Splash Cars is an arcade car driving game where the goal is to drive your car around urban maps to color them in paint - basically Micro Machines meets Splatoon. Published by Eastasiasoft this is another low-budget "quick completion" game.
The gameplay is fairly easy: The car accelerates automatically, you just need to steer with one of the control sticks (
or
) or with the bumpers (
for left turns,
for right turns). You select a map which is initially all grey and drive your car around which leaves behind a colorful trail. Getting closer to buildings, trees and lamps will paint those on completely. While painting the city on there are a few things to watch out for. You need to keep an eye out on your fuel & damage meter and the at the top of the screen, once your fuel is empty your run ends. Additionally you will be chased by police cars who will try to slow you down. There are a few things that can help you during the run like collecting fuel canisters, power-ups (freezing police, getting a super car or a tank, being invisible) and finding trucks or mowing tractors that will join in painting the map.
The progression in the game is somewhat a mixed bag: Each level has 3 goals symbolized by 3 starts like for example painting a certain percent of the map. Some levels can only be unlocked if you meet a certain goal on the previous level. The first few levels are fairly easy to completed but later levels make it more difficult to achieve the required paint coverage percentage in order to unlock the next level or vehicle. You can earn money which helps you buy new cars and or paint jobs (which are expensive for some reason) and new cars can have better stats like a larger fuel tank or being faster. With milage driven you will also gain more money and unlock new power-ups or buffs for your car and nerfs for the police car. At one point I had to grind to earn more money in order to buy a better car because I was missing out just on a few percentages on a level to progress to the next one. It wasn't too bad but it felt like a halt in an otherwise smooth progression.
The gameplay is from an isometric perspective, the 3D graphics are simple but pleasing and all gameplay elements like buildings, walls, hedges, trees, police cars are easy to see. The only issues are that it's easy to get stuck in a building corner or a lamp and there is no visual help driving behind buildings. I also wish that there were more visually distinct levels since it's always that urban style with houses, gas stations and warehouses making all levels look and feel the same.
In conclusion I think Splash Cars is a nice and simple game for around 2-3 hours that it takes to earn all achievements. The basic concept is fun but there are a few minor issues in the implementation like artificial progression halt and the lack of distinctive areas. There is also a multiplayer mode but unfortunately I didn't get to try it out.
2.5