With its third entry into the Eggcelerate! series, developer Tim Beaudet cranks up the difficulty and provides the most egg-smashing just-one-more-go scream-inducing game he has produced to date. Thankfully, for the most part it is also extremely fair and well-balanced too, which is what makes the game and series addictive.
This time around Eggcelerate goes to the tropics for beaches, sand, mud bogs, lava and crypts. You’ll be driving a two-wheeled bike with a basket on top with an egg inside. You must not let the egg fall on the floor – this is a hyper egg and spoon race. Steer too hard, brake too fast and wobble too much and the egg will go flying and splat on the floor. The 30 levels are designed to test your patience and dexterity as hills, jumps, balance beams, flame throwers, muddy hairpins and falling boulders mean you’ll need carefully pick your way through the level to reach the end. However, being on a bike means you can’t go too slowly or the bike falls over. This largely works perfectly for the first 20 levels before Eggcelerate starts to add in a lot of “Its a Knockout” style swinging hammers that require some very precise timing. It was the final couple of levels that really made me scream because those hammers will knock you for six and sometimes its tricky to work out what is safe to do. The levels also place some of their hardest moments right at the end of purpose which does feel slightly cruel at times too, but it adds to the game’s charm.
Crossing the line is part of the reward but seeing where you stack up on the online leaderboards is what keeps you coming back. You can see your position for every level and you will start to get very competitive very quickly. Levels often have multiple routes and branching paths and whilst this is mainly for collecting the 100 sea turtles dotted across the game, sometimes picking your route through a maze of branching paths will reap speedrunning rewards on the leaderboards too. The sea turtles are an optional challenge but its well integrated into the game and I felt it was a step forward from the North Pole game which offered various mini-games housed inside a level such as curling but didn’t really let you play them fully.
The other thing I want to praise Eggcelerate! to the Tropics on is the control scheme. Both keyboard and controller are viable ways to play and both work well. The only downside, apart from some sadistic late-game levels, is that sometimes the egg physics does feel like it’s not entirely consistent. In one level you start off driving to full speed to jump over a bridge. Sometimes the egg lands perfectly in the basket but two out of three times it doesn’t. As a player, I’m doing an identical move but I’m getting slightly different results. When a game is physics-based, that is a bit of a problem but outside of a few key jump moments, I didn’t find its woolly physics too bothersome.
The most complete entry to the series yet, Eggcelerate! to the Tropics is a lovely addition to anyone’s game collection that enjoys time trial racing or funny games like Snuggle Truck or Trials. Playful with a challenge in its tail, it’ll keep you entertained long after you cross the finish line.
Review copy provided by the developer. Out now on Steam.
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