I'm sure anyone reading this is aware that Re-Volt is particularly tough to get used to as a beginner, even compared to other racing games. Like, tear-your-hair-out tough. The biggest reason is that the cars are prone to seemingly random spinouts and flips -- which is realistic from a physics perspective and incredibly frustrating for a first-time player. Thing is, the game actually has a very nice difficulty curve, but only if you can get past that first huge hump.

So I'm writing this guide for people who come looking for advice on how to get over that hump. I realize that in the long run, success will really come down to individual style (for instance, many people will be better at handling the super-fast cars than I am). But these tips are intended to help people get comfortable with the game to the point that they can start developing those personal styles instead of trying to figure out how to throw a digital game out of an analog window.

1) Change the race mode from Arcade to Console to start out. You might not know it from the descriptions of the settings in-game, but this will help to eliminate a lot of those weird spinouts that seem to come from nowhere, and also make it a bit easier to keep your car upright. Speed remains the same in this setting, but the physics are more conventional, so it feels more like a normal racing game.

2) Turn off powerups. If the source of your frustration with the game is its utter unpredictability, then why let the AI zap you with lightning, shoot you with rockets, or turn you into a bomb? For getting used to the car handling, pare the gameplay down to just racing. Personally, I find it more fun this way anyway.

3) Choose cars with moderate speed/acceleration and high weight. This keeps you from slipping so much. You can also give up some weight in favor of some more acceleration, but the weight rating should be at least as high as the speed rating. For the bronze tracks, I recommend Colonel Moss. It has good enough stability to outmaneuver the faster cars but is fast enough to outpace the heavier ones.

Each time you beat all of the single races in a championship set (as opposed to playing the championship itself), you will unlock a car that is specifically designed for exceptional stability and decent speed relative to the opponents you'll be facing at that stage of the game. Beating all the bronze tracks gives you the Mouse, silver gives you Bertha Ballistics, gold gives you the Rotor, and platinum gives you the Panga. Personally, I loved Bertha Ballistics best of any car in the game, and I was able to beat almost the entire rest of the game with it. However, if you have a lot of trouble with flipping over, you can try Rotor, which is the only car in the game that can keep driving if it turns upside down. (Note: Rotor is generally considered to have pretty poor performance due to its low acceleration; you may find it helpful if you're flipping a lot, but you likely won't get a lot of use out of it). You'll probably want to switch to Panda for the final championship if you haven't developed another play style by then, as it's the fastest of the heavy cars. I personally didn't find Mouse to be better than Colonel Moss, but that will come down to preference.

4) Now that you've set yourself up with a version of Re-Volt that plays more like conventional racing games, success depends on the same kinds of maneuvers as it does in those other games. Decelerate going into turns, make good use of powersliding, and know when to tap the turn key vs. holding it down. Powersliding refers to taking your finger off the accelerator key and hitting the turn key hard in order to spin the car almost 180 degrees, which is important for sharp turns.

Some rules of thumb: If you're going through a 90-degree turn like the ones all over Toys in the Hood, hold the accelerator and tap the turn key. If you're facing a wide almost-180-degree turn like the blue room in the first museum level, hold the turn key and tap the accelerator. If you're facing a sharp 180, powerslide.

PhantomRVM has some great in-depth driving tips here as well, including more on tapping: http://www.gog.com/forum/revolt/time_trial_advice

5) Once you've got a handle on the game, you can add on levels of challenge individually. Turn powerups back on. Then set it back to Arcade. Then try faster, lighter cars. Or whatever.

I hope this helps people!