Are you tired of the traditional gameplay found in most strategy card-based games? We don’t blame you, folks. As much as we love card games and various strategy titles, we can grow tired of the usual gameplay over and over again. VROOM KABOOM attempts to alleviate this repetitive motion with a rather unique take on the card-based system we all know and love. VROOM KABOOM might be the game you want, but we suggest reading our full review below to see if this game caters to what you need in your gaming library.

The main idea of VROOM KABOOM is to mix strategy card-based gameplay with racing controls. Players will use cards that allow them to summon various vehicles like planes, tanks and even scooters to slam the enemy’s base with brute force or with a payload of carried explosives. Players can even play VROOM KABOOM in VR with the PSVR to see the game from a different perspective entirely. VROOM KABOOM attempts to be something original in the strategy gaming landscape and might be enjoyable to those who need a break from wizards and magic based titles.

VROOM KABOOM is all about taking down your enemy in glorious vehicular carnage. Take control of different vehicles and launch them literally at your enemy in whatever way possible. Control a tank and launch a volley of rockets at them or slam a police car right into the enemy base. Utilize your luck and skills to summon the right number of vehicles to win the mission and earn a much-needed win for your faction of choice. What are you waiting for? Go and launch some cars right this second!

Here at the hive, we gamers love all thins strategy-based. We love picking up games like Magic: The Gathering and so forth just to see if we can best the AI or others in a battle of wits/luck. However, as much as we love Magic: The Gathering or Hearthstone, we always wished for something slightly different that wasn’t about giant fantastical beasts or legendary warriors. That’s why when VROOM KABOOM came across our desks, we instantly were ready to try it out as it totes itself as a strategy game with cars. Does VROOM KABOOM deliver the needed break from the typical card-like strategy games we grow tired of? Let’s find out in our review of VROOM KABOOM for the PS4.

VROOM KABOOM by developer Ratloop Games Canada is a rather simple idea. Players gain control of one of three factions and must defeat the opposing faction’s base before they lose their own. Players accomplish this goal by summoning vehicles—like tanks, cars, motorcycles and even scooters—to smash and fire against the enemy base. Along the way, players will pick up various items like bombs, mana-like points to summon more vehicles and nitro boosts to help them do more damage to the enemy. This concept is where VROOM KABOOM shines as it seems to blend the traditional Magic: The Gathering card gameplay ideas with a vehicle-based racing title. Yet, due to numerous problems, VROOM KABOOM skids quickly into a wall with some frustrating ideas that can’t be recovered from.

The first major issues with VROOM KABOOM come in the form of the racing gameplay. When a player summons a car, they are given the ability to control the vehicle by using nitro, special abilities—which differ based on the vehicle—and can change lanes to avoid danger or to aim for specific areas on the track. While the abilities and nitro work well, controlling your vehicle feels like your driver just got drunk at a frat party. Your car will swerve strangely when you change lanes and often even get stuck on walls or on basic objects on the road. When your car takes too much damage—or get stuck too long—it explodes leaving you having to scramble to summon another or hope the AI is competent with controlling your vehicle to where you need it to go…which it sometimes is and isn’t. If you decide to play VROOM KABOOM in VR—which it does offer support for—the controls get even worse as you take a floating perspective to the right of the car and speed along with it. Be prepared to fall into the ground during jumps or even lose complete focus just because of random reasons.

Issue number two with VROOM KABOOM stems with the lack of reason to even play it after the first few levels. There are three factions to control each with their own specialized decks, vehicles and map locations but the goal of each level is the same time after time. Ram your cars into the enemy base and or occasionally do something slightly different. VROOM KABOOM like its overused audio commentary—more on that in a few moments we promise—feels repetitive after hour one and only gets worse as you play. Sure, you can unlock new vehicles and new maps to play on but the base game never feels different and it becomes rather stale. Though seeing the cars blow up in ridiculous collisions and such was never not entertaining so VROOM KABOOM did that much right.

Lastly, VROOM KABOOM’s other weakness is in its graphics and vocal commentary. Graphically, VROOM KABOOM looks pretty dated. While the vehicles look unique enough and reminiscent of Micro Machines—if anyone remembers what those toys were—and the environments have some style, none of the graphics look of this day and age. VROOM KABOOM could pass as a PS3 title in its early days of the console which is an utter shame. Then let’s focus on the vocal commentary which is fun initially, but ten minutes in, we found ourselves wanting to mute our TVs. When we heard the same lines being sprouted out by hour two of playing we went to the options menu and muted the voices completely, it’s that annoying and overused. If you play VROOM KABOOM, make sure to put your music of choice on, mute your TV, and just enjoy not hearing the same line one hundred times over and over.

VROOM KABOOM has some solid ideas going for it but unfortunately struggles to utilize those same ideas due to lack of polish that could have made this title spectacular. The strategy elements work well enough but VROOM KABOOM loses its enjoyment quite quickly due to extremely repetitive gameplay that feels pointless ultimately. The VR elements of VROOM KABOOM don’t fair much better in large part thanks to some strange camera focuses and odd control detection. VROOM KABOOM can be fun for those who like the idea of having control over mini vehicles with guns—namely kids—but for those who enjoy more tactful titles with substance, you’re going to want to look elsewhere. We only recommend VROOM KABOOM to those who desperately need strategy titles with cars instead of monsters and or warriors. Even then, be aware that VROOM KABOOM won’t be a great title and might only appeal to younger audiences at the end of the day.

VROOM KABOOM had a chance at being something we desperately needed in the strategy gaming world. With most strategy games focusing on monster and heroes, VROOM KABOOM made it about cars, tanks and all things vehicular which seemed like a really fresh idea. Unfortunately, Vroom KABOOM makes numerous mistakes with how it utilizes these fresh themes and ends up being a ho-hum game at best. We didn’t hate our time with VROOM KABOOM, but we won’t be going back to it anytime soon. Have you played VROOM KABOOM for yourself or are thinking of still picking it up? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below so we can engage with you readers out there. For more game reviews, gaming news and of course anime related content be sure to keep stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime.