Avatar Racedrome review

Today's XBLA indie game is "Avatar Racedrome" a self explanatory title as it's about avatars racing in a drome. There's no story to worry about here as this game is entirely focused on gameplay both single and multiplayer. This game is also competitively priced for what it is at only 80 MS points (1 dollar in people money). Beyond what's been said though there isn't really too much that separates this title out from other games with the exception of it's genre, "simulation kart racing".

Yeah you read that right, this is a sim kart racer, there are no power-ups, no boosting, and no track hazards just racing. While this sort of thing won't appeal to everyone it's unique at least and the sim racing crowd will probably get some enjoyment out of it. One of the of the other good things about this game is the graphics. The visuals are easily some of the nicest looking I have seen in an indie game and while they are bland and little sparse in design they still look really nice. Multiplayer is also nice and smooth as finding a game was easy and the gameplay felt lag free.

There are definitely problems with this game though with the chief issue being blandness. There is only kart design and while you can colour it anyway you want and put the country flag of your choice on it only one model is still not enough. This sparseness follows through to the environment as there is really only one, the stadium/racedrome, and all 16 tracks take place within it and all them feel kind of boring. The music in this game is grating as there is only one rather annoying techno track which can be audibly heard looping when it finishes.

All in all this game is just kind of an odd duck and it's hard to tell who it's for. People who want karting games normally don't mind going for something a little more over top with weapons and hazards whereas people who are into simulation go for actual car racing games. While I applaud the great graphics and will admit I did definitely have some fun with this game I can't  recommend to the every  gamer. The final verdict is two out of five stars as it's simply hard to tell who this for but if you like sim racing stuff and don't like cars (if that's possible to be in both those camps) I guess you'll probably like this.