Horizon Chase Turbo (2018)

Another victim of Tim Sweeney's incompetence.

This is one of my all time favorite games because I played it with my wife and now it will be retired from the stores on june 1st.

The sequel will live, but some consider is not as good as the first one.

This was made by brazilian studio Aquiris, which was bought by Epic Games in 2023 and renamed Epic Games Brasil. We don't know if the studio survived today laboral massacre.

I am not old enough to remember old racers of which this game is inspired by. However my friend pointed out it reminded him a lot on the racing games you had (preinstalled) on the old cellphones. And I agreed with him.

Nevertheless whether you have a nostalgia for that type of racers or not, this is a great and simple game. Mainly because it looks gorgeous and is very easy to pick up and play for everyone. Controls are just left, right, acceleration and nitros.

Bigger fans of the racing genre might find this game a bit too simplistic. And I could understand that. However the game does provide quite a challenge within its simple gameplay. The game goes fast. Really fast. The key is pretty much to avoid bumping into cars from the behind and steer through sharp turns at crazy speeds.

The game also features models of real cars under fake names. For me that also adds a sense of excitement when you are unlocking legendary cars like DeLorean, Mustang and Trueno. To add to the sense of progression, the game features unlockable race events through many different countries. Its a joy to see beautifully themed maps as you are racing through Japan, Africa, Australia and many more.

To me that game is one of the ultimate couch multiplayer picks and it is a must play. Give it a try.

Competing with 2-4 hour games, this could easily be one of the best. The content, however, stretches upwards of 12-16 for just a thorough completion of the World Tour campaign. Remaining is atleast one additional DLC campaign, rotating challenges, extra tournament modes and multiplayer. Stretched to that length, the track design shows its limits, fighting to fill each new location with unique art and background pieces.

The appeal is on the box. You have arcade-style (read: cars move in line with how your brain functions rather than a real car. The music and colors are vibrant and, early on, you definitely reach 'zen' moments: that ideal that racing games strive for where you're chasing first place or just the sun. The game earns its name.

The main campaign feels about 20% too long. A player jumping into the game, as I was, may be ready for a break long before beating it and will not have the momentum to jump into the additional modes (primarily multiplayer). I like to think, though, that I have another 'full first playthrough' left on the shelf for a future date.

When racing for 'Super Trophies' (or the terrifying unlisted achievement of getting 'full coins' on every race), you will typically find yourself in a pattern of beating one race quickly, while the next takes you a few tries. Only a couple of races took an entire sitting to beat or monopolized my time. That said, after 60 or so races (and rotating content uses the same format) I think the in-race collectathon elements far overstay their welcome and clash with the rest of the game's 'purity'.

The track design also becomes a limiting factor. You have environmental hazards like littered objects, different surfaces (dirt, concrete, shallow water), weather, and every angle of turn imagineable. By the end, though, they have mined ever combination you can imagine. In future development or sequels, I hope they are able to integrate other relatively 'pure' concepts such as mobile obstacles, split paths, ramps/jumps, shortcuts (or more obvious cuttable-corners) as well as mechanics to further differentiate the vehicles, while still fitting within the arcade persona.

When calculating in the cost of ambition, the game may be off the mark but it is not off the rails. It succeeds far more often than you can imagine and punches far above its technical and graphical limitations. Nowhere else in my library can you find such innocent and beautiful speed.

Horizon Chase Turbo is a modern reincarnation of the racing games from the 90s. The design elements are all here - the limited 2D/2.5D view, the no-frills approach, the chiptune soundtrack and so on. A screenshot will probably help describe this:

There are a lot of good things about HCT:

1. A ton of content. I completed the main campaign (World Tour) and racked up about 13 hours of playtime. The World Tour has you going from city to city around the world and each city has unique backdrops, visual style, and of course, racing routes.
2. Local multiplayer up to 4 people.
3. Frantic pace, and very competitive. You have friends-only and global leaderboards, ghosts, and the game keeps track of records for every map.
4. A continuous stream of events. There's a 'Playground' section in the game which features time-limited events from the developers. The devs have been adding events since 2019 or so.

I also have a few gripes:

1. Due to the online components (leaderboards, ghosts, events), I couldn't get the game to work offline. It won't even display an error, it just remains stuck on the splash screen.
2. Repetition. Outside of the actual racing, there's not much to do. The game encourages a drop-in, drop-out style of play (as opposed to a long continuous playthrough), and its design reflects that.

Even with those minor problems, I found HCT to be a whole lot of fun. I still have tournaments and endurance challenges to complete, so back to the game I go.

Personal note: Game received for free from the Epic Store. The Steam page shows that there are two DLCs available, but these aren't listed on EGS. Bit of a shame, as I would have loved to purchase those.

Pretty fun racing game with a retro aesthetics.

It has a pretty simple gameplay: you need to beat everyone on a short track (usually about 2-3 minutes) and collect all the coins. Also, you can use turbo and you have to collect fuel when you're getting run out of it. That's pretty much it. Core gameplay is good: it is fast paced races, when you don't have much time to think about anything and you need to rely only on your reflexes. Game physics is primitive, but the whole challenge is about to avoid touching your opponents.

But game's simplicity is a flaw as well. It was not enough to keep me interesting through the whole game, so I got tired in the middle of career. That's why I would recommend to play it in a small portions, not more than one country in a time. I've beaten career mode, but has no intentions to keep playing it (in the end you unlock tournaments and endurance mode).

Overall, I would recommend to check it to every racing game lovers.

Completed all available races in local 2-player co-op

• Cleared World Tour and reached credits
• Completed Summer Vibes + Porto Alegre DLC

Final Thoughts: Very solid local multiplayer game that's not only an amazing throwback to 80's/90's sprite-based racers, but also one that's easily accessible to those who didn't grow up in this era. Visually, the color palettes are stunning and bright, with a great sense of speed. The music soundtrack also is a nice remanence of the 80's with some songs based on SNES Top Gear (same composer after all), though it can sound repetitive after a while. There's an amazing amount of content and unlockables as well, where clearing every 70+ races takes like 7h~ with additional bonus modes on top of that.

The only negative I have with this game is that the Switch version frequently crashed for me. It would completely freeze halfway in some race every other time I booted it.

I had an amazing experience playing this game a few days ago.

I was playing with my wife (I'm still not able to win against her) and reach the Chile races. Suddenly, this track started playing.

I recognized the first part, but then the main melody started and I noticed. It was a cover of the amazing 'Track 1' from the first Top Gear!

For a few minutes, nostalgia took over me and I was a kid again. I couldn't hide my smile during the rest of the race. I didn't even mind that my wife won again!