All-Star Fruit Racing

All-Star Fruit Racing on Switch remains a good starting-point. Its kart racing is fun and easy to learn, thus confirming its "family-friendly" nature. By the way it retains flaws like a not memorable roster and some technical issues (such as shadows and loading times), and that's a pity that obscures a little its rediscovered nature of portable game.

All-Star Fruit Racing is a decent enough kart racer that offers a few interesting ideas of its own but unfortunately suffers in a few areas whether it’s the awkward control scheme, confusing weapon system or even a general lack of online features. There’s fun to be had from this fruit-inspired title, sure, but perhaps a little ripening could have helped sweeten this uneven racer.

Despite its issues, All-Star racing is an original take on the kid-friendly kart racer which offers a wonderful selection of fruit themed content to keep both children and adults entertained. It might not get everything right, but it’s a beautifully juicy start.

Unfortunately, the unintuitive U.I. and overall poor polish of the game detract from an otherwise delightful experience. Races felt too unfair one moment, and ridiculously too easy the next.

It doesn't fully capitalize on these factors, however, as the game's theme gets repetitive too quickly, the feeling of speed is absent and loading times are way too long, which coupled with a rather mediocre soundtrack, means that this All-Star Fruit Racing does not reach the same threshold as the biggest name in kart racing games.

In evaluating All-Stars Fruit Racing we have to underline a certain disappointment not so much for what the product is, but for what it could have been.

All-Star Fruit Racing takes a unique karting weapon system, throws it into a blender with some cute presentation ideas and an unfortunate series of technical annoyances, and ends up with a pretty mixed bag as a result. This is a competent racer, and there’s just about enough content to make you want to keep playing, but it never realises the potential that it could have had and doesn’t really stand up to the heights that other titles can offer. It’s just a little on the weak side to justify its asking price, so bear that in mind before jumping into a fruity purchase.

My first dive into the game left a really sour taste in my mouth. There was a broken AI system that simply did not allow me to get gold in any of the races in order to unlock the rest of the characters. Most of them are generic in design, minus a few interesting ones with special attacks. I was really hard on the game for having a broken system. Even with the patch, I still can’t shake what I initially had played. I was simply hoping for a more enjoyable experience. It feels more like something that you would find on Early Access or a concept, not a full-fledged release.

Beyond the comparative grievance with Mario Kart, All-Star Fruit Racing feels like a low budget karting game with nothing in particular beyond its juice mixer system for some unsurprising and ineffective power-ups.