Top Speed Review: It Will Never Compare
By Kei Beneza (dividelife), OnRPG Journalist
Ah a casual game— it doesn’t demand too much time but is great fun despite its repetitive nature. Much like Crazy Kart and Drift City, Top Speed takes players straight to the high-speed ring to see who’s the fastest among the racers. Crash Team Racing, Mario Kart, Sonic R, these games have made their mark in their respective genre; however, despite their awesome style of game play, you can’t deny that it could have been better if the game allowed you to race more human opponents. This is what brings us to the MMO side where you’ll be racing so many human opponents you’ll wish you had more NPS racers around. The game takes you through an array of diverse tracks where you must outlast each of your opponents, so put your pedal to the metal and RACE ON!
Cart-acter Customization
1) Character Name
2) Gender
3) Zodaic
4) Hairstyle
5) Face preset
6) Body preset
7) Location
Much like your average MMO, you’ll be prompted to create your character upon logging in. You can choose between a small array of pre-made features to design your character. There isn’t really much to make your character that unique in the long run and you may even have clones of your face when you start the game, but since this game focuses on the carts and not the characters, this flaw doesn’t count. Truth be told, the character creation interface doesn’t really help much, with trivial info that must be filled in just for you to start racing. I mean, come on! Zodiac?
If you think RPG characters are the only ones who can be customized, you’ll be surprised at what Top Speed has to offer. Instead of simply giving players different cars (or carts) to drive, the game lets players customize their carts to suit their desired play style (or driving style). You can choose to optimize your steering if ever you’re having problems with the curves and snake hairpins; if not, then feel free to just boost your overall speed to move one step closer to victory. Upgrades consist of engine parts, enhanced brakes, and other car parts that will make any player happy with its hefty customization interface.
Go speed go!
Top speed has a good set of tracks that run and feel different from one another. Believe me when I say that you’ll be reliving your Mario Kart days after driving along these tracks. From haunted castles to ancient civilizations, what’s not to like?
It’s all about the Carts: a talk on technicalities
Although Top Speed is a racing game, the technicalities required aren’t really that of a racing game. Note that everything in the game depends on the player’s carts with little matter on how well they drive (unless you just really suck at racing). Imagine Wacky Races (the cartoon with Dick Dastardly and Muttley). The game reserves the same concept in a way; with items that you must acquire in the middle of the race in order to give you the upper hand or just disturb your opponent’s rhythm. The game does play remarkably well and demands a bit of skill, but comparing it to the likes of Need for Speed and Initial D won’t do you much good. It’s really a casual game (like Mario Kart and Nickelodeon racing), making it equally fun for all ages.
An MMO nonetheless
As I have stated earlier on this review, you’ll be upgrading your Carts to further compliment your driving skills. This is done by purchasing/acquiring upgrades through shops and quest rewards (yes there are quests). There are also a number of gems that will juice up your so keep upgrading to gain the upper hand over your opponents. Although the rewards for upgrading your cart are remarkably awesome, note that this is still an MMO and failure will always be there to haunt you in your journey to become the best. This means that you also have a chance to fail every time you upgrade, consuming the item used and even removing your last upgrades. A big pain in the butt, but it is pretty normal in the land of MMOs.
Quests
Yes you heard right! Unlike most MMOs, Quests make up most of the money earned in this game. There are 3 types of Quests all in all: Buff, Map, and Dailies. Quests can earn you a lot of cash as well as experience (depending on which quest you finish) so don’t forget to grab your dailies before challenging players. Since your success rate depends entirely on how well you play and whom you are racing with, the linearity of the game is reduced to a minimum, granting you a diverse experience every time you start a race.
Graphics and Interface
Top Speed uses the same cartoony anime-ish cell shaded system as its racing predecessors. The tracks are brightly colored and are light on the eyes, making it quite fun to just look around while in the middle of a dogfight. As for the interface, it really looks quite impressive as it has implemented the driving feel quite well, with a brilliant lay out that screams DRIVING wherever you go. The icons don’t look half bad with race themed buttons that complement the game’s interface.
READY? SET? JUDGE!
Top speed is actually a pretty good game in my opinion, but overall it’s mostly the same as its predecessors. Face it, the game uses the same system as most of the other battle cart racing games out there, with an easy to grasp control scheme and a whole lot of mayhem that keeps players from finishing the race unharmed (LOL). It’s not a bad game, but I’m just saying that it doesn’t have that much to offer compared to other MMO racing games. Regardless of how well you drive, there will always be that missile trailing you from behind. This is what the game is all about; small drifts and everything is handed over to the gods of chaos (LOL). For a casual game, it really is that damn good.
The good:
– Customization interface
– Lots of tracks to keep you busy
– Quests
– Is just simply fun.
The bad:
– Nothing new here
– Gets old easily
– Item mall offers enough advantage for players to hog the race.
