In a nice touch, the opponents not only have names, but also character models and personalities, the latter of which in particular is something that was typically absent from ’90s racers. This, however, brings us on to the opponents in Hotshot Racing. The timer in question is reasonably lenient, however even if you have a complete disaster of a crash partway through the race, you’re unlikely to run out of time unless you really make a hash of recovering. And Barrel Barrage lets you attempt to take out your opponents with exploding barrels.Īll of these modes are built atop the same basic old-school timers-and-checkpoints style racing, so if you’ve never been a fan of racing against tight time limits, Hotshot Racing is probably not going to change your mind. Drive or Explode is a Speed-inspired race where you have to keep your speed above a certain threshold for the whole race or risk exploding. Cops and Robbers is a competitive mode where the “Robber” players have to bank as much cash as possible from a dwindling supply by ramming into dollar sign icons around the track - and, of course, the cops have to stop them. The Arcade mode simply allows you a standard one-shot timers-and-checkpoints race, like a single round of one of the championships. The Single Race mode boasts a number of additional ways to play, too. Each championship can be played at three different difficulty levels, too, so there’s plenty to keep you busy for quite a while just in that mode. The main grand prix mode offers you five different championships to enter, each unfolding across four different tracks. There are several ways to play Hotshot Racing. And yes, you may well notice that Hotshot Racing is indeed a racing game that combines elements of all my favourite arcade racers from years gone by. But Sumo Digital’s involvement in its development means that it carries a fair amount of OutRun 2 DNA in there - Sumo Digital developed OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast, the expanded version of OutRun 2 for home consoles - plus there’s a pretty strong emphasis on drift racing around corners, a la Ridge Racer.

Its most obvious inspiration comes from its untextured, low-poly visual style, which is reminiscent of Sega’s classic Virtua Racing. Hotshot Racing is an arcade racer specifically inspired by ’90s classics.

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