Developer: Lucky Mountain Games, Sumo Digital Ltd
Publisher: Curve Digital
Platform: PC, Xbox One, Switch, PlayStation 4
Tested on: Xbox One
Hotshot Racing – Preview
The history of videogames is long, with its ups and downs. Who can remember the glory days of going to the arcade halls with friends and pockets full of quarters? The coming of home consoles did bring gaming closer than ever, yet this caused the downfall for many arcades. Things get more modern and we do sometimes miss the simplicity that these old days gave us. Hotshot Racing emphasizes on the nostalgic feeling of crawling into a racing cabinet and trying to hit the scores on the leaderboard. This game is like the Delorean, it will take you back into time when games were fun and simple.
Hotshot Racing is an arcade racing game that mixes high-speed action with slippery drifting to create this unique blend of racing. You will notice many aspects of its influences right of the bat. Each character has a short bio which explains why they started racing or what their goal in life is. When successfully completing a Grand Prix, you get an ending screen with your character, just like in the old days.
To make the trip down memory lane even better, are the retro-inspired graphics and sounds. The visuals represent racing games from the 90s such as Virtua Formula and Daytona UDA. While it looks like a thirty-year-old game, the overall quality matches current day titles. The graphics are smooth and come with a lot of details while maintaining the simplicity threshold. Races can be enjoyed from a third-person perspective, or directly from behind the wheel, in all its quirkiness. The music is intense, putting a smile on your face while racing at a high speed. The developers did put a lot of time into making a fitting soundtrack, as you will have various tracks for different circuits. Another cool feature is that each character is voiced and will respond during races to events that happen.
Now the game is still in full development and the developers told us that only a few main modes were finished. You can enjoy yourself in the Grand Prix, Time Trial and Single Race. The nice part is that you can already start unlocking mods for your vehicles and other costumes for characters. There are eight drivers with four vehicles each, which can all be modified to your own taste, from other spoilers to exhausts, bonnets, bumpers, liveries, etc… Some parts are available from the start, but others need to be unlocked by completing certain challenges such as holding a drift, boosting x amount of times, etc…
In each race you will have to combine your powers carefully, other opponents are fast and can sneak up on you when you least expect it. Racing cars have high speed, but won’t corner as great as a drift car. You also have a boost function that will refill when driving sporty. This can mean the win or loss as you will notice many opponents using that booster in the last laps. Each lap will have checkpoints that are timed, crash too much and the race will be over when that timer hits zero.
Grand Prix is like you know it; race on four different tracks and fight for that podium place. Just pick a driver, one of their cars (they cannot be swapped so choose carefully) and go for it. When winning the championship, you will be awarded an ending screen of your character, just like in the arcades. Time Trial is ideal if you want to break a record, fight for the top rank on the leaderboard, or try out other vehicles/classes. Single Race is, as the name implies, a simple ‘pick you track and race’ mode. There are a few fun modes named Cops N Robbers and Drive or Explode. These are meant to blow off some steam and try out different scenarios than purely racing. These modes were still worked on so we only took a glimpse at them, yet found no issues so far. Furthermore, there are sixteen tracks in total for you to either race or play on.
The game runs absolutely perfectly, no bugs were found when driving at breakneck speeds and it felt like a complete game. It seems that the only reason why it isn’t released yet is so that the developers can iron out the wrinkles and fine-tune the modes. The only two missing features were the promised four-player split-screen mode, but you can currently do two-player split-screen. Also, the online servers are not populated but that is normal as the game is not yet released.
Conclusion
Hotshot Racing is that game that pays tribute to the old-school arcade racers from the 90s and early 2000s. Its stylish approach, arcade handling and beautiful graphics, combined with a pumped-up soundtrack and cool effects will give it a spot in many players their wishlist. Content-wise there is a lot with eight drivers, 32 modifiable cars, sixteen circuits, many game modes and multiplayer support. This game will take you back, with a smile on your face, screaming at your friends when you defeat them for the tenth time.
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When did y’all get to preview this game? Was there two-player multiplayer at least available during your preview?
Also, did the devs have a specific release date for the game?