Star Racer

If there was a neutral option for reviews I would probably would pick that, but since I lean more positively I'm choosing to recommend this game. To start, I like how easy to pick up this game is. As someone who hasn't really played racers since my days playing Mario Kart as a kid, I felt that this game eased me into it pretty well. I think the only thing I really had difficulty with was getting used to using the d-pad, since that seemingly offers better control than the joystick. As far as I can tell, the driving is designed pretty well for the most part, but I think handling can get pretty rough around tight corners, especially at higher speeds. In general, I feel like corners are easier to maneuver around while airborne instead of on the ground since trying to drift usually just results in me crashing into the wall anyways. On the plus side, aerial movement is really fun, both in the sense of jumping and flying. Finding ways to glide over the twists and turns of a track is really cool! I just wish it was just as enjoyable to navigate on the ground. In relation to the tracks, I think they're generally good, but I wish they utilized their own gimmicks more. It felt a little strange how there would be stuff like fog and heat introduced only for them to only exist on that one track. All-in-all, though, I think this is still a game worth trying. There is a lot of fun to be had here with the different racers, tracks, and gameplay modes, and it's all at a reasonable price.

Editing up this review. The original review was at about the 5-hour mark. This one now is at the 18/19-hour mark, plus I've had a chance to communicate with the devs a little. Shortening up my thoughts from what I originally thought at 5 hours: Right off the bat, I could tell this was a great game. Especially for 10 dollars. I could tell lots of love and care went into this game, and I thought (and still think) that if you're a fan of AG racers, you should totally check this game out. Thumbs up, no question. However, the learning curve is incredibly brutal, and it can potentially be a turn-off for some folks. This game is clearly inspired by classic SNES F-Zero, but to just call it "modern SNES F-Zero" would be doing it a bit of a disservice. This game has some very unique mechanics that allow it to stand out as its own thing. Like F-Zero, you have an energy bar that serves as both your health and your boost, which can be used on the second lap and onwards. However, you also have a "capsule" bar. You collect small capsules scattered all over the track. The more capsules you have, the faster you'll go. However, when you use attacks, you'll spend capsules. Without capsules, you can still attack, but you'll do less damage. On top of this, attacks also give you invulnerability frames, which are important to phase through various obstacles. This is important, because tracks have a lot of obstacles. I find this is a fantastic and very strategic system that gels really well into the gameplay. You can also drift to gain bouts of speed... if you can pull it off to begin with. It's very awkward, and I don't find myself using it much, because there's basically too much risk for too little reward, but I'll put a pin in that. There are also flying sections. You'll auto-accelerate, you can move up and down, you can do air tricks to dodge stuff, and you can fire lasers (which cost capsules). You move faster, but it also drains your energy. You can also take advantage of flight to skip chunks of track at the cost of more energy. This is all a very neat concept, but it does play into something that I'll bring up in a bit. When you're in the lead, you'll also start to encounter "The Fuzz." Cop NPCs will spawn in, and they'll be hellbent on knocking you out of the race. These guys can be incredibly aggressive, and I have some mixed feelings on their presence. But again, I'll get into it in a bit. Tracks themselves are full of all sorts of obstacles. You have the usual dirt, ice, and lava roads, but you'll also come across turrets, heatwaves, magnets, mines, and much more. There are a lot of things that'll drain your energy, and that's where I initially had a lot of problems. In F-Zero, things were simple. It primarily focused on boost vs. health. There were obstacles, but nothing to overly-distract you from that core concept of boost vs. health. Here, however, you are going to be coming across a lot of things that can potentially decimate your energy. There is so *** much coming at you at once, it can feel incredibly discouraging to take risks. I rarely ever wanted to boost, because some obstacles like the heatwave would just be flat out unavoidable, and I didn't want to risk not having enough energy. Magnets at lower speeds were so absurdly powerful that even the AI couldn't take some turns properly, and you'd just watch helplessly as you're forced to grind across a lava road. Cops have incredibly good aim when it comes to their shunt attacks, and I'd find myself flying off the course because of them. Turrets during midair sections would fire so many lasers that inevitably one or two would hit me, no matter how much I'd spam dodge moves. Then there's the casino track... The *** casino track. Pardon my french. You are quite literally at the mercy of RNG as bumpers appear everywhere and capsules open up your own personal slot machine, where you have a fair chance to get triple skulls and, you guessed it, lose more energy. On t…

This honestly feels like a really weird fever dream where the original SNES F-Zero decided to have a meet cute with F-Zero X and Star Fox. And to be honest, it kinda works? I only say kinda, because I think there's a lot of things this game does really well, and then others where I think the game could use some serious improvement. Mainly, when it comes to the stuff I really like about this game: - The worldbuilding is pretty intriguing; There's no other game out there with a character as cool as a name as "Thrash Whiplash"! - The bumpers (in the form of the cop cruisers you'll come across) are pretty fun to go up against, even if it looks like they don't hold up a fight. The bumpers in the original SNES F-Zero and Maximum Velocity are kind of like that, too. (If you don't count the explosive bumpers, of course) - The music is really good, especially the tracks done by GRANT KIRKHOPE HIMSELF. - The track editor. It's not as robust or easy to understand as FZEK's track editor, but it DOES get the job done. Now, to the stuff I'm not the most fond of: - The flying sections, while mildly original for a death-sled type racing game, I think could be improved. I find constantly having health drained when you're in these sections is a turn-off; almost like the game DOESN'T want you to be doing these parts which, mind you, are crucial components of most, if not all of these tracks! - The AI can be a jerk at times. The most notable examples of them just picking you apart are on Celestial Circuit. That's only ONE CUP IN and the AI thinks it's a good idea to just send you hurling off the track on the sections with no guardrails. - Steering is digital only; no analog here. This irks me a bit, because even F-Zero 99, which mind you, is a formulaic battle royale take on the SNES F-Zero, DOES include analog steering! Overall? I think Star Racer is okay, though It isn't exactly my personal favorite. Not saying I didn't enjoy the game, though I am left feeling like it's nowhere near as refined as, say for example BallisticNG or even Aero GPX (which mind you, isn't even complete yet!) It's got really good bones, BUT it needs a lot more meat.