I haven’t had this much pure fun in a racer since the days of Daytona USA and Outrun 2. Again though, utilising the drift even at this speed means we can fly around bends and turns as easy as anything. Slipstreaming or drifting builds up a boost meter that is split into four chunks once one is full, a tap of A sends the car careening down the track at some speed. It gives the racing a bit of a scrappy feeling, and it’s something that I loved about Hotshot Racing.
The AI are aggressive as anything, taking no hesitation in smashing into us to get around a corner, or pushing us into a hazard. It’s just simple enough to play, yet it’s not also going to take it easy on us.
On the lower difficulty I had no issue navigating hairpin after hairpin while jostling for position with the AI cars. The racing itself is incredibly fun, throwing back to earlier titles in its approach to handling chucking the car around the corner while tapping the brake sends us into some epic powerslides that look cool as shit while also still being fun to control. Again, they only unlock visual customisation options, but they are a neat way to encourage us to play with each car and racer, as well as alter our style slightly to succeed. My personal favourite was Keiko, and it pays to stick to one as there are challenges associated with each driver and car that unlock new aesthetic customisation options some require us to drift for 5 seconds in one go, while others are spread out over many races such as boost 20 times in a race, or drift for 100 seconds total in each car. There are a handful of racers, each with 4 cars, to choose from featuring slightly differing abilities when it comes to acceleration, drift, or top speed, but that’s it. Hotshot Racing takes its arcade inspiration to heart – we have a selection of championships to compete in, each with 4 tracks and 3 difficulty modes. There’s still the occasional lighter-hearted take of course, and Hotshot Racing takes that idea and runs with it coming across as a mix between Outrun and Virtua Racing, the wizards at Sumo Digital and Lucky Mountain have created an excellent throwback to a simpler time, where just the joy of throwing a car around a track was enough, without needing to worry about tyre wear or suspension limits. From the early days of Gran Turismo through to the spectacular Forza series of modern day, it’s clear that much of the focus is on a more sim-style approach to racing. Racing games have gotten more and more in depth as time has gone on.
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