Blaze and the Monster Machines: Axle City Racers is a racing game based on the popular kids TV show, developed by 3DClouds and published by Outright Games. The game released on October 16, 2021 on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and Steam and allows players to race as their favourite characters like Blaze, Pickle, Crusher, Zeg, Starla and more.
From Axle City and Eagle Rock to the Monster Dome, there are ten different tracks we can explore in standard quick races, co-op races with up to four players in couch co-op or championship cups. To connect the game with the TV show even more, some of the voice actors from the tv show are present such as Blaze, AJ and Crusher. Each racer in Blaze and the Monster Machines: Axle City Racers can customise their vehicle in the garage and then jump behind the wheel where you can boost, drift, jump and pull off stunts.
Once the race has started, there are piles of green wrench power-ups that allow you to activate each character’s unique skill. There are three difficulties to choose from and Xbox controls are simple with A to accelerate, B to brake, left button to boost, right button to drift which gives you a speed burst after the turn, and there’s an option to turn on auto-driving for the little racers like my 4-year-old daughter.
Rather than her getting frustrated at the controls, auto-racing accelerated and steered for her, so all she had to do was activate powerups when she collected 10 of them. Auto-driving tends to stick to the middle of the road so it may take a little longer to collect enough wrenches, but at least they won’t get frustrated at crashing lots when trying to learn. Loading screens in the game feature STEM lessons for kids that are explained in simple ways, just like the TV show.
While aimed at younger gamers, Blaze and the Monster Machines: Axle City Racers is great racing fun for the whole family. In single player or split-screen co-op, the familiar voices and vehicles from the TV show can be played in short and simple races to keep the kids’ attention.
This review utilised an Xbox key provided by SwipeRight PR. Blaze and the Monster Machines: Axle City Racers is available now on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and Steam.
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Written by: @ChrisJInglis
