Xenon Racer

 Xbox One
User Score
6.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 22 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 22
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 22
  3. Negative: 7 out of 22
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  1. Xbox_Alive
    Mar 28, 2019
    8
    In Xenon Racer the presentation of the visuals and sound by MonsterCat made the a la ridge racer style racing and drifting that much more enjoyable. I was pretty excited to get started on Xenon racer as Sodesco has a long history of making good games, backed with a powerful sound normally present in this genre. The difficulty of this game is a bit extreme, but thankfully the lowerIn Xenon Racer the presentation of the visuals and sound by MonsterCat made the a la ridge racer style racing and drifting that much more enjoyable. I was pretty excited to get started on Xenon racer as Sodesco has a long history of making good games, backed with a powerful sound normally present in this genre. The difficulty of this game is a bit extreme, but thankfully the lower difficulty settings made me feel relaxed and enjoyed the variety of ways to drift and control your vehicle. The presentation is stunning to say the least while I would have liked to have seen more vehicle customization options, I thoroughly enjoyed what the visual and sound design brought to the table. The racing controls have the right feeling, tight and responsive with a fluid frame rate, and pack a lunch for your racing hunger. Xenon Racer is fun and enjoyable with plenty of upgrades for you to unlock. The game AI is unforgiving just as well as the ridge racer series, so be prepared to practice and I fully recommend playing on and easier difficulty to get use to the controls and get use to the tracks. While the AI is difficult It never felt Mario Kart in the way you could be half a course in the lead and one wrong move you were passed by 3 competitors. What is here is an over the top visual audio arcade style racing feast. Nice work Sodesco and MonsterCat. Looking forward to what's next.… Expand
  2. KurtKnispel
    Mar 18, 2020
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. [Several inconsistencies, but acceptable for a 1st edition. Once passed the 2 first races, the game becomes cool.]

    I first acquired this game on Nintendo Switch, where the handling renders the “Easy” mode rather difficult.
    The, making the statement of the better frame-rate on XBox One, I bought it on this platform; je game is far better maneuverable there, in part due to this state of affairs.

    Once acquired the best car of the game, which is the WPL01-Performance, the championship goes easily on; good drifts, rather “generous” (warning about the speed loss, as in the real physics), but manageable.

    For the purpose, this is very astonishing that the WPL02-Performance, which follows as a car, be less performant. It is customisable with maximum acceleration and speed, but become in such un-manageable, and this, whatever the circuit, even on the Shangai Oval auto-drome.

    -And the car having 100% drifting, sadly is there no drifts contest, even in free mode.

    In the continuity, the performances were not measured, but most often announced instinctively; are frequent these times when cars with 50% handling are less manageable thant cars with “0 handling”.

    We wonder a few, too, about the differences between intensive boost, and durable one, or one the speed differences, all slight.

    The parts upgrades sometimes make losses in performances.

    -I find the graphisms good; the cars design are exact, without aliasing, and the very coloured aspect renders the drive more accurate, and is fun.

    Once we reached the “cruise speed” in the gameplay progression, the game becomes rather addictive.

    -About rather bad points, the presence of the garage and of the waiting room, making doubloon, although menus details in submenus could avoid the disturbing futility ofr the newbie.

    -Points very negative:
    -Absence of any global map before the race, thus impossible to study the way before, with precision;
    -Absence of registered chrono in the championship races; if we beat a record, we have to pass through the XBox video recording (fastidious, on the several attempts), and the visual estimation of the chrono until the 10th of second, instead of the 100th, available in on-line comparisons.

    It seem that the online mode loads the race on the host platform, what, in case of synchronous confrontation, the invited suffers enormous lags, preventing from a convenient race. And it took me a while to understand that we could achieve the 10th rank on-line (rather rapidly) even in playing alone. Despite “No session found”, it was sufficient to choose “join rapidly”.

    -The on-line comparisons with our comrades send our chrono with a delay… when they are sent (and received).
    The asynchronous presence of the ghost of a better competitor could be a very cool mean to learnt better.

    Besides, I like allot the touch of humour with the last won car in the championship, (as a pushchair, lol), and, in the end of the credits, the mention that no fruit was mistreaten.

    Ah, at the final to the championship, they pushed all their means, and we see it; we have all an animation, firstly seen from a drone, which we think never can be beatable, and this is accompanied by a description of a sublime woman voice; only sad that we do not see the situation of the drone on the map of the race, which is depending on an obscure trajectory, which doesn’t match the race for our car.

    The introductions, warnings, and encouragements of the normal commenter constitute a nice motivation.

    -Depending on my subjective point of view, the less good points, rather numerous, are due to the fact that the game is new. But I appreciate its originality, and its physics, on XBox, once passed the beginning, which let succeed all the championship in Difficult mode.

    The option of weapons could be cool.

    As it is about a 1st edition, and as an encouragement, I choose the maximal notation for the XBox version; I could notice a little less the Switch version, but the low performances there is rather due to this second platform, as it is seemingly the case for other games (as Grip).    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
61

Mixed or average reviews - based on 6 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 6
  3. Negative: 1 out of 6
  1. XboxAddict
    May 15, 2019
    45
    Sure, if futuristic racing is your absolute happiness and joy, then obviously you’ll probably enjoy the aesthetics alone, but for everyone else, there’s more frustration than fun. Xenon Racer is trying to be Ridge Racer though looks like it’s two generations too late and is topped off with terrible drifting controls and unbalanced difficulty from the get go.
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  2. ZTGD
    Apr 17, 2019
    60
    I felt like Xenon was love at first sight. My first 4-5 races were absolutely a blast. Then the warts start showing up and really ruined the experience. I love arcade racers, and when one doesn’t deliver I am not happy. Especially in today’s world where the genre is so dormant seeing a game with so much out-of-the-gate potential stumble before it gets started is such a bummer. Perhaps they will stick with it and patch out some of these issues, but the window for success could be long gone by then. I really wish Namco Bandai would bring back Reiko Nagase and the glorious Ridge Racer series. The time is finally right.
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  3. Generación Xbox
    Apr 10, 2019
    68
    The content of this game is somewhat scarce, but its arcade gameplay, the variety in the customization of automobiles and the multiplayer, make it a good game.
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