A boost gauge, filled by slipstreaming other racers, delivers a few seconds of massive acceleration. It’s gloriously unrealistic and thrilling, adding new layers to your driving tactics as you swerve through hairpin turns and between rival drivers. Tapping the brake puts the car into a drift that’ll whip the backend right around into even the tightest corners however, the designers allow you to steer intricately while the wheels are locked and craft long, arching glides across the track. What makes this game more than a straightforward tribute is its modernisation of classic driving controls.
Racing veterans used to the unyielding difficulty of authentic 1990s arcade games will savour the challenge. From this point on, you’re in proper Ridge Racer territory, memorising every corner and developing a specific, perfectly angled approach for each one. But go up to Hard or Expert in the latter Grand Prix competitions and a tap from another car or a corner taken at slightly the wrong angle can have devastating consequences for your race position.
This is easily survivable at Normal difficulty, where you can clatter into other cars and grind along the guard rails without losing too much speed, and recover from spins. Races are close and chaotic there are only seven other cars on the circuit but they stick with you throughout each lap, constantly nudging your bumper or outright smashing you into the barriers.
For gamers of a certain age, much of the fun is in spotting specific retro references – a ferris wheel here, a whale diving over the racetrack there – while attempting to keep up with the savagely competitive pack. One minute you’re hurtling through a city with trains zooming past, the next you’re on a mountain pass swerving between ski lodges. This exercise in pure, unapologetic nostalgia is a loving tribute to early 1990s driving games such as Ridge Racer, Virtua Racing and Daytona USA, with a flat-shaded polygonal art style, primary colour cityscapes and overexcited voiceovers that perfectly recall that heady era of coin-up design.Ī single-player Grand Prix mode puts you through progressively tougher circuits and competitions that comprise joyous remixes of much-loved Namco and Sega raceways, the background scenery filled with fairground rides, skyscrapers and ocean views. S corching blue skies, snaking roads, crudely animated spectators: Hotshot Racing really knows its arcade racing staples.
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