The eShop’s virtual shelves are getting ever more crowded with each passing week. Can the extremely inexpensive game REKT! possibly be anything other than another putrid attempt to break into the Switch Shovelware Hall of Shame? Get ready for a shocker: good things sometimes do come in cheap packages.
There is no plot here, and one is never needed. There is only one single-player Score Attack game mode that gives you a single Micro Machines-style vehicle and throws you into a TRON-like, neon-style arena, not unlike setting seen in Rocket League. It's more akin to a glorified skate park, actually, with 'skate' truly being the keyword; not only will you find a lot of similarities with a certain Pro Skater video game series, but one of the fifty-plus unlockable vehicles is a literal skateboard.
The arenas themselves provide all sorts of stunt-friendly bits like loops, stacked boxes to plough trough, impromptu half pipes, bowls, grindable rails and every conceivable shape of ramp. Once airborne, a quick flip on the right analogue stick lets you perform spins, flips or any combination of both. The only thing you need to keep in mind is that you'll need to land on four wheels – or at the very least, two – to land the sequence and avoid getting 'Rekt' and losing the accumulated score for that stunt attempt (it's worth noting that the game also acknowledges the time spent on two wheels as a stunt-worthy endeavour). This is all fairly standard stuff one would pull of on a skateboard, but not that common behind the wheel of a car.
You only have one arena at the beginning, but a few others can be purchased with in-game currency that will expand your stunt playground. They are all tightly-designed and have several upper areas to explore that will challenge the most dedicated players after exhausting the ramps, loops, and grinds on the ground floors.
This is what caught us by surprise; one would assume a game like this would be lacking in single-player content, but we found ourselves eagerly coming back for another go, attempting to chain the perfect set of stuns in order to blow up the online leaderboards. A single run will cost you only a couple of minutes and it is quite possible to mess up and end the session with zero points. The trick here is to use your drift skills to keep chaining stunts along with multipliers to get your points total into the millions. If you can grab an extra friend (or three), the local split-screen mode introduces a few more game styles to the default Score Attack and really adds value to the already solid single-player offering.
Each run also assigns you three missions to complete, rewarding the player with in-game currency that you can spend on the aforementioned extra arenas, or trying your luck in the 'spin and win' game of chance to get customization parts for your ever-growing collection of slick racers, nostalgia-inducing '80s car spoofs ('The B-Team' van, anyone?) or simply insane vehicles (If your dream is to do a triple loop in a snow-plougher, you'll get your chance in Rekt). Vehicles are not simply in the game for show; each has unique handling, speed, weight and appropriate physics, and trying out a new ride to see how it performs is a real joy.
Rekt's visual style opts for bright neon colours with untextured polygons, ensuring a smooth 60 frames per second performance across both portable and docked modes – at the slight expense of visual detail. It's not an ugly game by any means, but it does look a little empty at times.
Conclusion
"Get Rekt!" is not something one would expect to write or read in a professional video game review, but there is truly no other conclusion we could end with. For the tiny asking price you get a complete and charming single experience that will keep rewarding your efforts with extra content that, in turn, helps to expand the multiplayer portion of the game. Tight controls and enjoyable in-game physics seal the deal, and while a more traditional racing mode would have been nice, what's on offer more than justifies the low asking price.
Comments (27)
I bougth this game last week and I had a blast trying my best to control the car. The difficulty slope is really well thougth and you always get rewarded for trying something new. It's a simple game well executed and aesthetically pleasing. Given the current discount I can only recommend it to everyone!
I’ve had this on iOS for a while and will happily buy it again now I know it has multiplayer. Given the price there is no excuse not to buy it unless you don’t like fun! It
Whoah, an 8? Very interesting.
Wow, only $2 to boot till December 3....
What is the multiplayer mode and what does it consist of? Am I missing these details in the review?
Definitely gonna pick this one up.
@Pablo17 Because it's a mini-review, apologies for not fitting that in there somewhere. Besides the regular single player Score Attack you can play Baja (checkpoint race), Capture the Crown (try to hold the crown, bump to steal), Virus (one player is "it" and must infect the rest), Free Roam and Party (Combination of Capture The Crown, Virus and Baja). Sorry again!
@Shiryu Great, thanks for the information!
@Pablo17 My pleasure.
It's so cheap at the moment as well. Is there any online modes?
Wait... this sounds exactly like the San Francisco Rush type game I’ve been wishing for. I’ve only seen the screenshots above but it would be amazing if they added some like.... city driving and ramps like SFR.
Depending on the price I may get this. I am strongly itching for a Rush/Beetle Adventure Racing type game
Definitely grabbing this with my next batch of leftover credit.
@Swizze Local 2 to 4 players only, but online leader boards!
@Shiryu bummer, leaderboards is alright but online would of been nice as well. Still for the price it's hard not to pick this up.
Quite a few of the Qubic games are good despite the price making them seem like shovelware. Plus if you buy one game even at discount you get a discount on some of their other gamea.
Possibly the best $2 I've spent on the eShop. I might not have tons of hours tied to it, but this game is great when I got a few minutes to kill. The cars control great, unless you don't want them to (just try doing stunts in a street sweeper or a hoverboard..) and it's good fun in short sessions.
Another cool thing is the game has a cheats menu, and most of the cheats from the mobile version carry over. For example, the Back to the Future part II Hover Board car is unlocked by using the code 102115, which if you remember is the date that the beginning of the movie takes place (in American style, 10/21/2015) There's more, and I actually posted them all on the GameFaqs page for the Switch version (I copied the iOS codes and pasted them over, but that's my GameFaqs username under it lol)
@Shiryu that would have been cool if they added those modes for single player too.
@rockodoodle It would mean that they would need to pgroam AI for CPU opponents, something that was probably outside their budget and original production plans.
@AshFoxX Funny you mention the cheats. When I was recording my "First Play" video I entered the cheat menu and just for fun typed in "1337". That code showed me the complete cheat list! xD
Everyone on the fence about this game should jump down and pick it up, it's super fun for very little money... I'd go so far as to say its one of the best "pocket money" games I've played in ages!
I bought it because of the low price and good review.
I wholeheartedly endorse this review and this game.
@ChromaticDracula you won't find any "real" driving, tracks, or cities here - it's basically Rush 2's stunt level: the game.
It's very shallow and I wouldn't pay $10 for it, but at a super cheap price it is a literal no-brainer. It really fills a gap on the switch: turn on, mess around in a sandbox, move on, come back later.
thanks for the review...
I was on the fence about getting this one
@nagash always a pleasure.
I still prefer Rush and would kill for a remake of all three of the N64 Rush games, but it's the best I've seen like it in a while. Wish I had more control of acceleration though.
So how does this compare to rush 2049 stunt mode, one of my fav things ever...
@AG_Awesome Well it's vaguely like the stunt mode but it controls like a mobile phone game. You are always accelerating so you can tell how the game was designed around simple screen swipes.
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