Steamboat Willie's Mickey Mouse Is Boosting into Disney Speedstorm on PS5, PS4

I got it yesterday and enjoyed it, but I'll say two things. One, it is absolutely infested with various different currencies with often obscure or confusing ways to earn it - and often time-gated. Two, I'm not the best at racing games of any type, but I'd say the early game of Speedstorm is way harder than 50cc in MK, probably 100cc too. Combine that with a levelling system (paid for with one type of currency) AND a gacha-style upgradeable rarity system for each racer, and it feels way too much like you're playing something like Fate Grand Order rather than MK.

Surprisingly difficult race in a kid's kart racer? It's okay, just buy (or grind) 300 racing flag tokens and 45 trumpets (oh sorry, only 6 can be earned a day) and then turn Mickey into a Level 70 Legendary tier version of himself and try again. Ugh. They really need to rein that kind of thing in or this'll die faster than Bambi's mom.

Guess this has something to do with Disney losing the copyright to some of their ip over the next few years.

I think the copyright on this iteration of Mickey expires next year, unless Disney are able to extend that copyright by proving that they are using it in their current works.

Or maybe not. Dont know enough about copyright law.

Cool to see this though 🙂 Love Steamboat Mickey

So is this game free-to-play or not?

@Matroska I tried it out as well and the racing and tracks are really well done. It does seem a little on the tough side, but I’m wondering if difficulty is tied to performance/lap time in the tutorial. I might be wrong, though.

And yes, the number of currencies and ways to level up are both baffling and appalling. Is this method really better than, I don’t know, selling a complete game and then charging for future updates? Isn’t there another kart racer out there that’s found a bit of success in doing that?

I’m enjoying what I’ve played of this game massively tbh. For me it’s filled a huge gap in the PlayStation library.

I know people who’ll WHINGE about life service and micros etc. on the flip side I actually like the fact there’s a MASSIVE grind ahead to unlock huge amounts of content. The game will certainly have longevity.

In terms of the actual game, it’s huge fun and I found that it’s a surprisingly great kart racing game engine. (Reviews will probably disagree with me)!

@Rob_230 It's a weird coincidence but the public domain thing is after 100 years in America but then it's also Disney's 100th anniversary this year. So even if it wasn't for the copyright thing, I think they'd still be doing this kind of stuff.

@Ooccoo_Jr As with Dreamlight Valley, it will be F2P at launch but before then they're doing early access. You pay one of three tiers, get in-game currency, characters, various exclusive things, as well as the early access itself, of course.

Got the game today, really hoping I'm able to get Figment eventually....
Steamboat Willie Mickey is nice. I prefer black & white Mickey over color Mickey so would gladly take him.

@Matroska Good to hear I'll be skipping this without losing any sleep

@Totheteeth I have stuff to do besides wasting my time i like gaming not wasting time. If stuff is not locked behind different currencies, wait or pay and their will ofcourse be FOMO no thank you.

@Amnesiac Charging for a full game without the shadow of a doubt.

This is what killed Chocobo Racing i am certain if they release a full package with all the characters it would have sold great.

In the end this game will die off just like all other liveservice games and it will be forgotten.

@Rob_230 They're not able to extend the copyright any further I believe. Once 2024 rolls around, Steamboat Willie becomes copyright free. I think they can still extend the trademark which is a different matter.