The problem with this, and a problem with the game in general, is that performance suffers. All of the level 3’s are impressive – landslides phoenixes and high-frequency barriers all feature and make tracks feel like a warzone. The latter is particularly impressive as the sky turns cloudy after which you’ll witness every racer in front of you struck by a bolt of lightning. Weapon pickups from the track can be held and combined to make stronger versions – for example, a straight shot of lightning might upgrade to a homing bolt and then a lightning storm. Speaking of things happening on screen, Road Trip‘s special attacks are a sight to behold. Given how much can be happening on screen at any one time though, it’s somewhat understandable. They often feature lots of detail from lush jungles to frozen tundras, although upon close inspection some of the textures up close are a little disappointing. Environments and tracks tend to be pretty impressive – draw distance is decent and a cartoon-y pop-up happens when new objects come in. Karts allow a similar level of customisation and can end up looking pretty good with a decent amount of effort.

What’s most impressive about them is their level of animation – whether it be reacting to you putting stickers on them in the creator to peering behind them in a race when a competitor is nearby, they’re lively and cartoon-ish which helps bring them to life. Yet it’s pretty difficult to navigate around relying only on touch inputs which aren’t always the most responsive (in fact, nearly all of the game’s menus are touch based which I find a baffling decision).Ĭharacter models are decent – much like LittleBigPlanet‘s Sackboy, they’re customisable dolls which provide a blank slate to make wacky creations. It’s actually very slick and visually impressive, mostly anchored in the corners of the screen so it’s not intrusive and featuring little easily-identifiable logos. Road Trip on Vita is an incredibly mixed bag – there are moments when the colours pop, the animation is impressive and it all takes place on a gorgeous backdrop to come together to make a fantastic scene, but technical issues and a lack of polish are more common to make the experience underwhelming. World-building is also fairly absent – you’ll race across a series of disjointed tracks, but the game’s hub studio (in replacement of the PS3 title’s driveable hub) is a decent replacement to provide a home base while you navigate through all the features of the franchise.

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