The latest retro-trend in the scene of racing games fascinates players with stunning optics.
Photo credit: Inertial Drift
The world of racing games never ceases to surprise its community – the newest trend of retro racing games entering the scene underlines this. In contrast to the real retro games – meaning the first racing games to ever have been available – the new games of the genre simply imitate the retro-theme and profit from modern technology and advanced game mechanics. These rather simple games vary a great deal in their optics, soundtracks and general controls, though they all share two central qualities: being fast and exciting. We present some promising retro racers that are definitely worth trying.
Most of the emerging retro racers are arcade titles from independent studios that are now available on Steam. The stunning synth wave optics of some of them effectively send the player back in time. Examples of such games include Retrowave which was published by RewindApp and has been available in the Early Access version since March. Though still being under constant adaptation by the developers, Retrowave scores very highly with the community and received over 2,000 reviews of which 96 percent are very positive. Rythmic Retro Racer by Berzah Games focuses not only on synth wave optics, but also music and provides the player with an immersive 3D retro experience.
The arcade game Slipstream, made and published by ansdor, took “retro optics” to another level and presents its racing experience fully in 16-bit. Even though it is a low-budget and PC-exclusive game – like the other two – it is extremely popular with the community and 86 percent of its reviewers on Steam give it a thumbs up.
Retro racing on multiple consoles
The retro trend brings about not only indie-games, but also well-budgeted multi-console titles. The two arcade games Hotshot Racing by Curve Digital and Inertial Drift by PQube Games have been around since September and are playable on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and also on the Nintendo Switch. The two games show entirely different but equally appealing approaches to the retro-theme: the anime-like optics of Inertial Drift are in stark contrast to the simplistic cartoon-like look of Hotshot Racing. However, both titles provide convincing drift-action and suspenseful racing, clearly targeting arcade racing fans.
Are you a fan of the retro racing scene? Tell us on Twitter at @Overtake_gg or in the comments down below!
