Desert Child

 Xbox One
Desert Child Image
Metascore
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User Score
6.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 5 Ratings

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  • Summary: Assume the role of a young hoverbike racer who needs to figure out how to scrape enough cash together through racing and odd jobs to punch your one-way ticket to the Red Planet to enter the biggest race in the universe, the Grand Prix.

Trailer

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Desert Child - Official Trailer | E3 2018

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. XBLA Fans
    Jan 7, 2019
    60
    There are clever dialogue moments and lots of humor thrown in showing that it was a fun project that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The music is an absolute pleasure and I was impressed with how many tracks are present, changing as you play. The overall mood for Desert Child is casual. You can play it without stressing about losing. You really cannot lose. Just based on your actions the game might take longer to complete. It’s a somewhat brief experience but is entertaining. Nothing in it will blow your mind but you won’t regret your time while on Mars, chilling and making your dream of success a reality.
  2. GameSpot
    Dec 11, 2018
    50
    By the end of it you'll realize that there's not much more to Desert Child than what you got in those opening minutes.
  3. Xbox Tavern
    Dec 12, 2018
    48
    Desert Child suffers greatly from its poor interconnected structure, which is a shame, because the game oozes potential throughout. I’ll credit the game for its gorgeous retro aesthetic and its brief moments of excitement, but ultimately, much of the game’s fun is bogged down by its constrained flow. Furthermore, the game constantly builds to a fabled event, one that turns out to be puddle deep and underwhelming.

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Xbox_Alive
    Dec 12, 2018
    5
    There’s a retro vibe dotted throughout the game and I enjoyed what both the visuals and sound design delivered to me because they did haveThere’s a retro vibe dotted throughout the game and I enjoyed what both the visuals and sound design delivered to me because they did have some charm. If played for short periods then the gameplay does deliver quite a bit of fun to you especially when it comes to the racing elements in the game. The story in the game doesn’t have a ton of depth I actually enjoyed what was here and it did in a way give you a reason to carry on with the game. The overall gameplay doesn’t have much depth to it at all and you’ve basically seen everything within the first few minutes. It gets repetitive very quickly and if played for long periods you may become bored. At the start I didn’t know what to do in regards to some mini games and this did frustrate me quite a bit because more of an explanation was needed.
    I was a little disappointed with the tournament because it wasn’t interesting and it takes a while to get to. Sometimes a game’s presentation makes me interested in that said game immediately and that is without a doubt what attracted me to Desert Child. In fact the presentation was probably my most favourite thing about this game because even though the gameplay can be fun in short bursts there just isn’t enough depth to it, and that’s basically the game’s biggest problem. I’m not exaggerating when I say that you can basically experience everything this game has to offer in the first few minutes and even though there is a story I enjoyed present in this short experience it just didn’t do enough to keep me invested through my short playthrough. Instead it threw up a few frustrating moments more than anything and these frustrating moments came from not knowing what to do. At the start there isn’t much of an explanation when competing in certain minigames and this does make the fun factor dwindle quite a bit. When you do finally work out what to do you’re left disappointed again because the tournament you’re working to get too doesn’t offer much in the way of excitement, which is a shame. At the end of the day then Desert Child unfortunately doesn’t do enough to get a recommendation from me. This is a shame because the core ideas are actually pretty good but this isn’t enough because there just isn’t enough in the content to satisfy you.    … Expand

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