The gameplay is fast, easy to pick up and relies mostly on drifting to build up boost… and then well, boosting. It carries so much spirit of the games it draws from that there’s no doubt that this team (who brought you the newer Outrun games last generation) really have passion and deep knowledge of the genre. It’s so on-the-money that you’re playing something brand new and yet you feel like you’ve maybe seen the tracks before somewhere, or selected that driver-character in another game. It also really helps that it runs smooth as butter even on a launch Xbox One. The low-polygon graphics manage to somehow look old and retro, and yet the visuals are stunningly vibrant and crisp. As one of the best love letters to old-school racers like Outrun, Virtua Racer, Ridge Racer and even Need for Speed 2 + 3, it’s unbelievable how well they’ve captured the essence of everything that made those games great.

This past week saw the release of Hotshot Racing on Game Pass, and boy, oh boy… it’s so damn awesome. Review – Available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows We absolutely recommend that you check it out! It’s fun, smooth and offers up some good content to keep you busy for ages. Hotshot Racing captures almost everything I ever loved about playing racing games back in the day.

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