Chasers Dash & Bash

I've been chasing party racers that actually hold up on the couch for years, and Chasers Dash & Bash surprised me. Flipstar's cartoony indie sits firmly in the Mario Kart-adjacent bracket but layers in enough distinct modes to stop feeling like a clone about ten minutes in. The core hook is movement variety: you are not just driving karts. Triathlon Races chain together on-foot running, kart sections, and jetpack flying segments in a single event, so the skill ceiling shifts constantly and the friend who dominates the driving laps might get humbled the moment everyone straps on a jetpack. That unpredictability is the game's best quality. The mode list is genuinely varied for a game at this price point. Crystal Chase is a team-based steal-and-hold mode that plays a bit like a sports match - think capture the flag with chaotic item interference. Touchdown has you physically carrying a crystal to an end zone, which turns into a wonderful mess of shoulder-barges and last-second item throws. Battle Royale drops everyone into a shrinking arena until one Chaser is left standing, and Classic Battles offer the more traditional combat-racing brawl. Power-ups support two-handed play, meaning you can hold one item in each hand and decide when to deploy each, which adds a layer of timing reads that rewards experienced players without punishing newcomers too hard. On the multiplayer front, the numbers are generous. Split-screen holds up to four players locally, and - this is the part that matters - that local split-screen runs simultaneously with online play, so your couch squad can fill half a 12-player lobby while a second household fills the other half. For a low-budget Early Access party game, that is a meaningful feature, not a checkbox. The 12 fully voiced characters each come with unlockable skins, and XP from matches gates new stages progressively, giving solo and returning players a reason to keep grinding even between friend sessions. The caveats are real, though. This is Early Access, and community forum reports include a black-screen freeze when attempting certain solo cup modes, which is a fairly serious bug for players who want to practice offline before going online. The player population is still small, which means online lobbies can feel thin outside peak hours. Character customisation requests are piling up on the forums too, so cosmetic depth is not there yet. Controller support is confirmed and works well enough for couch sessions, but do not expect wheel or HOTAS profiles - this is a gamepad-first experience all the way, and the movement mechanics feel tuned around an analogue stick rather than precision peripherals. For the right crowd, specifically households with two to four controllers and a tolerance for Early Access roughness, this delivers a fun Saturday night without requiring anyone to read a manual. Solo players chasing a polished single-player campaign will want to wait for a later build. Everyone else: the split-screen-plus-online combo alone makes it worth a look.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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