Had my doubts at first (as somebody who doesn't regularly enjoy racing games, and Mario Kart was always just a casual party game to me), but the game really grabbed me by the balls. The only reason I even entertained buying this game was because of the 50% off sale, and I'm glad I did.
I started with the singleplayer content, which is like sure, whatever. You got 4-round Grand Prix races, individual races with optional gimmicks, and time trials. Harder difficulty rivals do NOT play around. There's quite a few challenges you can do, which is nice
Everybody raves about the rival system and how the characters talk to each other with unique dialogue. In reality, it's 2 lines they'll only say to each other at the beginning of a singleplayer grand prix. Have fun initiating... 506 grand prix races to try all the permutations. (or just watch a video)
Multiplayer is where it's at. High cortisol gaming at its finest. You'll grind through ranks E- to A+, and then the Legend rank rat race begins. At this point you'll be matched mostly with other Legend ranks. It's fun fighting against other good players, seeing their loadouts, cool skins. Occasionally getting 1st place.
But the unfun parts sting. Getting absolutely chain-smoked by a barrage of powerups/items thrown at you. You can lead the race from the beginning, then get thrown all the way back to 12th position and never recover because it's the last lap. Or barely scrape by, approach the finish line in top 6, and get literally flattened by monster trucks speeding onto you from behind, watching as everybody zooms past you at the very end.
It's all part of the game though. Of course, it's your duty to manage the items you get and use them wisely, defend yourself, but getting the useful ones is still a dice roll. Although, only like half of my races are lost like this. The other half is due to my mediocre skills at the game.
The gadget system is interesting. You get 6 slots to fill with various upgrades/tweaks to your vehicle, ranging from a minor increase in stats to completely changing the feel of your vehicle. It's fun to try them out, find ones that suit your playstyle, and there's a whole science to making good loadouts (or "builds") that work well. (or just take the #1 meta loadout everybody's using)
There's tons of hidden/unexplained mechanics, shortcuts, strategies and depth in general to this game, with lots of YouTube videos that delve into them. It's a little annoying that they go unexplained in-game, and it also takes time to fully internalize all of them.
There's some FOMO involved, like a preorder-only character (Werehog), and in-game "Festivals" that give u unique limited items for competing in them (titles, decals, gadgets too I think?). It's whatever. Yes. It's okay I didn't get the limited-time Red angry bird sticker. And I may never ever get it. I'll be fine. 🥹
There's DLC too, 30 bucks for some mostly mute characters (missing voicelines) and new maps. Even without it, the maps are playable in multiplayer, although the characters and their vehicles aren't. I don't find anything too interesting from the DLCs.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the game. Really addicting, fast-paced and exhilarating time sink. It's very satisfying to slowly get better at the mechanics and controls. I haven't used my controller this hard in ages.
Runs on Linux very well. Crashed only once. Had some weird audio but it got fixed recently.
