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jp's Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (VITA)

[July 12, 2016 05:10:04 PM]

I've always both enjoyed and been frustrated by kart racing games. The fun comes from the lack of hardcore simulation aspects as well as a bit of whimsy. The frustration comes from the murkiness as to what it means to be skilled at playing these. It very often happens that you're leading the race and then get hit by an attack and end up last. This sort of thing happens a lot, and to me at least, that's part of the genre: it's made to be played casually with friends without caring too much about who wins when.

So, playing this solo is a bit of a challenge because, while I do want to have fun and unlock a bunch of things and marvel at the wacky course design - I also have to try to learn the game while also being open to losing a lot because stuff will happen.

My experience so far has been a bit challenging. The game seems harder than I expected. I tried playing the early races at the hardest level (assuming the difficulty would ramp and I'd then scale down) with no luck. At all. After messing around a little bit I've realized that the mid-level difficulty seems attainable and I've also gotten a little bit of practice with the mechanics, which matters more than I expected.

Also, curiously, the game has a progression system for each of the racers. You gain experience points and level up in order to unlock mods for your car. My sense (from having unlocked only one mod) is that mods aren't advantages, but rather literal modifications. So, lose a point from acceleration and gain a point in handling, rather than just getting a better racer. It sort of feels like it defeats the point of the system since, in essence, it's a system for making your racer like the others...it de-differentiates.

Oh well. Fun for now, we'll see when I hit a wall and move on...