Disney Speedstorm Review – 2024 Edition

thesixthaxis.com:

Can Disney Speedstorm be considered a rival to Nintendo’s near-unstoppable Mario Kart 8? While the kart-racing subgenre has seen a good few new entries since the moustachioed motorist and his entourage sped their way to glory on the Wii U almost a decade ago, few have come close to a podium finish, let alone besting what many consider the finest kart racing game of all time.

With Disney Speedstorm having just celebrated its first anniversary, I decided to give it another go. Not since Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled have I put as much time into one of these games, especially one that is so unabashedly free-to-play. Speedstorm’s hook is impossible to miss: a supercharged kart racer from Asphalt developers, Gameloft, overflowing with Disney icons, old and new.

I’m no Disney die-hard yet I definitely saw the novelty value of having Donald Duck trading paint with the likes of Mulan and Mowgli while tearing around a besieged pirate ship circuit, dodging the tentacles of a giant Kraken. With that said, I didn’t stick around for long when Disney Speedstorm first launched last year. I didn’t have time for a free-to-play grind and knew that, if I returned several months later, there would be far more content for me to enjoy.

Getting back behind the wheel now was a smart choice, allowing me to enjoy a far greater number of tracks and racers, while also benefiting from recent updates that have streamlined the bloated character progression system. Speaking of characters, this is where Speedstorm shines the most, grouping Disney heroes and villains into one of several classes. It’s an approach we’ve seen in other kart racers – most notably Team Sonic Racing – but here it actually works. The type of racer you choose will determine which power-ups are available, their effectiveness scaling as you level up. For example, Brawler-type racers rely on combat skills to sow chaos whereas Defenders look to maintain their position by dodging and blocking any hazards that come their way. On