Dual Screens: Crayola Scoot: Review (Switch & Xbox One)

Crayola Scoot on Xbox One

Frank described Crayola Scoot to me as Tony Hawk meets Splatoon. I then explained to him that I’ve barely played the former and never played the latter, to which he replied something along the lines of, “Oh, well this will be interesting.”  Interesting it was.

With no nostalgia or fondness of those two franchises to call on, I entered Crayola Scoot completely uncolored. What I found was one of the most difficult types of games to review; one that I am really bad at.  When a game is just really bad, it’s easy to trash it, when it’s great, it’s easy to praise its laurels, but when you really suck at a game it can be hard to tell if it feels slightly better than average because it is, or because you’re bad at it.  

The basics of the game are as follows: complete in a series of short events where you either have to perform more tricks than the other racers, tag the other races or out color (color spills out of your scooter while doing various tricks) as much of the map as possible either as a team or solo. The game plays a lot like I remember the 15-30 minutes of Tony Hawk I ever played; using one stick to do tricks, jump, etc., as you grind and boost your way through various parks.

The learning curve, difficulty wise, in Crayola Scoot is steep. When you go from easy to medium you go from likely to get first to lucky to get first. Medium to hard is even steeper. The real problem though is that playing the game on easy will not prepare you for more than one or two of the bosses, who you have to out combo in a game of S.C.O.O.T. (think H.O.R.S.E.). These boss battles can get intense in the later rounds.

I was eventually able to beat all of the bosses, but in doing so I felt like I had gamed the system. I typically found the key to success wasn’t doing a lot of tricks but finding myself on a grinding loop with maybe a single jump to complete the grind. Using this trick, I managed over 110k combo once (that I only stopped out of boredom).  I simply couldn’t beat the game otherwise.

I also have to comment on my least two favorite aspects of the game; the upgrade system, which offers a large number of parts, all of which tend to give you minor gains in some stats but massive losses in others. I barely upgraded my equipment past stock though the game. Additionally, I hated the fact that the game that forces you back to the plaza after every level (meaning you then have to ride back to course select, load that screen, select your course and then load the level from there) causing significantly more time between levels if you want to go from one to the next.  Just saying, give us a “Back to Level Select” option at the end of a level.

Overall Crayola Scoot is a fun experiment that is bright and colorful for kids but has a difficulty curve parents who are nostalgic for Tony Hawk games will probably enjoy (if Frank is any indication). While I simply wasn’t very good at the game that shouldn’t take away from the fact it is a far more polished title than one would likely expect from a Crayola licensed game.

Tristan’s Score: 6 out of 10

 

Scoot on Switch

Crayola Scoot brings two wildly different games, Splatoon and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and slams them into a (somehow) very satisfying experience. The game plays like an old school Tony Hawk game, but with a hub world instead of open areas, I suppose that is to make it more accessible to its younger Target audience. The target audience is obviously younger, but I found so much nostalgia here, especially in my favorite part of the game, when playing the other characters in one on one games of SCOOT, instead of SKATE. This was always a favorite part in Tony Hawk beating “real life” skaters in trick competitions.

The Splatoon part comes in on several modes where you fling paint with every trick. These modes are fun but I found myself just doing the Trick/high score contests. The painting modes and trick game modes are the only good modes in the game. The game adds a few other modes that are just a little too boring and I found myself avoiding them in my playthrough.

Crayola Scoot is a mash together of different genres that somehow works out. There is a lot of love here for something that could have just been a soulless cash grab. It is not exactly gonna fill that Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater sized hole in your switch library but if you have to get a game to play with a tiny human, this is a great pick.

 

Frank’s Score: 7 out of 10 Crayola Scooters

 

Combined Score: 6.5 out of 10