With the popularization of 3D racers in the 90’s, there was little reason to bother with top-down racers anymore, as that technological limitation was no longer in place. Sure, there were fun outliers like Death Rally, but the market moved on. Atari wants to go back to that era of much much simple, yet hardly less fun era of racers with NeoSprint, a sequel to their ancient Sprint series, that we tested out on Xbox Series X!
Top-down bliss
What truly makes or breaks a racing game is usually its handling – if the cars don’t feel fun to drive, pretty much all other well-made aspects of the game crumble down like a castle of cards. Fortunately, Atari’s new racer hits the mark there: the top-down view hides a simple, yet precise and effective driving model where the speeds are high, the gear shifts automatic, and drifts can be used without fear to be able to carry higher speeds throughout tight corners. The art of burning rubber like that takes a couple minutes to get used to, as it’s certainly not as easy and “on rails” as something like Mario Kart, but once gotten the hang of it’s hard to go back to simply just braking and turning slow.
The physics of the game, too, are definitely not aiming for realism, as NeoSprint has what I would call… toy car physics. There’s no damage model to speak of, though cars do start smoking after taking some, and there’s no penalty system for hitting obstacles or anything. Thus, a lot of the time it will feel pretty easy and natural to enter a turn at a high speed, then bounce off a wall, with the game’s rubbery physics that assist such an aggressive and risky playstyle. It’s not always that easy though, as missing the right angle to abuse this ancient racing trick can result in our front-end stopping right against the barriers, killing our speed, momentum, making us lose precious time and positions.
NeoSimple
Indeed, NeoSprint can offer two kinds of opponents in as many style of events: proper races against other opponents or racing against the clock. In the case of the former, there’s no qualifying, it’s straight into the race. With up to 8 cars in play, in events that can range from 3 to 10 laps, racers will duke it out to finish first. Depending on the options selected, even obstacles like oil patches and road cones can be added to the mix, alongside turbo strips and others that do the exact opposite, slowing the player down. These races can get pretty intense even against the AI, especially on Hard difficulty, though the generally competent computer does sometimes get a bit confused as to what to do in particularly tight or complex turns.
The other option is racing against the clock, a racing style that feels equivally well-made. On tracks with or without obstacles, players can do endless timed runs, competing against their own or some other player’s ghost quite seamlessly, being able to track each laptime, improvements and climb the rankings in real time. With laps being consecutive, players can even ensure to start a lap with the highest possible speed or the best angle available, hopefully already ensuring a healthy lead on the clock by the time turn 1 is behind us. And, in what’s perhaps the best thing of all, is that all of this can be done on any track, including custom tracks.
TrackMania in the 1980’s
While Nadeo and Ubisoft’s track-building racer is far from the first in time to do such a thing, I still feel like it may the comparison most may be familiar with. In what feels a rather “TrackMania-esque” editor, players can build these “flat” tracks, over 3 levels of height. Straights, various kinds of flat or banked turns, level changes, ramps with defined landing spots, tons of funky decorations and also the aforementioned obstacles. With 4 biomes, 3 different track sizes and a solid variety of track elements, many of which featuring alternative visual styles, it’s easy to create anything from a quick meme track to something a bit more technical.
Unfortunately, the editor also features various limitations that ends up limiting its long-term value. Aside from some quality-of-life features like an undo button missing, there’s just not a particularly high amount of different shapes and designs players can use. Sure, the 3 levels of heigth can help a bit, but due to how the game’s AI “just has to work”, the player can’t make peculiar tracks. No branching paths, no offroad sections, and with a lack of actual checkpoints, we’re left to figure out the game’s exact logic as to what can be cut and what can not, as the game’s funky toy physics threw me over a barrier and on top of a different road more than once.
Through progress and roadblocks
The game’s meaty campaign features plenty of 4-race cups to beat, over increasingly complex tracks and with increasing amount of AI rivals. Beyond that, there’s the aforementioned time trials and obstacle courses, which like the campaign give access to new skins for cars, editor blocks and more – so it’s definitely worth diving into all games the game has to offer. Free races and custom cups also exist, but those offer no special unlocks. All of the game’s cars features several colour variants and skins, most of which based on Atari classics such as Space Invaders or Galaga – some of them look pretty damn good, too!
There are a handful of shortcomings in NeoSprint however. Aside from the already mentioned limitations of the track editor, there’s no real car customization to speak of aside from alternate skins and there is no online multiplayer either, with local being the only way to effectively play against friends. The game also has a few car visibility issues when driving on a road that is underneath another piece of asphalt, with the game giving a small aura of transparency around the player but that still limits general readability. Other than this woe, the game’s graphics and performance are sound, with the cool retro-themed yet 3D look that works like a charm.
New and old, united to make a fun racer
NeoSprint is a fun and well-made homage to racing games of old, with a fun and precise arcade driving model from a top-down view. There’s a vast selection of tracks, a solid editor to create and download new ones, various cars and plenty of customization, including several callbacks to other Atari classics, making this game worth the time for racing fans who aren’t afraid of playing something that winks to an era before 3D racers got popular. Lack of proper online multiplayer is a bummer, although leaderboards and downloadable ghosts are in the game. Ultimately, NeoSprint is a retro arcade bonanza that I can see myself coming back to for a while, especially if the community and developers keep the content and challenges coming.
8.0
NeoSprint
Played on
Xbox Series X
PROS
- Old school, arcade, top-down fun
- Simple yet challenging driving model
- Meaty single player and a lot of online leaderboards to climb
- There's even a track editor...
CONS
- ...but it's a bit limited
- No online multiplayer
- A bit repetitive due to a lack of mode variety
