I used to be extra into Atari’s NeoSprint for Nintendo Swap in the beginning of the assessment interval than on the finish of it, and that feels applicable. This can be a remake of an arcade recreation from 1976, and that’s how I felt about practically each arcade recreation within the ’70s and ’80s.
Video games again then couldn’t maintain your consideration for lengthy in case you weren’t getting down to grasp them, and who mastered racing video games? Quite, Dash’s attraction was that you possibly can play it with others—there have been 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- and even 8-player variations in arcades. Is that this the primary 8-player online game based mostly on an precise 8-player arcade recreation? I can’t consider any others.
Regardless of practically 50 years of separation, the gameplay in NeoSprint is essentially the identical. You’ve obtained a top-down, considerably isometric view of the race observe and a reasonably fundamental management scheme: speed up, brake, and handbrake for tighter turns. The brake turns into reverse in case you maintain it down, though it’s usually simpler to only reset your automobile with X (with a pressured delay) than to reverse your self again onto the race.
The controls and gameplay give NeoSprint a unfastened, RC really feel. Physics are inaccurate, however constant. Vehicles don’t hug the tracks, it feels extra like they skid throughout and bounce over it. They’re simply jammed into partitions and different automobiles. Climb a ramp too shortly and you possibly can bounce proper off the observe in your touchdown. As such, deciding on the correct automobile of the 9 out there is essential. Do you like to separate from the pack by way of fast acceleration or mastery of the turns? Is it higher to decide on a cart that accentuates your arcade racing strengths or that compensates to your weaknesses?
You’ll have time to determine this out, as NeoSprint locks the vast majority of its content material behind the single-player marketing campaign mode. Once I first loaded the sport to race with my son, we had been stunned to seek out just one grand prix set of 4 tracks out there. That’s lower than 1/tenth of its full content material. As such, I needed to push my method by way of the marketing campaign mode with the intention to make it fascinating for others, because the actually enjoyable tracks are buried deep within the recreation.
Granted, all this apply made me a greater racer, so I gained lots.
The marketing campaign introduces some characters to beat, however there’s no actual story. That’s good, as a result of this recreation doesn’t want one. That is arcade racing, in any case, and arcade video games had been designed to get you on and off shortly. To that finish, there’s a free-race mode that approximates dropping in 1 / 4 and hitting the beginning button. If you’d like extra depth, NeoSprint additionally presents time trials to enhance your expertise, the aforementioned grand-prix circuits, and an impediment course mode that retains issues fascinating after you’ve mastered the usual tracks. Once more, although, tracks must be unlocked in marketing campaign mode earlier than you’re in a position to entry them within the different modes.
That restriction even carries over to the observe builder. Gamers have the power to create their very own tracks and share them on-line, however most of the constructing gadgets are additionally locked behind marketing campaign mode progress. Perhaps that is smart—the extra publicity you need to the number of default programs, the higher your inspiration and your skill to create playable tracks.
Contemplating multiplayer is the place the enjoyable is, I’m confused by why Atari doesn’t permit multiplayer racing to unlock all of this content material. To me, it is a greater oversight than the shortage of on-line multiplayer. I acknowledge not everybody has a gaggle of fellow racers able to share the sofa and Pleasure-Cons, however forcing gamers to race shoulder-to-shoulder is in spirit with the unique arcade recreation.
Graphics and audio? They’re respectable sufficient. It’s fairly simple to lose sight of your automobile on the observe, however NeoSprint’s visible updates in any other case serve to maintain you centered on the observe. I believe it might’ve been enjoyable, nonetheless, for Atari to throw within the recreation’s authentic tracks with the unique graphics (full with oil slicks which have the phrase “OIL” helpfully written in them).
NeoSprint is an honest arcade racer, and I believe that is certainly one of Atari’s bolder choices when contemplating remakes. I don’t agree with a few of the selections they made relating to accessibility, however that doesn’t make the sport much less enjoyable to play. It simply means you need to play it extra with the intention to make it as enjoyable as it may be.