REVIEW: Hotshot Racing (Xbox Game Pass)

• Released: 2020
• Played on: Xbox One / Xbox Game Pass Streaming
• Also available on: PS4, PC, Switch
• Time to get into: 10 Minutes
• Time to complete: 1 Hour (but that is not really the point here)
• Multiplayer: Yes, local and online

Game Summary

Hotshot Racing is a high speed blast of nostalgia – a game that harks back to the days of playing racing games on big arcade cabinets. A simple game to remember simple days. It nails everything about this aesthetic but unfortunately also nails the lack of depth and short lived nature of such games as well. It’s hard to criticise much of what Hotshot Racing does – it looks great and handles nicely – but it’s offline options are few and rather unbalanced and even the online features don’t stretch out the fun for too long. As long as you are prepared for that, Hotshot Racing is great fun for a little while.

What’s good about it?

• Hotshot Racing really does look great. The art style is simplistic but not simple. There’s plenty of detail in the cars and the track side but of course it is mainly looking to hark back to its inspirations. The game strikes a great balance – looking like the old arcade games but happy to be modern too.
• Outside of just the plain races there are a couple of interesting modes. In Cops and Robbers you play as one or the other – trying to survive or trying to take down the robbers. The other is a mode where you have to keep a certain, and steadily increasing, speed up or you’ll eventually explode. The existence of these keeps the game from being one dimensional.
• The set of cars is fun. There are four types, which focus on speed, acceleration, drifting and an all rounder. Each driver character has one of each and each type really does handle differently – you’ll need to tweak your driving style to get the best from each.
• The different characters and their comments, both in menus and in game, are a fun bonus. It reminds me of Quantum Redshift on the original Xbox.
• The game is at its best against others online. Hotshot Racing will fill out the grid with AIs if you’ve not enough players in your session so it’s usually straight forward to find a game. Racing against others gives Hotshot Racing a sense of purpose that it can lack offline.

What’s bad about it?

• Hotshot Racing has no depth and no nuance. What you see is what you get but then you realise there’s just not much of it. In terms of offline play there are trophies to win for sets of races but that entire thing takes less than an hour. After that there’s only the online modes to keep you coming back.
• Difficulty is very odd. Offline it starts way too easy, you can win races without knowing the track or the car. But suddenly when you get to the hardest difficulty you can’t win races at all unless you are perfect in every turn the entire race.
• Likewise online is odd, because I found it very easy. Race win after race win to the point that I actually stopped playing because I was bored of the lack of challenge. It’s many many a year since I was this competitive in an online game!
• The reason it’s easy is that there is one key to winning. The rubber banding in Hotshot Racing is the worst I can remember. It’s almost impossible to fall far behind the leaders, so just keep your nose clean until the final few corners and then use your boost to rocket to the win. Its a nearly foolproof formula. But again, it’s not something that encouraged me to keep playing.

Conclusion

If you remember wistfully those days of playing racing games on great big cabinets, all loudspeakers and sticky rubber steering wheels, then Hotshot Racing will be right up your street. The fun doesn’t last long but a few power slides, boosts and race wins can be a great distraction from whatever else you are playing.