Riders Republic

Hell racer? No, but not quite pure as snow, either

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INFO

FORMAT PS5 (reviewed), PS4 PRICE £59.99 ETA Out now PUB Ubisoft DEV Ubisoft Annecy PLAYERS 1-64 LENGTH N/A ACCESSIBILITY Vibration on/off; subtitles; trick landing assist; menu narration; speech to text/ text to speech; colourblind modes

Now, we’re not saying that this game’s dialogue was written by somebody’s rapidly balding uncle, but it tries so hard to be ‘hip’ that it just might make you cringe so much that you implode and reappear in a universe where the characters talk like actual human beings. We just know the word ‘zany’ was used by somebody during development.

You’ll have to learn to live with it, because Riders Republic’s irreparably damaged view of youth culture informs the entire experience, ‘wacky’ costumes and all. Events are split into bike racing, bike stunts, snow racing, snow stunts, wingsuits (score by nearly-but-not-quite crashing as much as possible on your way to the finish line), and the Rocketwing (essentially races using a jetpack). You traverse the map at your leisure to reach any events you’ve unlocked, and within a few hours you’ll have access to each discipline.