Beach Buggy Racing 2: Island Adventure review

Beach Buggy Racing 2 is a kart racing game akin to Nintendo’s Mario Kart juggernaut series. You can choose from a selection of character who in turn has a selection of selectable rides for a race. Each race will feature a set of laps and as you go around the track, you’ll be able to pick up power-ups and various items to either give you temporary protection or smash the opposition.

Content-wise, Beach Buggy Racing 2: Island Adventure will keep you and your family and friends busy for quite some time. There’s an exhaustive and diverse “story” mode that you can attempt where your goal is to conquer it all. Not only do you have the typical races where you need to finish first, but you have also have boss battle like races where after conquering an area, you’ll go head-to-head with a tougher driver. And if you beat them, you’ll be able to unlock them. On the map, you’ll also come across a literal grease monkey that will let you select one out of three upgrades for your ride; upgrades apply to all vehicles so if you use a different character, the upgrades will still be applied.

Once you’ve managed to race through the lengthy Adventure mode, additional game modes await you such as Quick Race, Tournaments where you’ll find for top leaderboard position, and a cute little collection mode where you can view unlock content. The game also includes a handful of power-ups that will help you overtake the first position; oil spills that will make things slippery for other racers, a ball and chain that snaps onto the kart in front of you to slow them down, a shield that will give players temporary protection; just to name a few. You can carry two power-ups at a time and use them how you see fit considering there’s a controller face button assign to each.

Now the big question is, how does it handle? Well it handles surprisingly well, however, much like the first game, it still feels a bit floaty. Landing from jumps can make you bounce around a little bit before you’re able to keep control without skidding off track. Also if you’re on the receiving hand of a springboard, nasty, but not too bad of a power-up, bouncing up feels like a loose balloon going up for the clouds. It’s not a deterrent, far from it, I mean the floaty driving is worst in Grand Theft Auto IV, but it takes a bit of adjusting to.

Beach Buggy Racing 2: Island Adventure looks great overall with its cartoony, yet very colorful, visual. Characters are all unique and quirky-ly designed, race tracks are bright and colorful. It does what’s it’s supposed to do. Just don’t expect to think that this is the type of game that will push your Xbox One/Xbox Series console to its limit. The soundtrack is a generic, stock rock-y score. It’s actually pretty fun to hear as you play the game, but also sounds all too familiar at the same time.

Beach Buggy Racing 2: Island Adventure is definitely one of those indie gems that’s fun for everyone. It’s easy to pick up and play, there’s a lot of content under the hood, unique power-ups to take down the opposition, and is a reasonable improvement over its predecessor, especially content-wise. While it does take a bit of getting used to the semi-floaty mechanics and that it can feel too easy at times, there’s no reason to skip this little gem; especially that as of this writing, it’s the closest thing to Mario Kart that Xbox players get.