Horizon Chase Turbo is a game that replicated arcade racers and caused many to experience immense nostalgia. It definitely gave me massive nostalgia, but how good was the game? Can it hold up even without the aid of nostalgia? Lets find out.

Horizon Chase Turbo is a game that, as I said, resurrected an older type of racing game, the arcade racer. Many will remember the style of racing from games like Namco’s Pole Position, and especially Top Gear for the Super Nintendo from Gremlin Graphics. Top Gear was the very first game that I ever owned growing up, getting for my birthday was I was but 3 years old. I grew up around the N64 era but we did appreciate and play some great snes games. So when I saw this I knew that I had to play it and, now that I have my blog I absolutely have to review it, so lets get into it.

Gameplay.

Horizon Chase Turbo’s gameplay is insanely inspired by the games that I mentioned above. In their initial steam store page, their video game description is straight and to the point. They describe the game as a “Thrilling arcade racing game inspired from the 90’s”, and that is all one needs to know if you grew up in the era I did or even a bit before. Racing games, before 3d had to make due, and give the illusion of a 3d track and they replicate that here.

For those of you who have not tried an arcade racer I will explain the gameplay here for you. It consists of your car staying mostly centered on the bottom of the screen. Sort of like a rail game like star fox with limited mobility along the rail. You of course can turn left and right but that is about it the camera will stay behind your car at all times, so it can feel like you aren’t actually going somewhere, yet at the same time it does. It can give you a bit of cognitive dissonance in terms of spatial awareness of the track. The gameplay focuses on dodging the competition cars while making the turns as quick as possible. A simple gameplay concept that gets tougher and tougher as you play, with more unrelenting tracks.

What I love about this game is that, it doesn’t rely completely on the nostalgia to win you over. The game play is a bit unique in how it handles fuel and nitro pickups, as well as overall feel. The game feels a little closer to a real 3d racing game than the classics, mostly due to its graphical capabilities. They also add track depth with things like whether effects that can inhibit your traction and turning. Permanent car upgrades help add an element of progress and personalization to the gameplay as well. Lastly, and the biggest gameplay change from some classic racers, is the sheer amount of cars and differing stats they have. I feel that they did a pretty good job balancing later cars and have way more than just the 4 cars that are available in Top Gear.

Art style.

This is where some may disagree with me, but I am ok with the art style. The original Horizon Turbo was a mobile game, and there were obviously some limitations that one can see with this. They use the somewhat simplified, almost block like texturing when it comes to the details. It gives off a very minimalist look. I find the textures to be serviceable. I love the color palette they often choose for each level in the game and the cars themselves, It is the low poly nature that I am a bit iffy on. The game does a great job of making sure the focus can stay on the course and the road and only seem to impede the vision of the player when they mean too because of whether effects. The low poly nature of the surroundings can help keep the player from being overwhelmed more than they already are with some of the high speeds of the in game cars.

Soundtrack.

Don’t even get me started on the music of this game. This has to be one of, if not the, most memorable soundtracks for me. It is music that gets you pumped and ready to race. It makes you feel the thrill of the speed through its up tempo music. Not only that, but it also is tailored to tracks and the progress of the player, just like Top Gear. To this day Top Gear has some of my favorite music ever in gaming as a whole and the folks at Aquiris Game Studio must have known this, because they got the same composer, Barry Leitch, to create the soundtrack for this game as well.

They even managed to sneak in an Easter egg song. This song is literally called Easter egg in the official soundtrack of the game, and is my favorite racing game song of all time, remixed. They got Barry to recreate a song that, once heard, can never be forgotten because of its majesty. There is another song in the game with hints of high inspiration from his work over on Top Gear, which themselves were remakes of another arcade racer. I can not sing enough praises for Barry as a composer, and even if you do not plan to play this or the original Top Gear, I highly implore you to check out the soundtracks.

Closing.

I want to start off today’s closing by answering the question, do I think that this game can hold up even without nostalgia lens. It is very clear, even from the steam page description, that this game was made to appeal to those who grew up with the medium of arcade racers. For those of us who used to enjoy their time in the arcade and didn’t have things like Need for Speed or Forza. I would argue that it still does, just not as much as their target audience.

The gameplay itself is tight, the art serviceable, and the music great. This type of racer is definitely a bit different from your average nowadays, but it has all the elements there to be successful. Its gameplay design sets out to be a bit dated, but I find that arcade racers have not aged too poorly gameplay wise. It makes sense to a player that when behind the wheel of a car they are to turn left and right, and that is precisely what you do here, no fancy maneuvers. Because of this I think it has an easy barrier to entry and has a higher level of mastery. As well as many tweaks and additions that make it unique. I believe because of that it can stand on its own, but I do believe the nostalgia pull is what makes someone like the game, versus love it like I do.

If I had to rate this game I would give it a 10/10 for me with my nostalgia lense on, and with it off I would say it is still a solid 8 at least if not higher. I hope you all loved my review of this very niche but amazing game. If you did please press a like here and give me a follow here or over on my twitter, I would highly appreciate it. I also would love to hear your thoughts. Did I do the game justice, or do you have a different opinion? Let me know and I will see you all next time.