherries on top of an already delicious racing sundae. Mini Motor Racing X is as polished, well-tuned, replayable, and accessible as any racing game out there.
Score: 10/10
Check Out the Mini Motor Racing X Nintendo Switch Trailer:
For more information, please visit: http://www.thebinarymill.com/mini_motor_racing_x.php
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Nintendo Switch Review
Recent Michigan State University grad and current Game Studies researcher who plays fantasy RPG's to escape, Smash to compete, and Stardew to chill. Also have a +1 to rage/toxicity resistance due to the many hours sunk into WoW, R6, and LoL.
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