It might be weeks before Sony’s consoles receive a legitimate Mario Kart challenger. Yeah, probably not – no amount of Blue Shells will slow down Nintendo’s enduring arcade racing juggernaut – but Disney Speedstorm does appear to be a lot of fun. Gameloft, using the same release format as the Animal Crossing-like Disney Dreamlight Valley, will provide paid Early Access beginning on April 18th.
Then, what is the plot? There are three Founders Packs available, each containing access to the complete game and a variety of additional in-game stuff. For your convenience, we have listed your choices below:
Standard Founder’s Pack ($29.99/£24.99)
- Access to Disney Speedstorm in advance
- 2 Athletes unlocked
- Extra unlockable racer of your choosing
- 4,000 Tokens
- 2 Golden Pass Credits: .
- Three unique racing outfits and livery
Deluxe Founder’s Pack ($49.99/£39.99).
- Access to Disney Speedstorm in advance
- 2 Athletes unlocked
- Extra unlockable racer of your choosing
- 4,000 Tokens
- 2 Golden Pass Credits: .
- Three unique racing outfits and livery
Ultimate Founder Pack ($69.99/£54.99)
- Access to Disney Speedstorm in advance
- 5 Athletes unlocked
- Extra unlockable racer of your choosing
- 12,000 Tokens
- 3 Gold Pass Credits
- Six unique racing outfits and livery
If you pre-order any of the Founder’s Packs, you’ll also receive Donald Duck’s Toontech Kart Livery and Early Bird racing costume as additional cosmetics. For the other unlockable racers, you may select between Baloo, Belle, the Beast, Elizabeth Swann, Shang, or Mowgli. As this is a live service game, you may expect additional characters, karts, and race courses to be added over time.
Frankly, we’re not huge fans of the extremely serious painting style; we believe something a bit more colorful would have been a better fit for the Disney theme. Yet the gameplay appears to be solid, and it has the potential to fill the PS5 and PS4 kart racer hole.