A kart racer built for the couch
Beach Buggy Racing 2: Island Adventure is a combat kart racer where you drive, drift and fire powerups at the rivals around you. You race across 25 worlds that include Egyptian pyramids, dragon-infested castles, pirate ship wrecks and experimental alien bio-labs, each with secrets and shortcuts to learn. Your garage holds over 40 cars, from beach buggies and monster trucks to moon rovers and race cars, and you can collect and customize them as you go. You also recruit a crew of 15 drivers — skeletons, robots, aliens and more — each with a unique special ability and strategy, so your choice of driver changes how a race plays out. With 44 powerups such as Donut Tires, Tesla Coil, Ball'n'Chain and Dodgeball Fury, no two laps stay quiet for long.
Playing together in split screen
The game is designed around split screen, and you can play any part of it solo or with friends in split screen. That covers the story-driven Adventure mode, multi-event Championships, quick Races, Drift Attacks, Firework Fury and the rest of the event lineup. The headline feature is Game Crafting: you set your own race rules — powerup configurations, lap counts, race rules and more — save the rule set, then play it with up to 8 local players. A 10-lap Race with Bouncy Tires and Rocket Boost, a Drift Attack with permanent Police Chase for 4 friends, or a clean race with no powerups at all are all valid setups. Remote Play Together is available, so friends who are not in the same room can join a local session.
Before you start
Difficulty is adjustable and can be changed on the fly, and individual handicaps let experienced players and newcomers race together without anyone sitting out. The game is in Early Access, so content and rules may still change. A controller is the listed input for this one, which suits split screen sessions where everyone shares a screen.