Avatar Bumper Cars: Review

I’m a great fan of the Indie game scene on the Xbox 360…most are games you can pick up and have a quick play on. Some are obscure, some are genius… and the great thing about them is, they generally cost less than a cup of coffee at your favourite coffee house.

One of the latest Indie games to hit the marketplace is Avatar Bumper Cars from Flying Squirrel Games. I follow the progress of many indie games and this is one that I have been looking forward to from some time, having seen initial screenshots and even voting to choose the “box art” used for the game.

Initial reactions were great – I love the art-style and the use of Avatars. Bright colours, quirky music – a definite cartoony feel backed up even more by the expressions on your Avatar’s face as they prepare to battle!

This game is obviously meant to be played with more than one person, and for me, it’s a shame that there was no online option. But keep in perspective folks, that this game costs a mere $1 / 80p to buy! Plus, on the grapevine I hear that online may be patched onto the game in the future?!

I’ve played this with my husband and it’s great fun – the games itself don’t last long (a matter of seconds sometimes), but the controls work well and if you ramp up the difficulty of your AI opponents, it can get quite tricky! Kids will absolutely love this – simple to play and very competitive, and there are several difficulty levels for the computer controlled opponents.

As you’d expect in a bumper car game, you are controlling a car and have to bump your opponents. Shunting them from the front of side does no damage to either car – you have to manoeuvre yourself to the rear of your opposing bumper car, and use the spikes on the front of your car to explode one of their gas canisters. Each car has 3, and when they’re all gone, you’re out. There are pickups whilst you are playing, which replenish your canisters, or give you a speed burst.

All the controls and instructions are explained very well via the game menu. You can choose to play in 5 different arenas. They’re all the same shape and size, just a different scene. It would be nice to have seen more variety – hopefully in an update?

Search down the back of your sofa – I’m sure you’ll find the 80p they’re charging for this – and support Indie Games. With your support, they’ll get even bigger and better but this is definitely a fun play and worth a purchase now.

Review By Helen Hodson