Ever want the retro fun of the classic racing games? Well now you have your chance. Coffin Dodgers is an old school combat racer much in the same vein as Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing. This is the first game out of Milky Tea Studios. British citizens may know of their work before from the strange Lloyds TSB adverts with the long-nosed bank users and strange opera behind it. This is their first venture into video games though. And this looks like a promising start, but sadly has a few falls.
Coffin Dodgers has a somewhat obvious story. The Grim Reaper has come to a small retirement village to live, as being in a full village of old people makes his job much easier. However because this would be a completely different game if they all died and that was the end; so instead they challenge the Grim Reaper to a series of races which he naturally agrees to. That’s your entire premise. There is a story mode which follows through this although I doubt many people these days are playing racing games for their in-depth story modes.
So the racing is exactly what you would expect from an old-school racing game but with an ageing population twist. Cars become mobility scooters. Yet they also have an upgrade system, so you can live out your dream of being the fastest OAP to collect their pension. You get 7 characters to play as and 13 race tracks to use. The most important feature however is up to 4 player local co-op. Not many racing games have this anymore; and this is a very welcome addition as it saves forking out for 4 copies of the game just to play with mates.
Not much can be said about the rest of this game sadly. Graphically the game is very subpar. While Milky Tea has some good promotional images for the game this makes the in-game graphics look more horrendous than they actually are due to the comparison. Not all of the graphics are awful; the scenery is actually well rounded and high-quality. The character models however seem poor quality in comparison to the environment which is a definite no in racing games; characters are always locked centre of the screen and should always look good and polished.
That’s pretty much all there is about this game. It is a strange venture by a graphics studio. While it is not a perfect racing game, it could most definitely have been much worse. Is it worth the £8.99 asking price? For the more dedicated old-style racing fan who wants another game or a fan with no N64 available I would say yes. While I personally will not advocate this game as I am not a fan of racing games in general, the miracle of the Steam Refund Policy means that I can give this game a 2.0. This will be a hit-or-miss for the old-school racing fan but it is worth a try.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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