Must Dash Amigos Review

Must Dash Amigos is a Mexican themed racing battle game from miniBeast games. It is very easy to pick up and play and it throws every Mexican stereotype at you like burritos, salsa, guacamole and of course Tequila. The game also serenades you with the usual Mariachi style music which seems to loop with the occasional ¡Arriba, arriba! It is very colourful and the characters of the game – although quite simple in design – have some charm about them.

So, on my first play to dive into a race I was faced with my first disappointment. I couldn’t do a race by myself against AI opponents. Upon clicking single player from the menu, I was faced with two options Time Trials or Challenges. I thought it was odd, so I checked back and selected the multiplayer option and I saw Race, Battle and Tourney which was exactly what I expected to see. However, I couldn’t proceed with the race under multiplayer as I needed more local players to launch the game. This brings me to my second disappointment, in that there is no online multiplayer functionality.

The loading screen shows you the simple button controls…all 3 of them. The d-pad or left analogue stick to move, X to use item and B to discard the item. So, after a 3 countdown, I am off on my time trial and the first impression is that the character moves nicely. The track itself is a tad generic, but it is clearly laid out. The items you can pick up in this game are packaged in piñatas tying in with the theme nicely but rather than a box to show what you have picked up like in most battle racers, you have to look at your amigo’s hands to see what the item is.

Most of the times it is a boost in the shape of speedy shoes, a missile which is a flaming burrito, a slippery surface left behind you which is a bottle of salsa or a red cape which calls a bull to be your mount which makes you temporarily invincible. However, all those elements aside the time trial itself felt very lifeless, a feeling that even the fast-paced Mexican music could not save.

But you can see the time you have to beat to earn gold, essentially aiming to win the currency of the game ,which is based on the title and called Mustachios. This currency is then used to unlock different outfits for the 4 characters, though these seemed to just be the outfits of the other characters. As the time trial was so dull, I thought the challenge would be a more interesting option. It was, but only slightly. The challenge mode gives a few different types of challenges such as moving two people at once using each thumb-stick, outrun the stampede or use your speed to catch the mystical Piñata.

None of these challenges are actually fun. It seems they use the tactic of; if you can’t make many various challenges ,then just make a few but make them really hard. After numerous tries of each challenge, I couldn’t complete any of them and very quickly lost interest. Clearly, this game was only supposed to be played with more people as playing single-player barely has any appeal.

So, I did just that and grabbed a few friends for some multiplayer. Finally, the fun was heating up a little – though not quite to Mexican spice levels! The fun in multiplayer is what you expect from a game like this. Fun for a few goes, but repetition and boredom set in pretty quickly. But you can see where the effort was put in here, as multiplayer is actually enjoyable. From using the gwack-a-mole (guacamole) item which turns other amigos into avocados that need squashing with a mallet or the tequila which warps the screen making it difficult to navigate.

In multiplayer you can either race, battle or do a tourney which is a mixture of both. The race isn’t exactly a race, it is similar to micro machines where you must outrun all other amigos off the screen to earn a point. You then have to hit a target number of points to win the race. A battle is a single screen level where you pick up the items and hit the opponents for points. The amigo with the most points when the time is up wins.

Conclusion

Must Dash seems to have a framework of a decent game, and it’s clear that multiplayer is the way to go here; though there is just not enough content for this to remain appealing. With no interesting single-player options, no online multiplayer and very little content, you will be hard pushed inviting friends over to play this for more than a couple of goes before your amigos say “I would love to stay and play more, but I really must dash”.

This game was tested and reviewed on Xbox One. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version.