A really great arena style, up to [i]eight[/i] player couch (or with friends and Steam's Remote Play Together, online) multiplayer game!
A nice blend of retro and modern. A bit over the top in some ways, but in the right ways. Not overly complex, but not too simple. I feel the makers did a lot of thoughtful play-testing and they know what makes a great game to kick back and play with friends. Laughter, smack talk, and profanity will ensue--as it should be.
Highly recommended at full price and an absolute no-brainer on sale. A must-own for those that have 5-8 controllers and host game nights with friends, but certainly still fun for 4.
For those couch gamer connoisseurs that want more details, specifics, nuances, etc: here are some good things to know: (It's all pretty much good news)
• This game allows you to customize your bindings for what button does what on your controller.
• These bindings are saved for when you open the game again later.
• When you make one modified controller configuration, it's EASY for multiple others to chose the same one. (they don't have to manually set it up one button at a time for each controller) You save controller bindings as a profile name, and each player at the start of the game chooses any custom made profiles (or the default) in the same screen as they choose their car (which is all doable at the same time for all 8 players) Very easy. More games should have this so easy!
• You can mute the music. For when I host game nights, I always have my own music playing and as such this feature is very much appreciated (but sadly lacking in some other games)
• There are 13 power-ups that you can enable/disable each individually. You can disable them all if you wish.
• You can play free-for-all or you can play teams.
• You can have asymmetric teams. Want 7 vs 1? Can be done. 4 vs 2 vs 1 vs 1? Yes. Just enable teams mode (read on screen prompts carefully) and you chose your team by your car color. Note that the only way I could "choose" a different color/team for a [i]bot's[/i] car was to:
1) remove that bot
2) add that bot back
3) If you didn't want the color the new bot was, go to step 1. If you did like that bot color, go to step 4.
4) If you want more bots or players add them now. If you want the bot to keep the color of car it is, but have a different [i]vehicle model[/i] too bad. (unless I missed something)
(nonetheless, this is good enough, I'm just glad to have the option of asymmetric teams and to have bots be an optional part of them.
• Note that it's perfectly possible and easy to pick any color combined with any vehicle model for [i]human[/i] players. The issue above is only specific to bots.
• You can use bots to "fill-in" for balance. 2 humans, 6 bots? Can do. 1 human 3 bots on one team vs 1 human 3 bots on another team? Can do. 1 human on team Red vs 7 bots on team Blue? Can do. 1 human vs 7 bots all free-for all? Can do. 1 human vs 1 human no bots? Can do.
• If you can flip someones car over, they are forced out of it, and can't get back inside the car until they flip it back over (which they can do easily, superhero style). They are far more vulnerable outside the car, but they still have [i]some[/i] chance. Don't get too overconfident.
• You can steal anyone's car so long as they're not inside it. Empty cars become gray/neutral and take on whatever color of the player who enters the car.
• If your car gets destroyed while you're on foot still inside the arena, you are not eliminated. Also, you can spawn a new, neutral car by punching a power-up. So long as you can get inside it fast enough, you'll be driving a new car.
• You can disable the barrel launchers that players who've been eliminated attack from the sidelines with.
• There is post-game stats section for bragging rights and whatnot.
• There wasn't a way to buff/nerf individual players as far as I could tell. But asymmetric teams can help a bit regarding players of different skill levels playing together. 2 veteran gamers vs 4 or 5 newbs can be a great time!
• There's also a "screenspace steering" option (which each player can turn on or off [i]independently[/i] (regardless) of the gamepad binding profile they choose) This is basically an alternate steering method that makes it so your analog stick no longer becomes the default "left turns car to its left, right turns car to its right) but instead becomes an "aim" target for your car. So for those that get confused about whether to turn their car right or left based on which way the car is pointing on the screen (like downwards/towards camera) this is an [i]alternate option[/i]. So if you aim the stick up and right, the car will turn (to the car's left or the car's right) until the car is pointing towards the [i]screen's[/i] top right PROVIDED that the player also uses forwards/accelerator or backwards/brake (whichever is the one that is the direction of travel closest to the current aim-point analog stick direction. It's not as simple as moving the analog stick top right and car moves top right with no other buttons pressed. So, if someone drives their car car's forward "west" or "screen's left" until they hit the left edge of the arena, and they want to travel "east" or "screen's right", they will need to release the accelerator/gas button, aim their gamepad stick right, and push the brake/reverse button. Holding down the [i]accelerator/forward[/i] button and aiming analog stick right will not move the car away from the wall (if it were a spaceship game, it would probably suffice, but it's not: car's can't rotate in-place). ANYWAY, most will simply use the default steering, however.
• Note that if you're trying to host a game using steam remote play together for more than 4 total players, you'll need a good internet upload speed. If you notice things get really bad once you add that 4th, 5th, 6th player or whatever, it's likely your upload speed, at least it was for me. Also, playing the game in a low resolution [i]miiight[/i] help get one more player in and/or lessen input lag for some players with slower internet.
