Disney Speedstorm Is A Great Kart Racer Mired In Confusing Progression Hooks
Gameloft is a mobile-first studio with loads of experience making snappy, responsive racing games through its Asphalt series. Disney Speedstorm represents its second venture into PC and console gaming using the popular Disney license, after the friendly life sim Disney Dreamlight Valley. And while Gameloft's expertise in crafting well-made racing games is on full display--complete with plenty of fun callbacks for Disney fans--it also feels like it has imported some of the confusing microtransaction baggage familiar from the mobile market.
As a racer, Disney Speedstorm carries itself with an earned level of confidence, nailing the feeling of a veteran kart racer right from the start. The cars here are sized similarly to actual small automobiles--at least, as far as I can tell from the proportions of human characters--which is more reminiscent of the Sonic Racing series than the tiny, zippy go-karts from Mario Kart. The vehicles grip the road well and take sharp corners with well-calibrated drifting mechanics. If you've played a kart racer or even just any arcade racing game in the last few years, you'll feel immediately at home stepping behind this wheel.
Where it starts to differentiate itself is with its variety of characters, each with their own classes and special abilities. These include the differences that you'd expect to stats like handling or top speed, but the classes also make a much bigger impact by changing mechanics like how you gather boost. Your boost meter is a major part of the racing strategy in Speedstorm, and each class is built to gain its boost function differently. Brawlers, for example, get boost when they successfully stun an opponent, which means they excel when they're in the middle of the
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