Race and Battle Disney Style with Disney Speedstorm

Calling all racers! Join Mickey Mouse and his Disney friends as they compete across racetracks inspired by Mickey, Jungle Book, Pirates of the Caribbean, and more! Developer Gameloft has given us an early look at Disney Speedstorm, a Disney-flavored combat cart racing game. Let’s hop in the driver’s seat and take a brief drive around the world of Speedstorm.

If you’ve ever played a cart racer game (i.e. Mario Kart), this will be familiar to you. Steer the car around the track, jump obstacles, and throw items at other racers. It’s very accessible, even down to the auto-avoidance function that you can turn on for players who need that extra help driving in the right direction.

Disney has a history with these kinds of games as well. MiceChat readers may remember the Walt Disney World Quest Magical Racing Tour for the original PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast, Game Boy Color, and Windows. It shares some DNA with Speedstorm in the same way that cart racer games have all shared the same base gameplay since the original Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo.

We’ve come a long way since 2000. Here’s a look at then:

And here’s a look at gameplay now:

Though, Magical Racing Tour and Speedstorm share a similar draw: well-designed tracks that reference Disney properties. Given we are big theme park fans here at MiceChat, we can only hope that developer Gameloft is given the ability to not only continue to add more film-based racetracks to the game but some based on attractions. They’re already halfway there with Pirates of the Caribbean. Granted, we’ve yet to see all the tracks that will be in the final game.

During the closed beta period, we were able to try most of the key features, including a few single-player modes and some online player-vs-player modes. The single-player modes are mostly lists of races and challenges to complete. 

Also, being a free-to-play game, the modes will cycle on a “seasonal” basis. Looks like there will be plenty to do. 

The beta has twelve characters ranging from Mickey Mouse to Mulan. The final game will boast even more (Monsters Inc was mentioned). Speedstorm is being billed as a “hero-based” game, which traditionally means each “hero” has some sort of special ability. Indeed, that’s one of the more unique parts of this game, each character has more individualized characteristics than just things like weight, acceleration, or handling (as well as their personalized special abilities).

All the racetracks seem to be related to the character lineup— Beast and Belle are racers and Beast’s Castle is a world to race on, as is various parts of China featured in Mulan. Each world has a few tracks, so for example, races can take place in different wings of Beast’s Castle or on different sections of the Great Wall of China. 

My personal favorite is the “Silver Screen” track, themed after the classic Mickey Mouse short, Steamboat Willie. Even the world itself has been stripped of its color, lending a wonderful contrast between the track and the racers.

It’s also one of the more challenging tracks— many are rather easy for me, but we haven’t seen all the racetracks yet.

Multiplayer runs the full gamut of options as well. Cross-play, local split-screen, and online modes make it easy to join up with friends wherever they are and whatever they play on. In an industry that’s eschewing split-screen play, Speedstorm may be a fun addition to the list of party games, especially considering it’s free to download.

It’s important to note that Speedstorm will be a free-to-play title. That comes with all the industry-standard elements like a “battle pass,” a slew of cosmetic items (earned or bought), and various in-game currencies. While we can’t judge how those systems are implemented yet (this isn’t the final game), free-to-play means that it’ll be more accessible to try. Furthermore, the game will be available on all the major consoles and PC. Still, we can’t judge how the free-to-play model affects the game until its final release.

Overall, our impressions of this preview are that Speedstorm is a more than competent cart racer with some fun and unique elements— not terribly surprising considering Gameloft is the developer of the popular mobile racer, Asphalt. Speedstorm has a surprising amount of depth to the character upgrade path as well as some simple, yet effective gameplay variety. It’s not intended to re-invent the wheel, but to be a polished, accessible game with recognizable characters for parents and kids to enjoy playing together. 

That level of polish is important in a world now actively being filled with similar games from rival film studios. The recent 2D fighter title, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, made waves as a bizarre clone of Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Warner Bros’ MultiVersus is aiming to fill a similar space. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if one day in the future, Mickey Mouse will be beating up Kylo Ren and Spider-Man in a brawler title. Though, we are getting a game where Disney heroes and villains can team up in a League of Legends kind of combat. And to round it out, we’re also getting a Disney game that looks mighty similar to Animal Crossing…

Yet, I still believe the most unique Disney thing that transfers well to video games is theme parks. Galaxy’s Edge is a great example I’ve previously written about. Twice. Pirates of the Caribbean had a great mashup on Sea of Thieves that incorporated both the films and the theme park incredibly well. It’s a winning formula.

If you’d like to give Disney Speedstorm a try, the closed beta is currently running on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store (sign up on the Speedstorm website). The full game will be available later this year on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One consoles. 

Let’s Hear From You

Does this brief look into the new Disney racing game get your engines running to give it a try? Have you previously played any of Disney’s other racing games over the years? Leave me your thoughts in the comments below!

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