Slipstream

Maybe it is because by now I am a casual gamer and I feel that this game is friendly to casual players (even if you keep losing you can play to the end and still have a good time playing, get better and start winning later) but I would totally recommend this game to anyone who grew up with games like "Lotus 1-3", "JaguarXJ220", "Crazy Cars" or "Top Gear 2". I bought it despite the bad reviews, and I am glad I did. Two of my all time favorite games are "Lotus II Turbo Challenge" and "Lotus III". I still play them on the Amiga Emulator from time to time. This game strifes more towards Outrun of course. I never played that back in the day and later I never liked it as much as the Lotus games (probably because it is very unforgiving). I agree that the slipstream does not work as well as intended. So far I do not quite understand when it actually activates (and yes: in the tutorial you will probably not be able to finish that part). But the drifting is really fun! Activating is easy (read the tutorial) even for an old Amiga-Gamer like myself, and then it feels much like in the Lotus games. Hitting obstacles does not slow you down much while drifting. However if you miss the drift, crashing does hurt. The speed penalty is rather mild though (at least on "Easy" setting). You may want to play around with the gfx settings, I would recommend the NTFS filter unless you like screamingly bright colors. Also the CRT option is nicely done. Despite the repetetive assets (have you payed any attention while playing Outrun, though? The answer is either "no, I was too fast" or "yes, same variety there") I can clearly see the love for these kind of games that went into creating this one! Oh, and I got to race against Bob Ross (under a different name), that alone makes it a happy 5 star game ;-)

The visuals and music of the game is spot on and really emulates the late 80's, early 90's arcade racers. The mechanics, however, are absolutely subpar and makes the game a bore to play. The main mechanic of the game, Slipstreaming, barely ever comes into play, and when it does, it usually leads to you shooting forward into the back of another car. There's 0 requirement for skill, as the rubberbanding in this game is off the charts. The AI will always be either right behind you or slightly in front of you, and as long as you finish a race without crashing 20+ times, you *will* win. The racing mechanics are completely absent. There is no skill in placement or cornering. As long as you drift, it matters not where on the road you are. Most opponents will just zip by behind you as you drive on the straights. They have nowhere near the speed you have, even if you repeatedly crash. Stay away from this game. It looks and sounds great, but the mechanics are just not there.

When I was a kid I did not play many racing games with this kind of perspective or art style (Lamborhini American Challenge on the SNES comes to mind), but Slipstream somehow really did strike my fancy. The art style is good and fitting, even if limited as mentioned by other reviewers. Yes, there are not that many different objects in the scenery, but it does not bother me, because you do not really have time to look at them on the highest difficulty. I really like the strong colors in the background on some tracks (like Oil Ocean or Stardust Speedway). I also really liked the soundtrack, which is inspired by the 80s. Some tracks fit in perfectly because their own speed/tempo/momentum. You have to keep in mind that this is not a full price title. There are 20 tracks, but they do not have any kind of gimmick to differentiate them from each other. The game modes are standard. I think the main motivation to keep playing after the first two hours or so is to get all the achievements. If collecting them is not your thing you will not get much from this game. In conclusion I must say that I find this game oddly entertaining, even though there is not much content and I did not play this kind of game in the past. I think the price is OK (I got it with the launch discount), but if you are in doubt about getting this game then wait for a sale.

First off, let's get the obvious out of the way - the game runs at a SOLID framerate, the cars feel weigthty enough, there's a solid selection of game play modes, and it's very, very pretty as far as 2D racing games go. The problem with this game isn't the tangible, technical side of it. Rather, what we have here is a distinct lack of personality. The game is very deliberately made to resemble Outrun, though perhaps it plays a bit more like Outrunners, the third arcade title in the series. Certainly handles crashes the way Outrunners does, with your car flying through the air only to land on its tires with only a bit of speed loss. However, the game lacks the personality that Outrun, and especially Outrunners, have. The cars, while pretty, are painfully generic, looking like a set of model cars you'd get at the Walgreen's, trying to look like real cars while avoiding licensing. The cars don't even have license plates, which seems a small thing, but points to just how far the developer went to avoid putting a personality of its own into the game. The rivals, tracks, music, everything is simply designed to be a reference, a sort of "remember when..." moment for gamers, but not really evocative of the games and music being cribbed from. This is very much the "retro game" fad in a nutshell. It's a well-made game, to be sure, but it doesn't bring its own spin on what it's taking from, and the lack of personality really hurts it.