Developer: Eastasiasoft Limited, Inlogic Software
Publisher: Eastasiasoft Limited
Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PS5
Nitro City Racing – Review
We’re huge fans of arcade racing games, as these titles often present players with a fast-paced experience, with pumped-up music, bright and colorful visuals, and a simple gameplay loop that motivates you to play one more race. This was our first impression when we saw gameplay footage of Nitro City Racing, Eastasiasoft Limited and Inlogic Software’s latest arcade racer. Sadly, the game did not manage to impress us but proved to be somewhat entertaining in-between bigger titles.
Story
There is no story present in Nitro City Racing. You pretty much get thrown into the experience with your first car, and then you can choose to drive around freely or dig into the career mode. As this is a basic lanesplitting game, there was also no need to actually have any story value. It’s all about the gameplay here, and that’s perfectly fine.
Graphics
Graphically, Nitro City Racing left us with mixed feelings. The game itself doesn’t look extremely bad, as it does have some charm thanks to its colorful visuals, it does look very basic and perhaps a bit cheap, giving it more the look of a mobile game. The maps are also very limited, and the game doesn’t have that many cars. That being said, there are options to tune the vehicles with spoilers and different color palettes, providing the player with some form of customization. We did appreciate that each of the available rides has a cockpit view with different details. While these still looked very simplistic, it added some charm to the experience.
Sound
The sound design of Nitro City Racing is not great. The soundtrack consists of tunes that are only a few seconds long and keep looping over and over again. Eventually, we simply had to turn the sound off and put on our own music in the background. The SFX are adequate for the onscreen action, but they also sound very cheap and generic. We did appreciate the effort of making all the cars sound different with fairly ‘realistic’ engine noises that could match the cars’ real-life counterparts. Of course, Nitro City Racing does not have any licensed cars, but a lot of the models resemble real car models.
Gameplay
Nitro City Racing is an arcade-like game that’s all about lanesplitting. It’s a more basic version of LANESPLIT, which we recently reviewed, and we would even dare say that Nitro City Racing feels more like a mobile game. That being said, it’s all about completing small missions in the career mode, getting a high score in the trial mode, or driving as long as possible in the other modes. You start with one car, and you have to earn money to unlock others and purchase upgrades for them as well. The offset is extremely simple here.
Truth be told, there is not much more to the game. You’ll always play on maps that have four lanes. You either have four lanes of traffic that go in the same direction or two lanes with traffic that comes in the opposite direction and two lanes that go in the same direction. You have to avoid cars, because it’s instantly game over when you hit another car. Only in the time trial mode will you just have a ‘penalty’ by coming to a complete stop when hitting another car. In the game, you basically grind money to unlock new cars and buy upgrades. You can also buy a few new maps, but they still offer the same four-lane setup. There’s truly not that much content here, which is also one of the game’s biggest issues. If you grind for an evening, you’ll probably be able to unlock most of the cars, and you’ll have played through the 54 missions in the career mode. These missions often just involve traveling a specific distance, avoiding oncoming traffic, scoring points with near misses, and so on. It’s a simple formula that works to a certain extent.
Conclusion
Nitro City Racing is not a great title, but it’s fun for what it is. The biggest issues here are the lackluster sound design and the severe lack of content. We still enjoyed our time with this one, but there are probably many other better games out there. If you want to zone out and just want to do some lanesplitting at high speeds, this one can be entertaining in short bursts. If you go in expecting a fully fleshed-out game, however, you’ll most certainly end up disappointed.
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