When I was little, I saw kids playing with scooters all the time. It was a fun toy. Although I didn’t have one, my friends would take turns for all of us to play. One thing that we liked to do was set up small ramps. During those days, Tony Hawk was someone famous, so everyone was trying to emulate him and did jumps either with a scooter or a bicycle. With those days long gone, it’s nice to see a game that brings back my childhood memories, even if I never liked to paint with crayons.
Crayola Scoot is the said game, and I must say that I am impressed with what the game has accomplished because it feels like a fusion between Splatoon and Jet Set Radio. It’s really good, all while retaining its own personality that makes it feel like a fresh experience.
Speaking about game play, the objective is simple: You just push your scooter (done with ZR) and just enjoy the speed and tricks you can do (which are done with the Left and Right Stick in different combinations). Perhaps the most interesting mechanic is the boost. You can boost while holding down the B button. The boost gives you more speed (duh!). Besides being a way to reach new heights and to help you do more awesome tricks, it also leaves a trail of color. Passing over this trail of color helps you refill the boost gauge (in form of a crayon), and you move a little faster over your color. This not only helps to do tricks but kind of like in Splatoon, a different color slows you down a little. And leaving little puddles of your color in the map will help in the long run, since every victory counts.
Regarding the difficulty of the game itself, I think is commendable what the developers did to make the game accessible to everyone. At the lowest difficulty level, newcomers can enjoy everything the game has to offer. But for more advanced gamers, the highest difficulty requires that you master the mechanics if you want to get to the top.
Story wise: Crayola Scoot doesn’t ask much. After choosing your character’s gender appearance and favorite color, you start a training mode in which you learn the basics. Then your goal is to work your way up to win the fabled “Color Cup” (and coincidentally you arrived at the right time). Where things get really interesting is that for you to raise your reputation level and progress, the game only requires that you win challenges against other participants in the cup. Wait, hold up, you say Why? For me, it is a really smart way to gain the little ones, since a small kid might not have the same patience or skills needed to do everything. This mode of playing allows the little ones to progress through the game (albeit, without earning gold stars) without the frustration of playing and failing through most events. And for completionists like me, getting all starts is a must.
The game offers several modes to keep the game fresh. One of them is Color Frenzy. This is a mode that you can play in team battle and free for all. There is also a mode called Trick Run in which you play to get the most points within the time limit doing the most tricks you can to rack in the points. This is the most basic trick festival, and it’s a good source of vanilla fun. There is also Crazy Crayons that is played similarly to capture the flag, except that crayons appear throughout the stage. Each time you get one another appears shown by a beacon, and so until the last one is gotten (in a first to five format). There’s also Splat Tag with chase and survival modes. Some of the aforementioned modes place more emphasis in the scooters and tricks are not a important part in them.
Graphically, I like how it looks. The cell-shaded look feels like it makes the colors more vibrant, and it has a Jet Set Radio look. The music is good. It has some Splatoon vibes going for it, and while the game was inspired by aforementioned games, I feel that its not trying to ride on their success. It’s just implementing some ideas on its own personal way.
Bottom Line: Crayola Scoot is a fun acrobatic arcade style game with several fun and colorful multiplayer modes,. I honestly think that it doesn’t matter much if it was inspired by other games. What is most important is to bring a game with polished controls and game play because ultimately is the only thing that matters.
A Review code was provided for this Review.