Battle Racing Stars is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover Racing Game by Halfbrick Studios for iOS and Android. Was originally soft launched in 2018 as Booster Raiders, and released worldwide under a new title in late February 2020.
This game involves "Battle Racing". Four players compete against each other in Sprint races to reach the finish line first. Each player has two buttons on the bottom, that recharge over time: Boost and Items, which picks one out of 4 character specific items. (Projectile, Trap, Shield and Position attack)
Two main game modes are Linear and Lap races, but there are additional four (Known as "Special Races") available through Arcade mode:
- UFO Apocalypse: Same as linear races, but players now also need to avoid the Advancing Wall of Doom in form of a UFO.
- Flappy Bomb: Takes place on lap race maps, players must avoid being in the last position, as the titular "Flappy Bomb" tries to eliminate them, Hot Potato style. Unlike UFO Apocalypse, race ends when there's only one player remaining.
- Full Boost: Same as linear races, but players never run out of boost
- Portal Mania: 2 linear and 1 lap race maps, unique to this mode, racers travel in VR-like world, with it's maps combining many aspects of all standard maps. It also features portals from Age of Zombies and Dan The Man, that teleport racers to another location.
Competing in Arcade costs tickets, and rewards player with coins, gems, packs, trails and skins for characters. June 2020 update allowed players to get Special Races randomly in Normal races. In this case they won't count towards Arcade progression and don't require tickets, but will occur very rarely.
Features playable characters from:
- Barry Steakfries (Barry, Flash, Scientist, Zombie T-Rex)
- Bears vs. Art (Rory)
- Dan The Man (Dan, Josie)
- Fruit Ninja (Mari, Sensei, Katsuro)
- Raskulls (King)
Features stages from:
- Dan The Man (Stinky Drains, Damp Passage, Shenanigan Sewers)
- Fruit Ninja (Skirmish in Fruitasia, Fruity Road, Fruitasia Dizziness)
- Jetpack Joyride (Legitimate Research, Laboratory Conduits, Bounce Tunnels)
- Monster Dash (Frosty Dash, Frozen Danger, Permafrost)
- Raskulls (Rolling in the Caves, Forest Rampage, Waterfall Path)
- Portal Mania mode has it's own maps, that combine elements and locations from stages above. (Enter The Portal, Deja Vu, Drifting Dimensions)
Battle Racing Stars provides examples of:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Stinky Drains, Damp Passage and Shenanigan Sewers.
- Action Girl: Mari and Josie, two playable female racers.
- All the Worlds Are a Stage: Portal Mania mode’s stages take elements from all standard levels and mix them together.
- Always Night: Skirmish in Fruitasia, Fruity Road and Fruitasia Dizziness.
- Big Red Button: Robo-Rex has the self-destruct button on his back. Professor Brains seemingly added it for no other reason than not to let Barry ride on it.Barry: Finally! The time has come to ride on the back of the ROBOT-DINOSAUR!Professor Brains: Ride? What do you mean by ride?Barry: ... have you not put a saddle on?Professor Brains: Saddle? No way! I've added something much better: A SELF-DESTRUCT BUTTON! So be careful with putting your butt on it.Barry: ...
- The Cameo:
- UFO Apocalypse’s Bounce Tunnels map has Olympus from Fish Out Of Water in the background.
- Main characters from Radical Rappelling, Rip and Roxy, make an appearance in Permafrost map.
- Dan the Man's King appears in Drifting Dimensions.
- "Colossatron's Menace" event has Dan and Raskull King trying to defeat Colossatron. It's tail can be unlocked as one of selectable trails by playing the event.
- Cartoon Bomb: Flappy Bomb. Sensei and Katsuro's bombs also qualify.
- Cool, but Inefficient: In-Universe, Dragon Fruit Radar from "The Juice Jitsu Training", that Sensei gives his students to help them out on their quest to collect as much Dragon Fruit as possible. Too bad Dragon Fruits are everywhere, making the device completely useless.
- Deadly Force Field: Most characters' shields at level 1 will either protect them (King, Dan, Josie, Katsuro) or damage opponents (Barry, Mari, Scientist, Flash). Leveling up characters will allow their shields to do both.
- Dem Bones: Raskulls, a species of skeleton-like creatures.
- Early-Bird Cameo:
- The Knight and Watermelon Master outfits for Dan and Sensei were teased in this trailer
before they were added to the game (by 1 month for Knight Dan and 6 month for Watermelon Master Sensei). - Katsuro made an appearence in "Colossatron Menace" event 7 month before he was added as one of playable characters.
- The Knight and Watermelon Master outfits for Dan and Sensei were teased in this trailer
- Edible Collectible: Dragon Fruits in "The Juice Jitsu Training" event.
- Elaborate Underground Base: Legitimate Research stage takes place inside of a cave.
- Energy Weapon: Scientist and Flash can drop Lazer grids behind. Barry and Scientist also use Zappers as a shield.
- Episodic Game: Special events, such as "Robotic Invention" have a story told in episodes, similar to Sonic Runners. They don't really explain why did Halfbrick characters suddenly decided to race each other though.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: Super Rainbow trail.
- Green Hill Zone: Rolling in the Caves, Forest Rampage and Waterfall Path. First tutorial stage takes place in the same location.
- Hot Potato: In Flappy Bomb mode, racers run away from a Cartoon Bomb, which aims for player in last position. After a short time it blows up. Last place racer gets eliminated, Flappy Bomb respawns, Cut and Paste untill there's only one racer left.
- Improvised Weapon:
- Fruit Ninja characters all utilise fruit in some way; One of Mari's attacks is a Strawberry, Katsuro throws a Pineapple, It becomes explosive at level 5, none the less.
- Sensei's Fruit Tornado, where he can throw a lot of small fruit in multiple directions.
- All of Rory's attacks, which include painting, a statue of himself, color splash and a paint bucket.
- King attacks opponents with a brick.
- Konami Code: King suggests Dan to use it to defeat Colossatron halfway through "Colossatron's Menace" event. It does nothing.King: Well, in the old days it used to work!
- La Résistance: One of Dan and Josie's attacks has them call Resistance to slow opponents down.
- Mythology Gag: Dan and Josie's Resistance attack has Resistance change their outfit colors from red to purple and green at higher levels. Two Resistance members with these colors appear at the end of Studio Joho's original uploads of web series.
- Ninja: Fruit Ninja cast. Raskull Ninja appears in the background as part of the crowd. Subverted with Dan The Man's Resistance, who only look like ninjas.
- Nitro Boost: Non-Vehicle example. All racers have Boost button, which will recharge over time. The more charged it is, the longer and further character will go. Additionally, there are Dash Pads thrown around stages.
- One-Steve Limit: Battle Racing Stars has two characters named "The King". One is a playable character from Raskulls, the other is an NPC from Dan The Man, seen in Portal Mania.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Again, Zombie T-Rex. One of his attacks has him drop a human zombie as an obstacle, which can leave a poison gas cloud after a short period of time (Which were one of the obstacles in Monster Dash, though it were mummies, who were able to produce these, not basic zombies).
- Play Every Day: Free Booster Pack is available every 12 hours. There are also missions, completing which will reward with coins (and eventually, another Booster Pack).
- Shark Tunnel: Laboratory Conduits, Bounce Tunnels and Legitimate Researchnote .
- Shout-Out:
- The cover of the booster pack deplicts Barry and Dan butting against each other similar to the cover of Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
- Portal Mania's description: "No cakes, no lies! React, adapt, win!"
- Barry's Fake Scientist skin has him use red vacuum cleaner as a jetpack, which bears uncanny resemblance to Luigi's Poltergust. Said skin is based on Gas Mask Mook Scientists and has him wear "Air Barry's" shoes, both from Jetpack Joyride.
- Rory has a Gummy Bear Skin. He's green colored and has bouncier idle animation.
- In "Colossatron's Menace" event Dan and Colossatron's battles resemble classic Turn-Based RPG. Event's promotional artwork visually resembles classic Pokémon batlle. Dialogue also uses phrases, such as "A wild Colossatron appeared" and "It's super effective".
- "The Juice Jitsu Training" event is one huge Shout-Out to the Dragon Ball franchise. References include unlockable Nimbus-esque trail, the radar made specifically for finding plot-important objects (Here, it's dragon fruit instead of Dragon Balls) and a sub-plot about a dragon, that can grant any wish, though Sensei reveals it to be nothing, but a false rumor. The final reward in the event is the "Watermelon Master" skin for Sensei, which resembles Master Roshi. He even wears a huge watermelon on his back, which Mari confuses for a turtle shell (Because turtles are Master Roshi's Animal Motif... And because one of his training methods is wearing a heavy turtle shell).Katsuro: Wow! With that costume you look just like...Sensei: Shut up! We don't wanna be accused of plagiarism!
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Frosty Dash, Frozen Danger and Permafrost.
- Speed Echoes: Characters were able to do this while boosting in the earliest versions of the game. Due to consuming a lot of resources from the device (since it literally cloned the character), this was replaced more resource friendly, but unique trails.
