Ever since it was first announced,Hot Lap Racingstood out as a rare racing game that aimed to offer up many different kinds of racing being replicated in a single title. It’s a lofty goal and one that can lead to the ruination of a game or great success if it’s done well. Nailing the feel of one type of racing vehicle is tough enough, but aiming for several can be too lofty. We have seen games likeHotshot Racinglargely succeed at doing this with an arcade slant to the action, while others likeXeno Racerhave fallen flat across the board. The team at Zero Games Studio aimed to create a simcade experience and accomplish lofty goals within that framework.
The overarching goal ofHot Lap Racingwas to craft a love letter to the history of motorsports from the ’60s to today across many different styles of racing. There are GT Cross vehicles, Formula 1 vehicles, stock cars, Electric vehicles and production cars from across the decades with something for every kind of racing game fan. Formula 1 vehicles offer up a ton of speed at the expense of having to be more precise with your movements, while GT vehicles run the gamut from being super-fast Noble vehicles that help scratch the itch for something akin to a Ferrari-style car to touring cars like the Opel Colibra that offer greater control.
True to its name,Hot Lap Racingfeatures a greater emphasis on single lap performance and aims to make the player get better as time goes on. It’s not the most forgiving experience in the world for either the career or championship modes, while offering up a separate free race or hot lap option. The latter would also be called a time trial in most other games, butHot Lapputs a greater emphasis on it than usual. It’s got its own dedicated menu option and it’s clear that Zero Games aimed to improve the player’s in-game skills while also showcasing a greater appreciation for the intricacies needed to excel in a race.
One thing that stands out more than any other right away is that you will have to come into the game with patience and a willingness to lose a lot and pay attention to how the game works. It’s unflinching in its rigidity when it comes to skill challenges and while the challenges themselves like cone challenges and braking challenges remind me of Project Gotham Racing, the harsher difficulty reminds me more of Bizarre Creation’s Dreamcast classicMetropolis Street Racerinstead. That game, like PGR, offered up a lot of variety but also put the player through its paces and forced you to either get good at its mechanics or get frustrated by your lack of progress.
View to a Thrill
Right from the jump, players need to pay close attention to the rules of the road and stay on the track as much as possible. Unlike a lot of games over the past twenty years, there’s no rewind function. This means that you have to retrain your brain a bit because the days of going off-road, but quickly being able to go back in time to avoid the faux pas are gone. You have one take to get it right or else you go back to the start of the challenge or race. Depending on the race type, you might not lose much time. If you’re in a hot lap challenge, then you’re talking maybe two minutes of lost time while a career race or longer event will result in more time being lost. It aims to make you better, although having more flexibility with the ruleset would be nice.
One reason thatProject Gotham Racingas a series was better-received not only in its time, but in hindsight, thanMetropolis Street Racerwas being a lot more forgiving and offering up more kinds of medal options for players. WithHot Lap Racing, you need to be so careful of the road itself and going off-course that the fun factor is impacted and hopefully that’s something that can be improved over time with an update. As it stands, the game is unforgiving in its career and championship modes – but does accomplish the goal of making you learn the ins and outs of the mechanics.
Style and Speed
Hot Lap Racingis remarkable when it comes to control options. While on Switch, you only have digital triggers to work with, acceleration still feels organic whether you’re using a controller with digital inputs like the Pro Controller or JoyCons or one with analog triggers like the KingKong 2.Hot Lap Racingalso has far more control setups than I realistically could have expected, with optimizations for left or right hand-only controls. That’s something I don’t ever recall seeing in a racing game and it’s a fantastic option to have for players with either limited mobility in one hand or who just want to play with a single Joy-Con option for an additional challenge.
Visually,Hot Lap Racingis impressive for Switch. As a simcade game along the lines of the Gear Club Unlimited series beforehand, it has a lot more going for it with a slew of different camera angles – including fully-featured cockpit views for every vehicle. That view in particular has a ton of detail in it and there are a couple of nice third-person views to work with – including a slightly overhead view that I found to be a total godsend for challenges since they have set glowing areas to work within and having that slight view ahead made them easier to topple. The framerate is consistent for the most part although it does get into some slowdown during intense crashes with a yellow flag warning as they’re generally bigger pileups. Car models are nice-looking beyond pixelation along their frames and tracks have a lot of details present, but also have some muddy texture work along the way.
Audio-wise,Hot Lapsucceeds when it comes to sound design mid-race and falters a bit with the soundtrack. Trading paint during an intense race feels satisfying with a good thud to start and then scraping getting across how much prolonged impact is being made. The roar of each engine is also different and adds to things like free races where each style of vehicle has a different sound to it when you’re surrounded. The soundtrack is a relaxing rock mix, which both fits the game and is at odds with the more simulation-centric parts of it as well. The harder rock portions really did remind me of a great Daytona 2 race when I’d have a few stock cars to work with and a nice fast-paced song blaring to get the blood pumping.
A Stunning View
Closing Comments:
Hot Lap Racingsucceeds far more than it fails as a more serious racing game on the Switch. It’s hurt a framerate-wise by the hardware, but still manages to control nicely with digital inputs being recognized on either controllers with purely digital inputs or analog. Controlling the cars feels natural and that plays into the harder-than-usual difficulty that makes the player get better to excel and doesn’t offer as many options as other modern-day racers to ease the burden. Veteran racing fans will probably appreciate that approach to an extent, while the inclusion of many kinds of driving challenges evoked more of the fun ofProject Gotham Racingthan the more laborious classicGran Turismolicense tests. It’s a flawed, but fun racing excursion on the Switch and offers far more racing variety than its contemporaries in the Gear Club Unlimited series.
Hot Lap Racing
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch
Hot Lap Racing puts you behind the wheel of several classes of motor racing, from the power of Formula 1 to endurance cars seen in Le Mans. It features a range of tracks, more than 50 vehicles, and online multiplayer.
