Formula Retro Racing

This game was reviewed on Xbox Series X.

Reviewed by: David Cameron

When you think of the amazing art style of the flat shaded polygon you think of Namco's Winning Run........ No I'm sorry although Namco might have beaten Sega by a good few years nothing can beat the speed, the smoothness, and the detail that is Sega's Model 1 arcade board, and with that we have to talk about Virtua Racing. This was so good and well we were all waiting for Sega to do a remake for modern systems. That we announced but it was going to be ported by the retro masters M2 but as a Switch exclusive and that's not what we wanted of fans of the PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Luckily we have Repixel8 who has developed Formula Retro Racing, and here is 4k 60fps on the newer hardware and even on say Xbox One S we have 1080p 60fps so all is smooth and very clean here. So a few little problems aside we have a love letter to Sega's Virtua Racing. 

The game is a dedicated arcade racer and there are eight circuits to race through and yes they are all flat shaded polygons but they are all very distinct with a big oval, forest, a city, desert and a recreation of the Monaco F1 street circuit. These can all be raced on three different difficulties that not only give the opponents a speed boost but also reduces the added time as you pass through checkpoints. 

The main arcade mode will keep you occupied for a good long time as you get trophies for winning each track on each difficulty, so a total of 24 to win then there is also an Eliminator mode. This is very self explanatory but anyway let's go in a little more detail, you just continuously race around the tracks but after you complete a lap the opponents get faster and faster. It's fun but the arcade mode is the main focus for the game.

There are a few bugs in the game though and these can really hurt the enjoyment for the game. Sometimes the game won't pause so you can just wait until the timer counts down or go back to the home and restart the game, or two pieces of music playing at the same time that can really hurt your ears and also make you loose concentration in the game. Another issue with the game is that the expert difficulty is well way too difficult, and not with the other cars on the track but the actual count down timer. You can be in first place but the timer runs out and its game over. This is a situation where you need to draft with every car that you go past and if you don't no matter how perfect you can go its just not good enough.

Another problem is a total lack of multiplayer modes I would have loved to have seen a 4 way split screen and even a very limited online races and matches but what we have here is single player only game that looks nice but nothing on Virtua Racing and yes the game is cheap but cheap should not mean basic. If you want a nice looking, smooth racing game with a great and under used art style then this is a fun arcade racer but we just can't recommend this with all the issues with the game.

Reviewed by: David Cameron