10 Video Games That Exploited Your Nostalgia

On the surface, Speedstorm is clearly designed to be Disney’s big step into the ever-present karting space following the success of Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fuelled and the chart-topping Mario Kart 8. With tracks and racers promising to reflect the media giant’s widespread properties, from Monsters Inc to Pirates of the Caribbean, it should feel like a celebration of all things Disney… but it also comes off more than a little disingenuous.

Whilst the game isn’t out yet, early looks at Disney Speedstorm reveal that it has a worrying demand for microtransactions or at least mind-numbing grinding. Each character can be levelled-up individually but the issue is that the campaign far outpaces your own experience. Your opponents will simply be better than you, and you’ll either have to choose to grind for upgrade materials or buy them.

Oh, and the item boxes? Unlike, say, Mario Kart, the kinds of weapons you earn from them also depend on another upgrade route for each individual character. Speedstorm lets players keep up with its difficulty curve only if they plunge hours upon hours into it farming for shards or skip the process with a quick payout.

All of these mechanics are the kinds of things you’d expect from a cynical gachapon mobile title, not what should be a warm and inviting nostalgic celebration of family-friendly films and characters.