Wildshade: Unicorn Champions Review – Cute Quest Quickly Runs Out of Steam

Ever wished you could saddle up on a magical steed and race against other fantasy creatures? Well buckle up, because Wildshade: Unicorn Champions lets you do just that! Developed by Tivola Games and published by Nacon, this colorful kart racer throws you into the whimsical world of Wildshade. You’ll get to pick from a stable of unicorns and horses, each with their own funky style.

The aim of the game is to trot, canter and gallop your way to first place by using drift boosts and magical pickups to trip up your opponents. It feels a lot like Mario Kart with a unicorn skin slapped on top. In this review, we’ll break down what it’s like to take these magical beasts for a spin around Wildshade’s wacky tracks.

Expect chatter on topics like the different game modes, the raise-your-own-unicorn breeding feature, and how well unicorns drift compared to go-karts. We’ll also touch on who this sugar-coated racer is best suited for and if its $40 price tag is justified. So what are we waiting for? Let’s saddle up and see if this unicorn racer will have you gleefully galloping to the finish or miserably walking back to the stable.

Unicorn Racing 101

When it comes to modes, Wildshade keeps things nice and simple. There’s a linear 40-race campaign that sees you trotting from race to race to progress the story. It’s super easygoing – you just need to place in the top 5 to move forward. Outside the story, there are single events and tournaments across 20 tracks. These let you unlock new cosmetic items to pimp your pony. Nothing groundbreaking, but it covers the basics.

In terms of handling, this ain’t your typical horse racing game. You can drift and boost by holding a shoulder button, just like in Mario Kart. It feels weird at first, sliding a horse around corners like it’s a sports car. But you get the hang of it pretty quick. The controls themselves are mad simple too. Any friendship group should get the basic moves down fast, no matter their skill level.

As for powerups, these rainbow unicorns have some tricks up their sleeve! Magic crystals give you access to spells you can use to blast back at rivals. We’re talking whirlwinds, icy patches, protective bubbles – all the usual suspects from kart racers. One thing that annoyed me was not being able to shoot stuff backwards. Made it hard to hit riders behind you.

Now onto the competition. In single player, some AI riders feel like they’ve got built-in aimbot! They bombard you relentlessly whenever you get close. With items spammed so frequently, it’s not uncommon to drop from 1st to 8th in seconds. Pretty darn brutal for little kids. On the flipside, tactic-heavy gameplay takes a backseat. Success comes down to having the right powerup at the right time, not skill.

At the end of the day, there’s a definite lack of innovation here. It borrows so much from Mario Kart, from the premise down to the Banana-esque powerups. Yet despite the similarities, it still manages to capture that same chaotic, family fun feeling. Just maybe tone down the unicorn violence next time!

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A Magical Sugar Rush for the Senses

It won’t shock you to hear that Wildshade pops with color from the moment you boot it up. I mean, the game revolves around unicorns and rainbows! The visual style is vibrant, dreamy, and unashamedly cute. Each race track has its own fun theme, from star-speckled nightscapes to beachy tropical paradises. My personal fave was the candy kingdom with its chocolate canal and nougat-coated grandstands. Talk about a sugar rush for the senses!

Every location looks crisp and clear in both handheld and TV modes. I didn’t catch any nasty frame rate drops, even with 4 player split screen chaos. The visual clarity is helped by a dead simple interface. Everything is presented nice and clean so you can focus on the race. The only real clutter comes from bombardment by enemy spells, but even those flashy effects didn’t bog things down.

In keeping with the cute appearance, the music aims squarely for “delightfully playful.” The overworld tunes sound like they’re ripped straight from My Little Pony, with jaunty beats and smiling synths. During races, the tempo picks up as you’d expect. No headbanging guitar riffs, but it matches the frantic action well enough. The unicorn shrieks when hit are priceless too!

On the presentation side, Wildshade knows exactly what it’s going for. This ain’t aiming for realism or mature themes. It wants to drown you in color and sugar until you smile yourself silly. And on that count, it delivers its goal amazingly. Sure, it lacks graphical flourish and risky creative choices. But not every game needs to reinvent the wheel. For its target audience, Wildshade absolutely nails it.

Pimp Your Pony

Unicorns might be the main draw here, but horses come saddled with their own appeal too. Whichever you pick, there are cosmetic ways to make your four-legged friend your own. As you progress and git gud, you can unlock different manes, coats, eyes, tack, and accessories. I slapped some pink shades and a leather jacket on my bad boy. Why not, he’s earned some swag!

When it comes to breeding, you can mix-and-match to create a custom baby pony. Sadly, breeding has little impact on stats or performance. It only produces aesthetic differences in the offspring. Missed opportunity if you ask me! Still, my daughter had fun playing matchmaker with all our steeds. The Resulting foals were cute combos like a blue unicorn with flame decals. But weirdly, they didn’t seem to appear in our stable after being born. Glitch or am I just being dumb?

As expected, this pony party allows up to 4 players to saddle up together locally. You’ve got options for vertical or horizontal split screen so everyone gets a decent view of the action. It’s best fun when the whole herd is racing together, launching spells and trash talk in equal measure! Plus it stops the single player AI being so annoyingly aggressive.

For little kids still getting to grips, Wildshade has auto-acceleration and steering assists enabled by default. I can see why, since controlling live horses ain’t exactly intuitive. But turning them off injects more skill into races. The only real downside is increased risk of unicorn wall impacts!

Among the quality-of-life stuff, Wildshade offers solid save game functionality and tips during load screens. Nothing revolutionary but it covers the basics well. My main annoyance came from those darned unicorn shrieks when taking damage. Chill out guys, turning down the volume would make slinging spells less grating!

Unicorns Worth Revisiting?

I blasted through the campaign mode in around 2 hours. It’s linear, repetitive, and you can unlock new events without even coming first. So for single player value, that bubble burst fast. There are trophies for coming 1st in every tournament, but the allure of unlocking new colored saddles soon faded for me.

Where this pony ride really finds its feet is multiplayer. Slinging spells at friends, family, or online randos is eternally more fun than predictable AI. The ability to handicap races also helps reduce skill gaps. And with 20 tracks, plus mirrored and nighttime variants, there’s enough variety to avoid repetition. New DLC courses down the line could definitely help too.

At an RRP of $40, the amount of modes feels slightly anemic. But prices drop, especially for digital copies. For kiddos obsessed with all things unicorn, Wildshade should offer weeks of fun. Replay value is extended considerably if you’ve got 3 or 4 little ones clamoring for their turn too!

For parents, that playtime vs cost ratio ain’t half bad when it frees up your evenings. Just be warned – you’ll have requests for a real pet unicorn soon enough!

A Cute Romp, With Room to Improve

After trotting many laps around Wildshade, I must admit this colorful racer brightened up my day. The presentation oozes cuteness from every pore thanks to those magical steeds. Unicorn drifts are a bizarre concept but the novelty was goofy fun while it lasted. When it comes to adorable aesthetics and charm, Wildshade absolutely nails its target market.

But behind the sugar rush, longevity leaves a lot to be desired. Both content variety and challenge dried up sooner than expected. It heavily leans on multiplayer chaos to pad things out. And many mechanics like breeding feel surface level rather than adding genuine depth.

As a Mario Kart clone, Wildshade follows the template closely but lacks innovation. Features like auto-steer make picking up and playing easy, but additional difficulty settings would give experienced gamers reason to return. Expanding on the unique lore and steed abilities could definitely help it stand out from the herd too.

Still, for the right players, it’s an enjoyable romp. If you’ve got mini gamers obsessed with unicorns then Wildshade should delight them, while giving parents a break. $40 feels steep for what’s offered though, especially if primarily playing solo. Those without kids may want to trot on by and leave this one sparkling in the stable.

With more modes, balancing, and purpose behind breeding, Wildshade could level up. As is, its bubblegum exterior masks a pretty hollow interior in terms of replayability. But the solid foundations are there for the developer to build upon. And I’d be lying if I said those unicorn shrieks didn’t make me chuckle every time!

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