Racing is Cute; the iRacing Arcade Review.
When iRacing Arcade was first announced, I got a little bit excited. I've seen a few of my friends play Circuit Superstars, a racing game developed by an indie studio called Original Fire Games. Now they're getting pumped full of funding and licensing deals that would allow them to make something bigger. I didn't get my hopes up too high - I've been let down too many times before by the racing genre to get truly hyped - but I did let myself feel just a bit giddy about it.
The first thing that stuck out to me was the art direction. Portraying real racing cars as cute, stubby little buddies with the proportions of a Power Wheels buggy was a fantastic choice. The mixture of this cute style with PBR shaders was a bit of an odd choice to me at first, but we can talk about that later.
As more was revealed about the game, my measured impression eventually did grow into hype. One of my biggest critiques of modern arcade racing games is the lack of off-track gameplay. Racing can get really monotonous after a while, even for an obsessed racer like me. Having some variety in the gameplay helps change things up and keep things interesting, and iRacing Arcade's Team Management gameplay looked like a much needed switch-up. Then there's the tracks; to match the stubby proportions of the cars, real racing circuits have been squashed, stretched and skewed similarly. It's all in service of a really, really cute appearance - and I honestly love it a lot! We were already seeing mods appear for Assetto Corsa that were basically kart-ified versions of real circuits, and iRacing Arcade is just doing that with an extra bit of shine.
So, now it's released and it's in my hands. Was my excitement warranted?
Yes. Yes it was.
I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed with the polish here. The game feels like it has a really strong foundation with ample opportunity for expansion, should the devs wish to grow the game's level of content in the future. I could easily see the number of cars, tracks and team management decorations (more on that later) grow out from what's already here. The driving feels accessible and predictable, the cars and tracks look adorable without becoming unrecognizable, and the personality this game has totally shines through as a complete package.
Let's talk specifics.
(DISCLAIMER: I was given a code for this game by iRacing, but being that I'm as broke as I am, I know how important it is to take the price of a game into account; this will be the case here, but it's still only an attempt to evaluate the game's experience versus its cost. Keep that bias in mind.)
Car Handling
This is probably the least important (but still important) thing I consider when it comes to arcade racers, so let's get this out of the way first. For context, my favorite arcade racer is Need for Speed: Prostreet. Its handling is often described as "sluggish," "clunky" and "unresponsive." Even so, I still love the game for reasons beyond the on-track experience. So, even if this game falls flat in the handling department, it can still more than make up for that in other areas.
iRacing Arcade doesn't need to worry about carrying itself beyond the handling, though! The cars all feel really fun and easy to drive, while still providing just enough complexity to make apexes and braking an important aspect of overtakes and catching up to the opponents ahead of you. The tracks are also beautifully mated to the handling model; the courses feel nice and tight, where most arcade racers would make the tracks obnoxiously wide. However, the race course never feels too claustrophobic; going three-wide into a corner is still possible, and still just as nerve-wracking as it should be, but it's also not terrifying.
In career mode, the game also gives you 'boosts' - little buffs to your car that can help you in a race. These are dependent on what buildings you have placed at your Team Headquarters (more on that later), and provide a little nudge to the front of the pack. The type of buffs you can get are pretty neat, too! On top of your standard, expected affair of raw grip and power boosts, you can also get access to interesting mechanics like having better acceleration on the first lap, or getting more power for a short time after being overtaken. The super-grippy handling of the cars don't keep you from spinning out, though; if you're not careful, you can easily find yourself pointed backwards in the sand traps lining some of the circuits.
Style and Aesthetics
The Power Wheels proportions here are adorable. It feels a little bit like Choro-Q, a cult classic in arcade racing games, without feeling like a carbon copy. The PBR shaders initially threw me off since this art style feels a bit more at home in lower fidelity graphic environments, but I don't think the realistic materials are unwelcome. It's grown on me as I play it, for sure. Even so, there's a part of me that wonders if the 3D modeling style might have been better served with a different approach to shaders. It's not a big complaint - hardly even a complaint at all, really, just a matter of taste in my judgement - but it's a thing I think about.
The UI design is a bit uninspired and at times clunky, particularly with some preview thumbnails in the customization menus and colour sliders being a bit slow. The menus themselves look fairly standard - but almost every other game on the market today is plagued with Same-Menu-itis, so I won't really knock the game for it. I just miss the days of old when racing game menus had more flair and personality than even today's sports broadcasts.
The car and driver customization is also very welcome. You can unlock car liveries, driver suits and helmets, driver poses and celebrations. These days, even modest customization like this is kind of important in an arcade racing game; being able to express one's self and immerse themself into feeling like the car they're driving is truly their own is important for immersing players into a racing game these days.
Team Management
This is where things get interesting. As I mentioned earlier, off-track gameplay is important for breaking up the monotony of racing. Many other successful games feature gameplay mechanics that sit outside the expected gameplay; Fallout New Vegas has Caravan, terminal hacking, lockpicking, gambling and stats leveling to immerse you further into the typical loop of exploration, combat and NPC interactions. Race Driver GRID has sponsorships and teammates to manage off-track to help you improve your team's performance on-track AND in the end-of-season earnings leaderboard. Here, iRacing Arcade's Team HQ management provides a similar type of levity from the racing.
As you progress through the campaign, you can purchase and upgrade buildings to improve your team. Buying a Team HQ building allows you to hire a teammate to increase your winnings, while buying Chassis, Engine and Tire shops will give you bonuses that you can select from before each race. You can even add decorations to your headquarters, giving you the opportunity to spend a handful of minutes or even hours to design a team home that feels like home. While I do feel like a few more decorations would be nice - more landscaping options, for example - what's here is nice to see.
Audio & Music
The engine notes and other car noises are fantastically rendered here, but that's really all that inspires me. Cutscene SFX seem a bit amateurish to me. Footsteps of the crew don't have much directionality and the sound sample chosen for it doesn't really sell the action. There's no metal-on-metal clanking or tire noise as the car is pushed off the trailer. There's no crowd or paddock ambient noise either, which I find are essential sounds to sell the atmosphere. The menu and event SFX (crashes, pitting, etc) are good; nothing to write home about, but generally speaking, sound is best felt than noticed because if normal people (i.e. people who aren't audio freaks like me) notice, it's because of something going wrong in the audio.
Miscellaneous Notes
I have a few issues I wanna address that don't really fit anywhere else, so I'll throw 'em here.
The camera is, unfortunately, a bit too loose; while does add a dynamic feel to cornering, there are some corners on certain tracks where I end up getting a little bit motion sick - and that never happens to me. Pushing the right analog stick forward to lock the camera to the car immediately fixes that issue, and gives me a better idea for the attitude of the car while cornering - I pick up about four tenths at MINIMUM when doing this, which doesn't seem great. Having a slider or preset (low, medium and high intensity) setting to adjust how tight or loose the camera is to car rotation would be a welcome fix for this.
The CPU opponent difficulty fluctuates quite a lot; one difficulty setting will be a nice challenge with some car/track combos, while it'll be a cakewalk with others. It's a bit frustrating because I can't just set and forget the difficulty, but it's a common issue across racing games so I'm used to it at this point.
I'd also like a little bit more variety in the Team HQ building mode. Alternate colour palettes and more decorations would be nice to see so we can have a little more variety in our spaces, but what's here is already fantastic as it is - but more personalization options to make your HQ look unique is always better.
In Conclusion
Overall, I think iRacing Arcade is a pretty solid arcade racing game that fits perfectly into a handheld gaming context, but it's also a lot of fun on PC. I've been having a lot of fun with what's here, and I can't wait to see what's next for Original Fire Games and their partnership with iRacing. The quality and polish on display here is fantastic, and most of my complaints are honestly just me trying to find things amiss or slightly out of place. That's not because I'm actively looking to trash the game or anything, far from it - I'm just trying to be fair. I'd be just as critical to any other racing game, because this is the genre of video games with which I'm the most obsessed and experienced with.
Some people may be a bit disappointed that it's not just Accessible iRacing, but I knew going in that it was going to be a totally different experience. I'm not sure that the name of this game was really a wise idea; while I understand the intent to make iRacing's involvement known, calling the game "iRacing Arcade" probably gives people a bit of a weird assumption about what it's trying to do. Even so, I knew to leave my assumptions at the door and give the game a fair shot. The game has been a blast to play with only minor issues, so I'd say that's a job well done for OFG. I haven't tested Multiplayer out yet, but it seems pretty standard - pick a car, pick a track and let it rip against your buddies. If I find anything interesting in the multiplayer that I feel is necessary to point out, I'll probably write about it in another blog post.
I'd highly recommend this game to people who love arcade racers. It's a solid indie arcade racing game that partnered with a big sim racing developer (and recently, publisher), and the benefits of that partnership shine throughout.