Developed By: Compile Heart
Published By: Idea Factory
Categories: Action, Racing
Release Date: 01.28.25
Price: $39.99
*Game Download Code graciously provided for the purpose of review.

I was excited when I found out about Riders Vs Dogoos because I have many games from the franchise and really wanted to see where this goes. But in the end, I was disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of good in Riders Vs Dogoos, especially for fans of the series. But you’ll see what I mean in a second.

For starters, I absolutely love the silliness of the game. The characters and their dialogue are hilarious, and the story is pretty outrageous. There’s also full voice acting, a lot of customization options, a good soundtrack, and some good visuals. But that’s basically where the praise ends. 

The game is bad on multiple levels. For starters, the gameplay is short and shallow. It’s an arcade style driving game where you race around a little stage collecting dogoos. There’s all sorts of powerups, abilities, and hazards, and there’s a load of customization options. But at its foundation, the gameplay is just too simple. 

You’re just driving around and hoping that the AI of the other characters is doing worse than you. In most RPG’s, people get bored of fetch quests pretty quickly and that’s basically what this is. The entire game is boosting, jumping, and drifting, from one dogoo to another. 

After a few battles, the gameplay just becomes a means to the end rather than a fun experience. To make matters worse, each battle is far too quick. Obviously, you want to be complete the task faster than the AI, but some stages can be beaten in under two minutes. Customization becomes useless in battles that are so short and by the time you use your first ability, the battle is halfway over. 

Other than battles you have the little hub world and the visual novel aspects… and then that’s it… that’s everything. Not only that, but there aren’t even that many stages to begin with because the narrative tries to go as fast as possible. With all the battles, the story, the characters, the whole experience can be just a few hours.

This is a game that goes nowhere if you aren’t already a fan of the Neptunia series. If you’re looking to get into the series, this is the last game you’d want as your entry. If you are a fan, the $40 price point might be a bit much for what you get so you might want to wait until it goes on sale.

6/10