BAFL - Brakes Are For Losers Logo
BAFL - Brakes Are For Losers Icon
BAFL - Brakes Are For Losers

Publisher: Plug In Digital

Racing/Flying
Arcade
Party
Board Game
Budget
  • Price: $4.99
  • Release Date: Apr 19, 2018
  • Number of Players: 1 - 8
  • Last on Sale: -
  • Lowest Historic Price: -
  • ESRB Rating: E [Everyone]
Videos
Reviews:
  • Your mode choices are single-player Challenges, where you can try to get hot lap times or completely avoid hitting any walls for an extended distance (good luck) to earn flags. As you earn enough you’ll then unlock even tougher tracks to be successful on. All things considered I’d say these modes are roughly for masochists, but if you enjoy them good on you. There are then the races with a Quick Race if you just want to jump into something quick, a Championship mode that has set rules and tracks, or Custom Race where you can play with more of the variables to suit the racing more to your liking. These can be played solo or with friends, with bots then being able to fill in the blanks up to 8 racers. The issue with them is that they either seem hopelessly incompetent or they’re whooping up on you, so it’s a bit odd and unbalanced for the most part so they don’t make very good opponents. I think my greatest issue with the overall experience is that the dial for the lack of control is set too aggressively to the low end. It isn’t just that you have no brakes, you also have no ability to feather your acceleration. To make matters worse the control feels pretty well entirely digital and there is no ability to adjust the sensitivity on your steering so you’re left with mostly settling for ramming into everything and only being half able to control anything. I appreciate arcade looseness but the lack of almost any nuance also makes the game’s longevity feel much more limited. The tracks themselves are pretty varied, and some have elements that help them to be a little more interesting, but driving on them is often still more demolition derby than actual racing. If you enjoy very loose and more unpredictable arcade racing, especially if you have some friends that agree, Brakes Are For Losers has some fun to offer. Probably better played in bursts rather than long play sessions you could probably enjoy it without people realizing there’s only so much they’re able to control. The more you try to dig into it though, especially if you hit the challenge modes, the more apparent the control shortcomings become. If it would either allow some nuance in your acceleration, or at least make better use of analog controls, I think it would find a better balance to appeal to a wider set of racing game fans. As it is I think the most vital key to enjoyment is some raucous friends to play with where the craziness can at least lead to some laughs.


    Justin Nation, Score:
    Fair [6.5]
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