Beach Buggy Blitz – 3D Racing game that utterly rocks!
by Paul Wilks
Sep 6, 2012 3:00 PM –
Install
Beach Buggy Blitz is a gorgeous 3D racing game that utterly rocks! Race a beach buggy through stunning courses in the ultimate race against time. Collect coins, buy power-ups and improve your score! From the developers of Riptide GP and Shine Runner, Beach Buggy Blitz is for Tegra 3 devices, so you’ll need something compatible. But is it enough to flick sand in the face of Mario Kart?
Price: Free, plus In-app purchases
Tested on: HTC One X
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Amazing graphics!
- Great sound!
- Addictive and challenging!
- Variety of control methods!
- Cool upgrades!
Cons
- Very limited gameplay options.
Features:
Beach Buggy Blitz is a riveting and addictive ride through a sun-kissed tropical island. You race your buggy through various environments collecting coins, using power-ups and flying over cool jumps in a race to get to the next checkpoint. It’s blisteringly fast, full of colour, sounds and stunning imagery.
Beneath this glossy veneer, there are loads of opportunities to upgrade and add power-ups. As you fly around collecting coins, you can gradually save up to buy cool new stuff. You can choose from 6 different vehicles, 8 driver characters and 5 power-ups; including boost, shield, coin magnet, coin bubble and checkpoint. It does take quite a few runs to build up enough to make a difference, but you can make additional in-app purchases to speed the process up.
The game is hugely challenging. There are all kinds of obstacles in your way and they can really slow you down. Similar to the effects in Shine Runner, things smash up when you crash into them which looks good, but loses you valuable seconds. There are other things too, stalagmites in the cave sections, seagulls, lobsters, branches rocks and more. These make reaching the checkpoints genuinely tough. I’ve played quite a few racing games and this one is possibly one of the toughest to make progress in.
Sadly the game only has this one mode of play- speed to the checkpoints and travel as far as you can. It doesn’t feature races, leagues or any other gameplay options, which is a real shame as it has the potential to be so much more besides such a linear freemium title. I think Android lacks a good karting game and this really could have been it.
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Beach Buggy Blitz – Gorgeous 3D scenery
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Beach Buggy Blitz – Racing 1
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Beach Buggy Blitz – Racing 2
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Beach Buggy Blitz – Racing 3
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Beach Buggy Blitz – Collect coins
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Beach Buggy Blitz – Jump
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Beach Buggy Blitz – Very wrong turn!
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Beach Buggy Blitz – Avoid other drivers
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Beach Buggy Blitz – Crash
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Beach Buggy Blitz – Game results
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Beach Buggy Blitz – Main screen
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Beach Buggy Blitz – Various drivers to unlock
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Beach Buggy Blitz – New vehicles to buy
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Beach Buggy Blitz – Settings
Fun Factor:
For the impressive seconds you have pedal to the metal and you’re blazing round the island, it’s utterly sublime. However, I did feel reaching the checkpoints was just too tough in the end. There’s a brick wall where you have to make every turn perfectly and even with boosts and a perfect run the next checkpoint seemed too far away. This indicates a kind of threshold where you’re going to have to make purchases to upgrade… or stop making any progress. 
Addictive:
In the short term absolutely yes. I think long term, unless you’re buying your own coins, it’s going to feel frustrating instead of addictive. If however, you are willing to invest a little into an otherwise thoroughly impressive game, it could be compulsive playing!
Graphics:
The graphics are truly stunning. Proper console quality visuals that warms your Tegra 3 device like a toaster. The game includes those delicious water splashes from Riptide GP and those crazy smashes from Shine Runner. All-in-all a breathtaking dollop of gorgeous eye-candy that blows the mittens off most other games. A real highlight is the lighting when you burn through a cave- check out those headlights!
Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:
You can select tilt control and, while I normally favour this for driving games, I actually found the on-screen controls better personally. That said, you can easily adjust the sensitivity settings so try out the different options and see which suits you.
Sound is epic. From the music through to the detailed sound effects and the way the motors echo while in the cave sections, it’s perfectly executed in-game and a real testament to awesome audio engineering.
Tags:
3D,
3D Games,
Android App,
Android Apps,
Android Game,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Beach Buggy Blitz,
HD Games for Android,
Race Car Game,
Riptide GP,
Shine Runner,
Tegra 3,
Tegra Zone
Categorised in: Arcade & Action
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