Low on Fuel
Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos could have been a slam dunk and turned into the series’ Mario Kart, especially considering the immense roster of girls across the series and the amount of numerous properties turning into a racing series such as Sonic, Garfield, Paw Patrol, or the entire Deamworks catalog. The premise of these console waifu’s could have made for some interesting courses, abilities, and ideas, propelled by the gimmick the series has been known for. However, as the title is called ‘Riders’ and not ‘Racers’, this short little driving experience isn’t a racing title at all, it’s a collection game where the bikes and characters don’t matter, despite their importance to the narrative.
You play as Uzume Tennouboshi, a character known from Megadimension Neptunia VII. She begins this odd little journey clutching a Dogoo, a basic enemy type from the series. Realizing something is amiss, she then takes note that she is not in the land of Gameindustri any longer. Discovering a bike next to her and a small army of Dogoos behind her, she high tails it out of there and encounters Neptune, noticing that she is under some sort of spell that has caused her to be protective of the Dogoo menace. After beating her in a series of collection drives, this spell is weakened and Neptune becomes normal. The pair then seek out their friends and eventually return home after discovering the truth behind their sudden appearance in this land.
While the story is one note, it’s actually even less than that given that every single character has the same narrative presence and purpose in the story. You encounter a new character, they spout the same lines of being protective of these Dogoos, and after a series of three events, the spell is broken and they join your team. Even the Dogoo threat is a sadly injected series of dumb moments and cliche writing that does nothing to really sell anything presented here. Clocking in at just under three hours, it’s a shame more wasn’t done to add better moments around what is essentially a bland driving experience.
While Neptunia GameMaker R: Evolution was a collection of bad ideas, and likely the worst title in the series, one of its worse elements was the biking sections. The bikes felt added in at the last moment since none of the levels felt supported for them. While Riders VS Dogoos certainly controls better, the whole act of driving around and collecting Dogoos never sees a shake up, despite gimmicks like windstorms, chocolate fountains, and roulette wheels being added to try to spice things up. Unfortunately, the levels are over and done with before you can truly react to any of these systems. Neptunia was a series with a variety of systems that deepened its RPG elements; however, none of that is here. This is as shallow as a 2D sprite.
Matches are usually around 2 minutes and each of them feels like you are just doing the same objective of gathering around 100 of these little buggers as you find them littered around the field like the floor of spoiled child’s playroom. There are different types of Dogoos from those that shrink you and your bike, to those that grant you a bit of flight. That said, since the matches are barely over a minute long, these gimmicks rarely matter.
If anything, Riders VS Dogoos feels like the remnants of what could have been a game mode to GameMaker as there is nothing truly substantial here to qualify any of it for its own standalone release. Levels are repeated throughout their use in the hub world and after the fifth area, you hit credits. Even the wonderfully drawn character portraits are absent here for simply using the low end character models present across the game. Even the menus and presentation feel like first draft ideas or placeholders instead of anything fleshed out and finalized. While it’s great to see the entire game being voiced, the lines, story, and approach to what is built here is more noticeable than the appeal of having every word provided with a voice.
In typical Neptunia fashion, you can customize nearly everything. Characters have outfits pieces you can unlock and equip, new bikes and parts to add to increase their stats, but so few of them felt like good additions, often presented with equal or lower stats. Some of the bike skins are fine enough, but their default skins were more than fine enough given you rarely see the entirety of the bike in action as the camera is angled to where the bike doesn’t really matter. Hell, it could have been the character just running around and it wouldn’t have mattered.
Levels are a two on one affair as you and another Goddess will team up against the other Goddess that is spell-crazed by the Dogoos. As mentioned, you’ll have to rack up around 100 Dogoos and be the first to reach that goal. Your teammate will share their collection as well, so it actually speeds up the collecting more than it should. I will add that the final boss was a disaster with attacks that you will rarely have the angle to see coming.
As you go around collecting Dogoos, you’ll be able to perform a long ranged attack and a melee strike as well. While that sounds fine enough for how combat works in this game, the attacks don’t feel good to use. They never feel impactful or that you are genuinely hitting them. You’ll never feel the impact of their strike as the force of it feels like being hit with a wet piece of paper towel. In fact, the whole game feels weightless. Bikes don’t feel like bikes, and driving never has the traction or speed you want, with hovering in speeds that feel suited for a school zone. Maneuvering at 20km/hr isn't thrilling.
Neptunia Riders VS Dogoos is a complete miss. It feels like a glorified DLC pack for a previous game that never approaches anything deserving of its own release. The story and presentation feel like the first draft of what could have been special, and the driving itself is lackluster and boring. A proper racing game along the lines of Mario Kart could have been impressive, especially considering the roster of console waifus throughout the series. Instead, it is a creature collecting driving games that is extremely disappointing and barely worth your time.
Developer - Idea Factory/Compile Heart.
Publisher - Idea Factor. Released - January 28th, 2025. Available On - Switch, PS4, PS5, PC. Rated - (E 10+) - Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, Language. Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch. Review Access - A review code was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.