Action Henk is a racing track game set in a children’s bedroom and stars Action Henk, a once famous and popular toy who has certainly seen better days. Prompted into action after his award is stolen, Action Henk must get back into Action Hero shape in order to get it back by running races. With so many arcade titles releasing for Xbox One, can Action Henk do enough to earn a purchase?
With gameplay that reminds me of Doritos Crash Course but without the obstacles, Action Henk is all about building momentum and timing. Mastering both is key to getting fast times as the courses increase in difficulty as you progress as the tracks add little twists and gameplay tricks to keep the player on their toes.
Action Henk literally slides on his butt in order to help pick up speed going down slopes to pick up enough momentum and speed to drive forward with the goal of reaching the finishing line in the quickest time possible. Times are graded by bronze, silver and Gold medals. Earning gold in all the races of that area set will open a bonus track to complete. Each set will end with a challenge race against an AI opponent, another toy character that stands in the way of our hero Action Henk. Defeating them will make them a selectable character to use instead of Henk himself.
Gameplay wise the early tracks are fairly simple and easy going with the only real challenge is to improve your own time and place higher on the online leader board per track which places your score globally and with other friends playing the game. Sadly there is no real change to the gameplay until the third set of tracks which adds a grapple tool allowing Henk to add rope swinging to navigate tracks.
The problem lies in how long it takes to get to the more challenging tracks for the early areas feel samey with loading times lasting longer than the tracks themselves at times. I felt the presentation of the game is really rather average with the quality of the opening cinematic clearly in need of some more polish for being on a new gen console. The themes each area has to show more of the children’s bedroom has nice little details with references that are easy to spot.
Whilst Action Henk looks like a fairly typical arcade game, it is a fun and challenging experience that will appeal to those with a competitive nature and drive to improve their own times on the tracks. It does take a while to hit the more testing tracks but with 9 areas with 5 tracks, one boss challenge and the bonus track for getting Gold in all tracks in that area, Action Henk has enough to keep a player gaming for a good while.
Definitely worth putting on your sports gear on and taking a chance on, it is a fun arcade title with a solid Multiplayer to extend gameplay and enough solo content to be worth a purchase.
