jimmy jimmyson 最近的评测

Good gravy, I can't believe I have a higher total play time on Bad Rats than this masterpiece.

"Duck Detective: The Secret Salami" is an isometric point-and-click adventure game which plays similarly to games like those from the "Sam & Max" series and, to an extent, the "Sherlock Holmes" games by Frogwares: You analyse your environment, interrogate other characters, solve puzzles and piece together the mystery of who took Laura's lunch, among other things.

The voice acting and soundtrack definitely give it that film noir feel, while still retaining a whimsical but original look with the whole "cardboard cut-out" visual aspect to characters in the overworld. I do like the fact that the game doesn't try desperately to make the game feel funny (lookin' at you, Cubicle Quest) or solely rely on overused gags, so I'd like to think that speaks volumes about the visual and writing quality and how it naturally exudes humour. The Duck Detective looking at his reflection inspection was definitely the highlight for me in regards to those two attributes.

The difficulty of the game is also interesting. There were a couple of puzzles that took a good amount of brainpower to make sense of the clues given, so it's good to see a kind of push-and-pull when it comes to the different puzzles the game has to offer. When interrogating other characters or interacting with the environment, they can sometimes give you false clues (or "red herrings", if you will) so sifting out these from the actual clues gives the deducktions a certain level of depth that I wasn't expecting.

One aspect which threw me off a bit was the fact that dialogue isn't tracked in the sense that other characters can say something important but only ONCE and if you misheard or forget about it later on, then tough luck. Fortunately, the game is rather forgiving when it comes to the completion of deducktions, but there were a couple of times when I basically just had to brute force the available the options because of that.

The game itself is certainly something you could finish in one night. To me, this is a good thing because it means the developers have focused on delivering a high-quality experience across the whole game end-to-end, rather than having a game with twice the content but with quality that drops as it progresses. It also lends itself naturally to an episodic approach for future titles, especially since there are a lot of things in this game's world building that aren't explored in great detail.

In terms of price, the game is... average on that front, at least when looking at it in terms of cost vs. total game time on completion. In my locale, the game roughly stands at the same price as "Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments" which easily took 10+ hours for me to finish. Granted, "Duck Detective" is a new IP (I think?) from Happy Broccoli Games and Frogwares have been making these "Sherlock Holmes" games for over a decade now, so perhaps that's not exactly a fair comparison.

I'm probably going to give this a 9/10. It combines the charm & comedy of the old "Sam & Max" games with the core mechanics & plot depth (or thereabouts) of the "Sherlock Holmes" games by Frogwares to create a unique experience that will be a challenge to top if there is a sequel/second episode in the works. And if that's not enough - How many games do you get to play as a case-hardened duck detective desperate to make ends meet in both his personal and professional life? I thought so.

And one more thing: Casting BDG as the voice for Freddy was definitely the right move. He even sounds vaguely like one of my ex-coworkers as well, weirdly enough.

Note: I basically stopped playing this game after completing all possible experiments up until the 3rd iteration of the balloon chair myth.

Right off the bat, I was somewhat disappointed with "MythBusters: The Game" after playing through the first experiment. No memorable intro theme? No Jamie or Adam appearances? No iconic narration by Rob Lee? Can I even call this a MythBusters game at this point?! Still, I suppose the funding of a KickStarter budget can only get you so many things.

In the game, your primary objective is to complete experiment blueprints, craft all the necessary items to conduct the experiment and then execute it. You also record episodes to get funds and boost popularity, which I'll admit is an interesting mini-game on its own.

So far, my biggest qualm is with the controls and menu structure of the game. So many keys to remember, even when you rebind them to something more memorable - You've got a button for the notebook, a button for your skill tree, a button for your inventory. And you have to manually scrounge together resources scattered around the environment, and sort of remember where everything is.
I would've liked to have seen this done in a similar way to the "Sherlock Holmes" games by Frogwares, where you have one menu where everything is accessible from a GUI with clearly visible tabs, including a top-down map detailing where everything is.

My second gripe is the quality of feedback from both experiments and the crafting process. In the second iteration of the bullet curving experiment, I spent what felt like 10's of minutes checking and rechecking my setup, wondering why I kept failing the experiment. It would've helped a lot if there was a visual trace of where the bullets were going, or a replay of the experiment in action rather than just being told "Well, you failed. Go and fix your setup."
Personally, I find it odd that, for a game that's supposed to simulate the process of busting or confirming myths, there's no menu anywhere that lets you compare specific setups and the results obtained. This is especially true in the rocket car experiment, where the sheer number of variables that can affect your success isn't really quantifiable within the game, unless you're manually writing everything you did on a notepad while you're playing.

As for the crafting aspect, the game doesn't do a great job of reminding you of existing items you either have on hand or have set up in the field already that can be reused for the current experiment. So I often end up double purchasing a bunch of material because of this, only to realise afterwards that I wasted $3000 and minutes of menial activities on nothing.

The experiments themselves are... OK at best. Once you've done all the core myths, it's essentially just revisiting them again and the novelty factor is dulled. The rocket launch experiment was a little bit interesting in that you can start to change some of the key variables in the experiment, albeit a bit tedious having to repeat a bunch of tasks. The balloon chair experiment in particular was painful to complete because the balloons kept spawning behind Buster, such that the gun could barely hit at most 1 or 2 of them, and sometimes the bullets don't even pop the balloons - This one and its iterations are probably the worst myths the game has to offer in my opinion because of how bad and unintuitive the controls are.
The game is a bit unclear about how to repeat experiments once they've been completed. But it seems you just need to select the correct blueprint which lets you access the relevant site, so you do need to think ahead as to whether or not a setup is worth paying to be rebuilt.

I do like the fact that the developers are responding somewhat actively to topics on the Steam discussion forum (at the time of this review). Not really sure how seriously they are considering improvements to the game, but there is a likely chance they may end up reading them at the very least.

For now, I'll give this a 5/10. The game does what it says on the store page, and you sort of feel like a MythBuster when playing. Whether it's largely enjoyable is another thing.
And one more thing - Where are the Steam trading cards?!

Considering that there's a set of KFC comics[www.dccomics.com] published by DC, a KFC gaming rig[landing.coolermaster.com] made in collaboration with Cooler Master, a T.V. short with Mario Lopez as Colonel Sanders[www.imdb.com] and even official KFC Crocs[www.crocs.com], this dating sim is perhaps one of the more sensible ventures by KFC.

"I Love You, Colonel Sanders! A Finger Lickin’ Good Dating Simulator" is a short dating sim revolving around trying to impress your fellow classmate Colonel Sanders during your three-day stint at a prestigious culinary school. Depending on how well you manage to woo the Colonel, you get get a different ending. Or make a catastrophic choice that instantly ends the game!

The game is split into several sections with pre-defined checkpoints, where losing the game takes you back to the last checkpoint since there's no explicit save functionality. I suppose for a game this short, having to remember the right decisions isn't too much of a burden, although it did get annoying at times when trying to explore different dialogue branches for the alternative endings.

In terms of the storyline, the game doesn't take itself too seriously but also doesn't take the whole "self-aware humour" so far that it becomes dry, like those KFC dinner rolls. There's even a part of the game that turns into an RPG-style battle. It would have been nice to have alternative endings with some of the other characters like Aeshleigh, Miriam or even Professor Dog. There's also a bunch of unanswered questions that never really get addressed, such as: Who exactly is the nameless student? Why does Van Van only cook seafood dishes? What's the deal with Professor Dog's unbound hatred towards Terrance?
At the same time, by not having to worry about these, the game can solely focus everything on the one question that really matters: Are you the one for Colonel Sanders?

But even for a game this minimal, I'm somewhat disappointed at the lack of a CG gallery so I can enjoy the visual deliciousness of food I'll never be able to eat. I also had great trouble trying to unlock the secret ending (even after reading an online guide), so in the end, I just watched it on YouTube.

After all that said, I'd give this an 8/10. Much like KFC, it's hot, crispy and full of deep-fried goodness. Also like KFC, it's finished quickly and leaves you wanting more.

> Finish the game after a couple of nights of playing.
> Try to complete the Starite shard quests.
> Get stumped by the Don Quixote quest.
> "Who the heck is Don Quixote?"
> Download the Don Quixote book on Kindle.
> Spend hours reading through Don Quixote trying to make sense of it all while looking for the clue words provided by the quest.
> Give up.
> Search the Internet for "Don Quixote giants quote".
> Realize that Don Quixote hates windmills for some reason.

As a standalone game, "Scribblenauts Unlimited" makes for a few hours of interesting word-related fun. As with the previous games, you use words and adjectives to solve various puzzles and collect Starites. It also doubles as a sandbox game, where you can spawn all kinds of objects with different adjectives, as well as import user-made objects from the Steam Workshop.

As a "Scribblenauts" game, I feel as though "Scribblenauts Unlimited" dropped the ball on interesting puzzles that extend the boundaries of the previous games, specifically "Scribblenauts" and "Super Scribblenauts".
In this game, one of the new mechanics introduced is object editing - You can now directly modify how an object looks and behaves, and the same goes for Maxwell himself. Does the game make use of these mechanics for any of its puzzles? Nope! Sure, maybe a couple of puzzles here and there that require you to add a single adjective to Maxwell, but nothing complicated. Just use these to get some achievements, and you never have to touch those features again.
This game also gets rid of the "Get to the Starite" puzzles in favour of just "Solve this person's problem" kind of puzzles. I remember in "Scribblenauts" there were some really interesting puzzles around that idea - one level forced you to move the Starite itself through a maze back to Maxwell, another had the Starite in a dangerous position that risked it getting destroyed if you made the wrong move. I would've liked to see more of those kinds of puzzles that have a bit more of an action edge to them.

Understandably, "Scribblenauts" and "Super Scribblenauts" were difficult in their own ways, perhaps to the detriment of bringing new players to the series. "Scribblenauts" had the limitation of no adjectives, so you really had to think hard about what objects to use for a certain situation. "Super Scribblenauts" had those "match three" puzzles where given a set of objects, you had to create other objects with adjectives that would relate back to said objects in the level. Both games also included an "extra challenge" mode where you had to complete the same puzzle three times without reusing any objects from previous attempts.

All in all, I'd give this a 7.5/10. If you like a somewhat easy game and want to feel a false sense of verbose achievement, this might tickle your fancy. Use fancy words like "Otolaryngologist"! Feel like a dummy when you know what object you need but can't remember its name! This game has it all, plus or minus more!

Only 20% of players managed to get the first achievement? Pfft. Can't be that difficult -- oh.

Bad Rats Show is a physics-based puzzle game that slightly improves on its predecessor, Bad Rats. The premise is still the same: Get the ball to the button and watch the cat get exploded/burned/frozen/eaten alive/nuked/spiked. Overall, this is still a fairly bad game, but I'm only giving it a positive review in context of the original Bad Rats game.

As a sequel, Bad Rats Show improves on a number of areas from the first game. For a start, the physics are much more consistent when running your solution multiple times (still not 100% reliable, but definitely an improvement). The newly-added ball trace is useful when running your solution, as you can precisely plan out which route the ball will take in a given setup and give better insight about how to improve one's solution.
You also get "difficulty settings" for people who are truly trash at these kinds of games. You can give yourself to access to all rats and utilities (as opposed to being restricted to the level's recommended resources) as well as enable/disable the solution plan, which is the game's way of telling you "This is how the developers planned for you to solve this". There doesn't seem to be much/any obvious in-game penalty for using that sort of level assistance.

Bad Rats Show also adds a bunch of new rats, utilities, ball types and even level gimmicks to give each set of stages an interesting difficulty curve. Some of your favourite rats from the first game don't make it in, such as the Fat Rat and the Rocket Rat, although some of their core features are carried to some of the "new" rats (e.g. Bulldozer Rat has been replaced by the Football Rat, except that Football Rat starts running once its timer has expired).
The game doesn't do a very good job of introducing you to each of the new mechanics (besides the initial level blurb), so I ended up just doing several trial-and-error runs to understand how it works.

During the last set of levels, the game introduces 3D levels, which I find to be the most confusing part of the game which is partly attributed to the difficult camera controls you didn't have to deal with in the 2D levels. Moving things around in 3D levels is fairly awkward, as using the movement arrows didn't seem to work very well and using the rotation arrows sometimes involved me dragging my mouse across the desk. In terms of strategy, I found that Pope Rat is an absolute beast since it operates using line-of-sight, which effectively lets me finish some levels by flinging the ball all over the place and then use other rats to "tap it in" when close to the button.

You also get access to a rather finicky level editor, which people just seem to use to get that one achievement for uploading levels to the Steam Workshop. From what I've seen, the default level is not a blank level, but rather the last main game level you played and includes your last run solution for said main game level. Not sure if this is a bug?
One useful feature in the level editor is that after a test run, it preserves the rats and utilities last used on the level (until the resource restrictions change), so you can incrementally tweak the level as needed without having to painstakingly remember which rats needed to be in what places to retry the old solution and see how it fares.

You also get scored on your solution once you completed a level. The score breakdown is fairly arbitrary, and doesn't seem to do a whole lot besides put you on the Steam global leader board for "Highest collective score". You don't even get to see your own "high scores" per level as far as I'm aware, so it's difficult to find levels you did badly on and improve. Although there's very little incentive to do so, unless you really like the idea of being one of the top Bad Rats Show players in the world?

Of course, it wouldn't be a Bads Rats game without the bugs, crashes and sub-par animation quality:

• Rats automatically adjust themselves to their standing positions if they happen to be on their sides. If you put a sideways rat in a small space, it will stand up but it will jitter like crazy because it's being sandwiched by two surfaces.
  
• When the ball bounces out of bounds, you discover that it will simply pass through things such as audience members or background buildings. On 2D levels, the camera can also zoom to some unrelated location.
  
• In the last set of stages, the ball is usually rendered in front of walls and other things during runs, which makes it difficult to determine if the ball is in front or behind certain objects.
  
• After completing the second last level, the game says I completed all original game levels and it went on to play the final cut scene. I didn't get the proper (in-game and Steam) achievement until I actually finished the last level.
  
• I found that running the game in windowed mode causes crashes on my machine (specifically, it seems to be trying to obtain an invalid memory address according to the error log).
  
• After the nuke kill animation, the MC Rat sometimes clips with his bunker.
  
• One time, the Football Rat went invisible but still pushed the ball anyway. The model later appeared somewhere next to the MC Rat.

After all that being said, I'd give this a mediocre 6/10. Still not a great game, but still better than the first Bad Rats game. So if you're looking for something to add to that number of perfect games on your Steam profile, you're in for a treat -- A tough, tasteless treat.

When the world struggled to solve a series of mysterious crimes and failed to take down a terrorist group known as the Merry Men, only one hero took up the challenge to make things right. And his name is... Toby the dog

"Holmes: Crimes and Punishments" is the first of the Frogwares "revamped" Sherlock Holmes games, and seems to take place before "Holmes: Testament" but after "Holmes vs. Ripper". It starts this trend with the newer Sherlock Holmes games where it's a series of mini-episodes instead of one mega-story with storyline tangents. Throughout the game, it also explores this overarching theme of truth vs. order, which manifests in the various moral choices you can make in each conclusion.

Having played "Holmes: Testament" and "Holmes: Devil's Daughter" beforehand, this games has some interesting components which you don't get in the other Holmes games, like the "figure out how to activate the poisonous plant" puzzle, the quick-time-event conclusions and the personality rating gauge. It also seems slightly easier in certain areas than the later games, such as the fact that character portraits aren't timed and the repetition of the lock-style puzzles across cases (all I did was connect the movable pieces correctly and jiggle all the other pieces around until I'd accidentally solved the puzzle).
And let's not to forget the main star of this game - Toby the dog! While the Toby segments are effectively just "follow the green gas trail and go to X" tasks, it was certainly nice being able to play as everyone's beloved sniffer-dog. Although still not as good as the Toby section in "Holmes: Testament"...

But this game also has some rough edges, which are ironed out a bit in the later games. I found a couple of the mini-games super difficult like arm-wrestling with Cairns (this was an optional component in "Holmes: Devil's Daughter" but I could never seem to beat the opponent, so perhaps I'm just mad 'cause I'm bad?) and that bridge-crossing section in the "Blood Bath" case - those quick-time-events paired with the specifically timed mouse clicks are just the worst.
There were also a number of minor issues I experienced, ranging from dialogue caption typos to weird rendering issues where Watson would teleport into the ground or Wiggins' chin would start flashing purple.

From a gameplay perspective, everything is mostly the same: You walk around, interact with evidence, get clues, interrogate suspects. Occasionally, you'll need to react to quick-time-events when you need to spot a character contradiction, although there isn't much penalty for a wrong answer except you have to repeat the event again.
The first-person mini-games certainly made for a nice change of pace in some of the cases. Also because you get to do things like hurl a harpoon at a pig carcass and shoot some dynamite.

In terms of story, "Holmes: Crimes and Punishments" takes a more realistic approach compared to most of the older Sherlock Holmes games, where you learn about each of the suspects as you progress in the case and formulate conclusions as different information comes up.
The three main issues I have with the story components in "Holmes: Crimes and Punishments" are:
1. Conclusion Locking: This is specific to the "Kew Gardens Drama" case, but if you haven't deduced certain conclusions before solving the ventilation system puzzle, you don't get to see them. So I get punished for waiting until the end of the case to make my final conclusions, which I find ridiculous.
2. Characters: Let's be real here - Mr. Robinson should have been using more verbal contractions and slang in his dialogue for that authentic Australian feel, even if it's not representative of the way Australians spoke during that time period. And don't get me started about Mycroft - I had no idea he was that chubby. His inclusion in the game is probably why this game was a 17 GB download, if you know what I mean.
3. The conclusion to the final case: When I got the choice to stop or allow the Merry Men to bomb the London Stock Exchange, it really had me stumped for a good 20 minutes because it was at this point you really had to choose between saving the system or its people... And then it turns out whatever decision you made didn't matter because it was the end of the game. Would have been nice to have one final case to carry on from whatever decision you made to really add some gravity to your choice at that moment.

For the achievements, you get a lot of them through one regular play, although you may need to do a second run through depending on how much you missed (I only had to repeat two cases to catch some missed conclusions). And as a side note, don't pay attention to the percentage of people who chose a particular moral choice - especially if you're just in it for the "Man of Personality" achievement.

All up, I'd give this a 8.5/10. By no means the best Holmes game, but it sets the bar nicely for the games that followed it. And totally worth waiting about 2 years for this game to drop well below $15.

It's Euro Truck Simulator, except you actually get penalised for being a bad driver.

Personally, the hardest puzzle in the entire game was learning how to play lawn bowling in 5 minutes.

For a bit of background at the time of writing this review, I've played more or less all the Sherlock Holmes games by Frogwares, except "Holmes: Crimes and Punishments" (still waiting for that to drop below $15, Volvo).
Compared to previous games in the series, this one is a HUGE step up in terms of graphics, storyline, puzzles and characterisation. Heck, you even get customisation in the game, so you can make Holmes look like George Costanza from Seinfeld.

In a similar format to some of the previous games, the game is composed of several cases and one big plot-significant case at the end to tie everything together. Unlike the previous games, each case has several endings that sort of influence how the final case turns out. You can also view stats for how many people chose what ending, which is handy for seeing if you got the "more popular" ending.

As for storyline, it certainly carries on from "Holmes: Testament" because Kate's in the game and Moriarty gets mentioned in the final case and hints at how he died in "Holmes: Testament", but you can still enjoy the game without the extra background knowledge.
The storyline is also interesting in how you have to balance your relationship with Kate while still solving your cases. Usually it has little impact on the case itself, but it sets itself well for the last case in particular.

In regards to storyline, I should also make a comment on the characters as well. The game generally focusses on Holmes and Kate. In particular, Holmes feels like he's losing Kate, and Kate wants to pursue her own interests against Holmes' opinions. I think this is the first game where Holmes actually shows a considerable level of care for someone other than Watson. As for Kate, you get a basic sense of her own personality, being more a creative and artistic character based on the things in her room in the apartment.
Some of the suspects also get an interesting characterisation as for their possible motivations for doing the crime. For example, there's a suspect in the "Chain Reaction" case that, in one of the endings, commits the crime to show the public how corrupt the police are.
Most other stock standard support characters stay the same as well: Watson, Lestrade, Wiggins, Toby.

If you're played some of the earlier Sherlock Holmes games from Frogwares, "Holmes: Devil's Daughter" focusses a lot more on action-oriented puzzles rather than the "sit down and do a bunch of number crunching" puzzles. I suppose that's to take advantage of modern technology, so I'm certainly a fan of the puzzles in this game.
A bunch of the puzzles also take the form of timed events, where you have a time limit to do something. Those were difficult, and usually turn into a trial-and-error brute-force-fix, which really detracted from the whole tension experience at times.

Speaking of modern technology, the graphics and mechanics have certainly been improved from previous games. Facial flexes still need a bit of work, but the textures and lighting make the environment a lot more immersive compared to previous games. Character models have also been upgraded, with Holmes looking more washed-up and Watson looking more slim.
Mechanics-wise, the classic "Holmes Vision" (i.e. press spacebar to view all interactable things on the screen) has been replaced with what I like to refer to as "Observation Haki"[onepiece.wikia.com], which lets Holmes see what would normally be invisible. This could be guards behind a wall, or analysing some prints on the ground. In any case, I still miss the old "Holmes Vision".

In summary, "Holmes: Devil's Daughter" is certainly a good puzzle game for what it's worth. A lot has improved since the last games, and I've even ommitted some parts of this review just to keep its size reasonable.
So I'd give this game a respectable 9.5/10. The question now is: How well can Frogwares step up for the next game?

So what did I do over my winter holidays?

I solved a crime, almost got shot by a tank, went to Comicon, defended the school from a fanboy-powered laser cannon, saw a lunar eclipse, almost went into a coma, fought a psychotic post-humous Hydra bird, read some stories and visited the local shrine. Also, I played Team Fortress 2. Also played Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star.

This is a visual novel game, being more on the "novel" end of the spectrum with all the reading involved. There are still opportunities to make decisions, and said decisions can still have consequences. So make sure you save when you need to.
There are 4 main episodes, with about 6 mini-episodes and about 6 radio episodes. Each are fairly independent from each other, though there are some occasional small references to other episodes. I also find that the game makes some rather obscure references to Japanese culture, birds and the visual novel genre itself, so it helps to have an internet browser open to look up anything weird you come across like "manyoshu" or "moe".

The storyline is as ridiculous as you would expect it to be, especially with the introduction of Miru+Kaku (comedy relief), Tohri (self-proclaimed villain?) and The King (the true villain!). Much like the first game, things start off with a simple plot, and then escalates to a bigger scheme and then finishes with a final punchline.
Sometimes the main episodes can feel longer than you'd expected, and I think it took me about 15 to 30 minutes per episode, since I try to read the story and all.
I liked the Picture Book sections in the last two episodes. They can be rather abstract stories, but really set the transition well for the last episode because of the tone used and the stakes in the storyline at those key moments.
The last episode was certainly a real gut buster. Not only because of the inherent shift in storyline tone, but also because of the feels that each character struggles with and how to overcome themselves. I mean, I sort of felt bad for The King at that point of the story, but you know enough of the truth by then.

The mini-episodes are tremendously shorter than the main episodes. They revolve around little non-canonical adventures, like Legumentines with Okosan, and the Kyoto field trip. Nothing too serious but still moderately entertaining, sort of like the filler episodes from your favourite anime show.

The radio episodes are essentially Q&A sessions with Ryouta and other characters to answer fan mail...apparently. Some of the episodes reference the secret BBL ending of the first game, so be aware of that. Otherwise, nothing too serious there and moderately entertaining.

The music is nice, I still can't believe Yuuya gets his own theme played whenever he enters the scene. It's a groovy tune, admittedly. Sound is used occasionally, and is usualy just for simple things like plates being smashed or Okosan running off.

Achievements are fairly easy. Just watch the episodes and their variants, and that's basically that.

In conclusion, I'd say this is a good 9/10.
It would help to have an autosave feature after certain segments of the story so I don't have to skip through everything again. Also, I miss the option to have human versions of the characters (this is only available in the Shrine Visit mini-episode).

On the main menu, Teddy Floppy Ear looks like he's ready for a black ops mission.

Anyway, Teddy Floppy Ear - The Race is a very watered down version of Mario Kart.
While it's fairly obvious this is a children's game, it was still enjoyable and challenging. Then again, I don't play a lot of racing games, so my standards are kinda low when it comes to this genre.

Now, the controls are not very fluid, and your turning ability isn't that great. At least when you start. This is probably where a lot of the challenge is going to arise from, because you have to learn how to deal with such clunky turning.
But once you have the hang of things, you get sort of better. And once you've stayed first for a while, the rest of the track is a bit of a cruise, assuming you can maintain your performance at a consistent level.
As you complete cups and challenges and such, you can earn new gear to add to your cars. I'm not sure if these have any significant impact on your car's performance, or if I'm just getting better at the game. But personally, I do like to think they do something.

Much like Mario Kart, you can pick characters and cars to use to race with. Bear in mind that the cars are inspired mostly from Polish motor vehicles from the 1950's to the late 1990's. I would assume this is the case because Teddy Floppy Ear or more accurately, Miś Uszatek was a kids show in Poland around the 1970's time period. Now, I'm not sure if the cars vary in performance since there aren't any 'statistics' for each vehicle, but the Polonez has worked well for me.
Characters are (probably) based off the kids show as well, but you can also recall some of them from the other Teddy Floppy Ear games on Steam. Again, the game doesn't tell you anything about the characters except the name and their appearance.

The game modes are also fairly standard. Generic races, 1-lap time trials, 1v1 race tourney, collect-the-things-on-the-track races. Nothing overly new, but I think the challenge is emphasised more in the maps the game gives you.
While the majority of the maps are manageable with the horrendous steering, track obstacles and other racers, they do give you sharp turns every here and now, and if you're not familiar with the map, it can be a real struggle to get by without crashing into a wall. So speed management and makeshift drifting (i.e. turning while braking or slowing down) is very handy to learn.
On the subject of maps, the game also has night levels, which are essentially reskins of the regular levels with a darker backdrop and lights in certain places of the circuit. While this does make the map more challenging especially when you try to use the map shortcuts, it's still sort of easy if you already have an idea about the general layout of its daytime counterpart.

Like most racing games these days, there are powerups you can use to give yourself a buff. Apparently, I only found at once I finished the game that the Help section on the main menu literally gives you all the information on controls and powerups. These powerups can be picked up by crashing into them, and override anything you're already currently holding.
Surprisingly, since the powerups are not randomised much, you can more or less get any powerup whether you're first, middle or last. You'll also find that there aren't any of those rage-inducing hit-the-first-ranked-player projectiles or homing Red Shells, so I do enjoy not being wrecked by a horde of vengeful AI bots. And there aren't that many powerups to use, but each has its own purpose:

• Lemonade / Chilli (or Brown?) Sauce: Gives you a boost to 60km/h and lays down a puddle of liquid for other racers to slip on (note that I've never been in a situation where I've slipped in my own traps, so I'm not sure if it's possible). This powerup is useful for speed recovery after a crash.
  
• Wellington Boots: Basically just a speed boost.
  
• Air Horn / Pigs in Blankets: Produces a shockwave that pushes nearby enemies. Good for early game progress, or when your competition is getting close.
  
• Tacks: Sets down a trap for enemies. Probably the least useful powerup.
  
• Milk: Make you big, so you can drive faster and crush little tiny baby racers into pancakes. Well, not actual pancakes but you make them flat and slower, similar to the Mega Mushroom powerup in Mario Kart. However, you are more prone to flipping if you steer too sharply.

Additionally, the AI is somewhat questionable at times. In most cases, they just drive normally and steer almost as badly as you do. Sometimes they get stuck on walls, and don't seem to recover very well. Usually, this is the case when they're turning and then they crash into a curved wall or they try and use a shortcut but enter in awkwardly. While this is good for you as the player since it makes your job of winning easier, for... reasons, the ranking can get a bit weird at these times.
I remember when I was in a 1v1 race with an AI bot, and they got stuck on a wall. Then they were suddenly coming 1st, even though I was practically ahead by half a lap. Soon after, more switching between ranks and then it stabilises back to normal, which at this point the AI bot might have gotten back on track.

Lastly, there are achievements and cards. If you can become sufficiently adept at the game, the achievements are easy enough. Sometimes I got achievements for half-completing some of the objectives. As for the cards, they are fairly cheap, and if you're like me, you just let the game run idly to get those last few cards because you finished the game and achievements in under 5 hours.

In summary, I'll give Teddy Floppy Ear - The Race a good ol' 6.5 / 10. Very casual stuff, and good practice for things like TrackMania. Could brush up on the AI getting stuck on walls and explanations for whether characters and car enhancements actually do anything.