I’ve had some real joyful times with the kart racer genre in my gaming life. Obviously games such as Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing top the pile, but occasionally it’s nice to try and test some new karting goodness. There have been various stabs at eclipsing the big guns in the catalogue with titles such as Sonic Team Racing coming very close. Others include Garfield Kart Furious Racing, Nickelodeon Kart racers and more. Renzo Racer is now available on the Xbox family of consoles after a three-year period on Windows PC. Published and developed by EnsenaSoft and Joindots GmbH, we have a kart racer that is suitable for all ages with 20 circuits and 16 adorable characters to choose from. Does it provide the same level of enjoyment and exhilaration as other karting games? Read on and find out!

Introduction

Renzo Racer describes itself as a fast-paced cartoon-style racing game. With the already mentioned 20 tracks and 16 personalities available, there is quite a decent amount of content to sift through. This one can be played as a solo racer or if you fancy some local split-screen multiplayer then the option is there for 2-4 players. Sadly if you’re hoping for any online play here, then it isn’t a feature, unfortunately. The game has an almost identical layout to Mario Kart with single-track races or tournaments available for selection. Tournaments are split into groups of four tracks to compete on with Sunflower, Leaf, Apple, Acorn and Bolt cups making up the available competitions. The higher you place in each race, the more points you score with the premise to be number one at the very end.

Gameplay

As kart racers go I’m sad to say that Renzo Racer is probably the worst I’ve had to endure in the genre. Firstly, when a race starts the karts move off from the starting grid painfully slow. When I say slow, I mean at an excruciating pace to the point I was shaking my head and thinking this can’t be right. Once you actually get up to speed it just goes from bad to worse. Vehicle handling is simply horrific with corners being incredibly difficult to engage at top speed. Turning the karts felt heavy and rigid with no flexibility whatsoever with no drift mechanic present. Hit a wall or an object and you literally grind to a halt, only to accelerate off at that painstaking snail’s pace all over again. I found myself pressing start and restarting the race if I got to this stage as it was completely pointless to continue a race with no chance of ever catching up the ground you’ve lost. 

Power-Ups & Annoying Tyres

Power-ups are scattered throughout each race but are limited to rockets that can be fired in front of you, bombs that can be dropped behind and a speed boost. The boost was the only one that appeared to be of any use since the rockets serve no purpose unless you’re right up an opponent’s rear end. The presentation of bombs on the track that I had to avoid was laughable. They appeared the size of a golf ball and were easily missable. Obstacles are placed throughout every circuit in the game but with the exact same assets repeated over and over again. Tyres, small fenceposts and swinging bollards with the odd circular saw thrown in. Tyres absolutely ruin the game for me and render it unplayable. Topple these piles of rubber over and they weirdly break into portions and are strewn all across the road. If you allow your kart to even slightly touch any of these then you may as well start again, they will either send you flying into the air, smashing into the side of the track or spin you around. I’d like to say you can dodge them but it is almost impossible with the horrendous handling and yes you guessed it, you move off again at that unhurried pace.

So essentially what you have here is a kart racer with loathsome handling and controls, the acceleration of a mobility scooter at the start of the race, uninteresting power-ups and game-breaking shoddy obstacles that infuriated me. It seriously lacks the fun factor of what makes casual frantic kart racers enjoyable. What makes me sad about this is the fact that the visual presentation isn’t too bad, but if you don’t get the basics right then the rest of the game seeps through the cracks.

Graphics & Audio

Visually Renzo Racer does well in the range of environments throughout its 20 racing tracks. The development team have had a good stab at creating circuits that differ from each other in terms of their location. For instance, one minute you’ll be driving across a dirt-filled arena and the next you’re careering across a rainbow-infused playground that is very reminiscent of Rainbow Road on Mario Kart. You’ll notice I’ve mentioned the red-hatted Italian plumber on several occasions during the course of this review and that’s because this game quite clearly takes a lot of inspiration from the gods and goddesses of Nintendo. The character design is probably the strongest aspect of the entire game with some well-illustrated and constructed drivers such as Walter Wolf and Renzo Racoon. Everything is awash with warm and colourful aesthetics and quite clearly in an effort to aim at the younger crowd of gaming.

The soundtrack is actually quite solid with some extremely diverse and wacky tunes. It’s a shame that the gameplay is lacklustre as the music does try to bring that usual atmosphere of quick and frantic racing. Sound effects aren’t particularly great with no indicators of whether projectiles are heading towards you with most of the other audio elements being washed out with the tunes.

In Conclusion

Renzo Racer was not a great experience whatsoever. Whilst it has a large range of tracks and a nice variety of endearing animal drivers, the rest of the game is poorly designed. With dreadful vehicle handling, terrible mechanics and zero incentive to continue playing after an hour or two, I just can’t recommend this to anyone. Whilst I managed to get all the achievements done in an hour and a half, every race was met with frustratingly annoying elements that quite frankly made me want to turn the game off. At its current price point and unless some work is done to improve the bugbears in place, I’d steer well clear of this kart racer.