I have stated this several times already: I really like racing games. Top down racers are my weakness, and I love voxel-style games. Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon Chiki Chiki Boxy Racers (I’m not trying to be cute here, that is the title), a game that combines cool voxel art, fast paced racing game play, and cool mini game options. It makes this an indie racing party game you don’t want to miss out on.
From the initial menu, you have a plethora of options. There’s Single if you want to duke it out against the CPU. Here you have to options: Race and Battle. In Race, you fight in a series of races in three different locations: City, Jungle, and Beach. Each location has a different landscape in a series of eight races, four qualifying races, and one GP (which is a do over of the previous four in grand prix format). In the Race format, you unlock different vehicles as you beat each race. Each vehicle has different stats that could give you an edge against the competition (but the whole game can be completed with the vanilla sports car). In Battle mode, you play in four really cool mini games: Coins, Smash, Paint and Goal. Each with a different set of objectives. In Coins, you play for getting the most amount of coins in a given time. Smash has you throwing boxes out of a platform. Paint has you painting a set area in limited time, and Goal is soccer with cars (a la Rocket League).
In single player mode, once you finish all the game has to offer it might seem boring. However in multi-player is where the fun is. The control scheme is really good. You can choose from Stick mode, in which all car movement is controlled with the left Stick only and two buttons, one for camera options and another for turbo. Handle is your standard game play with buttons for throttle, brake, turbo, and camera options ( I prefer this control method since is more tight).
Multi is a two to eight local multiplayer with a single console. Here, you can play against friends in all the modes above explained. You can imagine that the mini games here shine the brightest. The most fun is Goal since it is like Rocket League in voxel style. The Local mode is to play against someone that has another Switch, and the game you can create rooms and enjoy local wireless multiplayer. There is also an Online component to race against friends and the world online( as of time of the review unfortunately, no one is online which sad).
Graphically, you are in voxel heaven. From the landscapes to the cars, everything is presented in a cute but colorful style. athe music is really good, and the few tracks it has don’t overstay their welcome.
Bottom Line: Chiki Chiki Boxy Racers is a good and fun budget racing game. While the Single game play mode is not as robust as you would expect, the multiplayer options make this a cool party racing game for gamers on a budget.
A review code was provided for this review.