This is an Early Access Review and as such opinions and scores are based solely on the state of the game at the time of review and subject to change as development progresses leading up to final release.
Renzo Racer has been around for over two years now but it wasn’t until the recent VR update that the game caught our attention. After several hours spread across several weeks of play I can honestly say I have never been this disappointed in a game with such missed potential. I put several hours into the game on both Vive and Rift and in a moment of final desperation I even tried to play on a standard screen – the way everyone else has been playing since 2017. Perhaps my bar of excellence has been set too high by Mario Kart or even the recently released Crash Team Racing Nitro remake, but Renzo Racer is just a bad racing game in every way that matters.
First, let’s talk about what’s good or even great. From a visual and design atheistic the game is fantastic with unique kart and boat designs, adorable characters, and fantastic tracks set in fanciful environments. And with 16 unlockable drivers, each with special skills, and 20 challenging tracks, there is plenty of content whether you are playing solo races or cup challenges. Most of this content is locked and earned by placing in the top three spots.
Renzo Racer plays like every other kart racer; you drive around the track smashing power-up boxes that hold various weapons or gadgets you can use to slow down your opponents or possibly speed your kart into first place. The key problem with the game is the physics and handling of the car and this is after the most recent update that was supposed to improve those issues. The karts all feel like electric golf karts with dead batteries. There is no acceleration and no sense of speed even when you manage to go more than 20 feet without getting upended by a rocket or bomb. There is no weight to the karts so when you are hit something your cart flies around like a feather. In some instances, there are acceleration hoops on the track, and some are at the top of ramps. These will send you flying across the entire track like a rocket, smashing you into a wall and dropping you sideways or upside-down on the track. Recovery from any mishap is painfully slow and usually puts you at the rear of the pack. The steering radius on the karts is so wide it’s often impossible to even steer through a wide turn without running into the outer wall and I never found a way to power-slide; not that I ever got up enough speed to do so. The tracks seem to be designed with this limitation in mind, as there are no real sharp or hairpin turns in the game.
At the time of this review there is no multiplayer; not even for local couch gameplay, which is a huge omission for this type of game. Kart racers are the favorite for game night parties, but here you are left alone to face off against a field of questionable (yet totally adorable) AI opponents. Winning races isn’t hard as long as you can avoid the rest of the pack and find the shortcuts on each track that the AI never seems to use, even when revealed.
Admittedly, the game is in Early Access but after two years this is still pretty rough, and without some sort of major overhaul to the core driving mechanics and physics engine, ultimately unplayable. The Steam page promises future enhancements for visuals, new content, and local two-player mode (why not four?) and even online multiplayer, but all of this is just icing on a fatally flawed game.
So how about the VR…the only reason this game crossed my desk? It works. That’s about all I can say. It puts you in the cockpit of your chosen kart and it feels very immersive and the 3D is convincing and it is certainly a cool spin on the traditional kart racing experience, but there is so much sacrifice in visual fidelity that you probably won’t want to play for long. There weren’t a lot of setup options and you can’t super-sample the graphics so everything was terribly fuzzy. You adapt to the lower quality after a few races but everything I didn’t like about the racing physics in 2D was only magnified in VR. The karts seem even floatier, and when you get hit by a rocket or drive over a bomb your kart flips up along with your POV which is very disorienting. While this is an excellent proof of concept for a VR kart racer it needs a lot more polish on the visuals and of course, the core driving mechanics.
I really hate to trash Renzo Racer because there is so much EnsenaSoft got right with all the adorable characters, fun karts, and amazing track and level designs. Even the menus were clean and polished. The sound effects were as putzy as the karts, but the music was fun and cheery. The VR was a nice experiment and free update but not really suited for serious long-term play. But when your entire game is built upon a flawed engine design with abysmal controls I have to wonder if the developers can manage to save their game before final release. I hope so because there is a lot of charming content just waiting for a better game, and I’ll reserve final judgement if and when that happens.
Game is currently 90% off until July 9th for only $.49 If you are remotely interested in checking this out NOW is the time.