Game Review: Speed or Death

By Al

​Players: 1
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

Ever wonder what it would be like to escape a city besieged by a Kaiju invasion? Or perhaps outrun aliens that have descended upon an F1 race? Well, those are two of the scenarios that you'll find within Speed or Death, a racing game that is out now on the Nintendo Switch following an earlier release on PC and other consoles. We haven't really reviewed any racing games here at A-to-J Connections, and this one is truly unique in both its setting and theming, so I guess this is where we're going to start. Will this game's unique premise help it rise above the pack? I guess we'll just have to dive in and find out!

The R4YL Network broadcast.

Damn, that just looks kinda cool.

There is no real story behind Speed or Death. The game's main menu shows the R4YL Network (Get it? The "Run 4 Your Life" Network!) running a news story on the various monster outbreaks on that make up the game. Actually, it even mentions some across the news scroll at the bottom of the screen that do not take place in the game at all. From here you choose your level and get to racing. Now I've mentioned racing a couple times already, but Speed or Death is more of an escape game than anything. You're out to beat the clock for sure, but you're more trying to get out of whatever area you're in rather than beat other cars in a standard race setting. Each of the game's four tracks feature a monster attack scenario that is unique to it. Money City Rampage features a Godzilla-like kaiju, but one that is more akin to the 1998 American GINO ("Godzilla in Name Only") instead of the Japanese classic. This stage features a city that is being destroyed by several monsters, one of them being the GINO stand-in, as well its eggs, which is another throwback to that movie. The Hideous Desert Worms takes place on a military base and features sandworms that are reminiscent of those found in the Tremors movie series, or maybe even Dune. Octopoids from the Unknown is set around an F1 race that is interrupted by the arrival of aliens. These aliens being octopus-like beings that destroy the track and cause the other race contestants to drive away from the monsters, and towards you. Lastly, Revenge of The Volcano features a volcano that is actually home to several dragons. At least I think there's more than one dragon, since you see at least one actively flying around, and one that is still asleep within the volcano itself. These four stages/tracks make up the entire game. While this is very limited content-wise, the idea of a racing game that sees you try to survive various monster attacks is just interesting enough that I couldn't help but like the game despite the flaws I'm going to mention in a bit.

Be aware of that respawn button.

Giant worm in the distance.

Each of the four tracks sees you pick a car that has stats that can be all over the place. You can unlock more cars by completing various side objectives, and even use a car from different stage by using the shoulder buttons to scroll to it. The latter is the most favorable way to play the game, since there are some cars that are clearly far better than others. You then race towards checkpoints, and avoid stage obstacles along the way. These obstacles can be other cars, the monsters that each stage is centered around, or just environmental nonsense scattered about. You can speed up, brake, go in reverse, and even use a turbo boost that replenishes over time, and fully refills after each checkpoint. If you ever get stuck in a stage (and this will happen a lot) you can use the respawn button to set your car right-side-up, and facing the correct direction for the next checkpoint. Your only real goal is to get to the finish line, you never actually fight or interact with the monsters in the stage themselves. There are some side missions you can do, but these are best taken care of within their own runs, as there is no way you'll be able to complete them all without running out of time. Time is actually your biggest enemy here, as most of the checkpoints feel like they're spaced out in a way that you're only just able to make it to the next one. This is all the more annoying when you're given over a minute from one, and have to go a very long way without really knowing if you're going to be able to make it to the next one in time. More often than not you won't be able to get to the next far off checkpoint, and you'll have to restart the stage. Even if you do complete a stage, don't expect any sort of fanfare, the screen basically looks identical to if you had lost, but you'll have maybe set a new best time or unlocked a new car. The four stages are all marked as being Easy to Hard, but the difficulty seems to only represent the track's length, and not anything special about the level hazards themselves.

This could just be a standard racing game.

Don't wake the sleeping dragon!

I feel I've been a little easy on the game so far, so I'm going to talk about the many ways in which Speed or Death doesn't really work in spite of me really wanting it to. The theming of the first level is great, and while not perfect, I'd have loved if that extended to the rest of the game. Most of the other levels seem to barely even feature the monsters they're centered on, and you could probably remove them completely without it changing up the gameplay in any significant way. Also, The Hideous Desert Worms is a level that I don't ever want to play again since it alternates between very tight driving spaces, to wide open areas that are easy to get lost in. This is the only level that's really like this by the way, and I can't help but feel that the developers were trying for an open world layout but gave up partway through. I say this because you rarely get directions on where you're supposed to go, pretty much just in the first track, and you're not even given any sort of warning that you're driving in the wrong direction. Pressing the respawn button only does so much, and sometimes drops you so far back that you might as well just restart the track. That actually is the biggest problem of the game, the fact that you have to trial and error your way through everything. If there was a map of each stage, the game would be far easier, and it might even be possible to win on a first or second try. I guess if this were the case you'd be able to finish everything in the game in less than an hour. The difficulty spikes, the unpredictable nature of the controls and stage hazards, the lack of a map or in-game directions, it all is just padding to hide the game's shallowness. The later levels don't even have the same feel as the first, the aliens and dragons don't stand up to the Godzilla-like monster of the first track, and it all just comes off feeling like a great idea that's wasted on poor execution.

Destroy the eggs!

Cows!

I don't even know where to begin when it comes to the graphics. First off, everything reminds me a lot of the kind of games that filled up the Wii's third party library. Not necessary shovelware in the most negative use of the word, but the kind of game you'd buy randomly from a bin in Walmart for a weekend of cheap fun. It actually reminded me a lot of Martian Panic (Which I reviewed HERE), but with a lot less going on. Since the graphics are nowhere near cutting edge, it stands to reason that they don't push the Nintendo Switch too hard, and that's true for the most part. Where it does hiccup a bit is in the title/menu screen. I was shocked to see that the scrolling news text stutters and freezes its way across the screen. This is quite the introduction to the game too as it's one of the first things you'll see when booting up the game. Long loading times also plague the game, but I guess it's nothing too obscene. Other than that, it runs great. It isn't going to win any awards for its graphics, but it's not a bad-looking game.

I have less to say about the music as it is very low in the mix, almost non-existent. Actually, I'm pretty sure it didn't always load each time I played the game. Not to jump back to the graphics, but this was the case for those as well. The F1 opening of Octopoids from the Unknown sometimes had other cars, sometimes didn't. Same goes for cars that drive towards you in other stages, or objects that are tossed by the monsters. Sometimes they appear, sometimes they don't. Back to the music, there's no way to adjust its levels in game. Actually, there's no options to adjust at all. I'd be hard pressed to tell you if the levels even had different music in each of them as I honestly didn't notice. Sound isn't all a loss though, as the in-game commentator was one of my favorite aspects of the game. I'm not sure if the random commentary is supposed to be coming from a news reporter watching the antics from afar, but it did add a layer of humor that kept things from getting boring at times. The quips are limited, and get very repetitive the more you have to play each level, but I found myself smiling or chuckling at more than a few of the silly lines. Things like the first GINO level, and the commentary, make me feel that the game could've been far better than it is, but these two things aren't enough to save the game's overall wonky presentation.

I swear there are other cars sometimes...

Nothing special for winning...

Controls are always hard to describe if you're not actually playing the game in question, and Speed or Death's are all over the place. There are times when cars just control better or worse than other runs. I'm not sure what causes this, but it's so common that I could never really rely on any one car to get me through some of the game's tougher sections. It's almost as if the game loads in "good" controls half the time, and every other run you play with the ones that are extremely slippery and near impossible to use. Same goes for the turbo boost as I could never really tell if it even does anything at lower speeds, the boost seems so negligible at times. I didn't bother playing any of the races in Manual Mode, but seeing as the game could be pretty frustrating in Automatic, I didn't want to subject myself to that. Other oddities in controls come when you're just selecting options in the pause/game over menu, and when you're selecting your car. There seems to be a delay to selecting anything in those screens, and I guess I could just say that I'm glad that this never spilled over to actual gameplay. Also, there are times when you get yourself stuck and try to reverse your way out of the situation. I found that it's best to just respawn most of the time since the reverse controls never seem to properly switch between backing up and driving. You know, the fact that the developers decided to put in a respawn button at all is probably indicative as to how much effort was put into the controls and hit detection in the first place. Basically the controls are the just functional enough where I can't truly complain about them in any truly significant way, I just wish they actually worked well more than they did.

There is very little content to Speed or Death. There are four tracks, with five cars each, and a few optional goals here and there. All but the first car in each track has to be unlocked, but this can be done pretty quickly after you learn the lay of the levels. Beating the four tracks only really takes a while because you're going to need several runs just to learn where you're even supposed to go, or maybe realize that the track's standard cars aren't fit for the job. If you're lucky, and are able to manage the controls, you can beat everything in an hour or two. There is no story mode, no ending, and no unlockables besides the cars. Multiplayer might have saved this game, but then again I'm sure the game would run terribly if split screen were a thing. I don't think I'll ever really pick this game up again, but I did have some fun here and there. Also, I don't think that its price tag of $9.99 is all that obscene, and the game is just competent enough that I didn't walk away from it feeling like I wasted my time.

Marty? Is that you?

Random ramp jumps can be fun.

What are my final thoughts on Speed or Death? It's such a mixed bag that I don't know where exactly I lie in regards to giving it a recommendation. I had fun with it, especially the first Godzilla-themed level, and by the time it was starting to truly grate on me I'd beaten everything I needed to. I guess if you're the kind of player who enjoyed the third party nonsense of the Wii, you'll probably find enjoyment here. I know I did at least. That said, this really isn't a game that I can give a blanket recommendation to. Casual players might still consider getting it if it's on sale just for the lols, but everyone else might want to get a more competent racing game instead. Either way, I have a sudden urge to watch the 1998 Godzilla movie...

Check Out Speed or Death on The Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/speed-or-death-switch/

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Story: D (There could've been so much more to it.)
Gameplay: C-
Graphics: C
Music/Sound: C-
Value: C

Overall: C-

Pros:
+ A cool premise that has a lot of potential.
+ There are many fun moments, especially in the first Godzilla-themed level.
+ The announcer's quips can be quite funny at times.
+ Spikes in difficulty can be managed with the right car, and the right amount of trial and error.

Cons:
- Very little content to the game make keep this one from reaching its true potential.
- The monster theming never feels as involved as that first stage.
- The controls feel like they work when they want to, and this goes for other aspects of the game as well.
- The lack of an in-game map, or even on-screen directions for the most part, make this one more frustrating than fun at times.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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​#SpeedOrDeathSwitchUSA