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#+date: <2020-12-28>
#+title: Neon Drive: A Nostalgic 80s Arcade Racing Game
#+description:
* Game Description
[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/433910/Neon_Drive/][Neon Drive]]
presents itself as a simple arcade-style game inspired by the arcade
race games of the 1980s, yet it has managed to take up hours of my life
without much effort. The game description, directly from the Steam page,
is intriguing enough to entice anyone who's been looking for a good
arcade racing game:
#+begin_quote
Neon Drive is a slick retro-futuristic arcade game that will make your
brain melt. You've been warned. From beautiful cityscapes and ocean
roads to exploding enemy spaceships, Neon Drive has it all.
#+end_quote
* Gameplay
The game holds true to the
[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrofuturism][retro-futurism]] style,
including chrome female robots, pixelated arcade machines, and
[[https://teddit.net/r/outrun/][outrun]] aesthetics.
Each level of the game is shown as a separate arcade machine. Each
arcade machine lets you play on Normal, Hard, Insane, Practice, and Free
Run. To beat each arcade, you must reach the end of the level without
crashing your car into the various obstacles on the course. Basic levels
let you move left or right to avoid blocks in the road. Later levels put
you through other tests, such as dodging traffic or blasting asteroids.
The game uses synthwave music to keep you on track to make the correct
moves by timing the beats of the songs to the correct moves on the
screen. It reminds me of the early Guitar Hero games, as well as mobile
apps like VOEZ - repetition and staying on-beat is the only way to win.
* In-Game Screenshots
Taking a look at the main menu, you can see that Neon Drive plays into
every stereotype you can think of around retro-futuristic, synthwave
arcades (in a good way).
Once you get into the first level, we see that the choice of car fits
right in with the stereotypical cars of the 80s, like the
[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMC_DeLorean][DeLorean]] or the
[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferrari_F40][Ferrari F40]]. Each new
level comes with new color schemes and cars, so you should never get
tired of the aesthetic.
Personally, I love the orange and blue colors used in level 2:
If you're the competitive type and getting 100% on all arcade machines
isn't enough, there are leaderboards for the regular part of the game,
and the endurance game mode.
* Other Suggestions
Neon Drive sits nicely within the well-founded cult genre of Outrun.
Other games that I've enjoyed in this same spectrum are:
- [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/233270/Far_Cry_3__Blood_Dragon/][Far
Cry 3: Blood Dragon]]
- [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1239690/Retrowave/][Retrowave]]
- [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/732810/Slipstream/][Slipstream]]
Although these games aren't necessarily in the same genre, they do have
aspects that place them close enough to interest gamers that enjoyed
Neon Drive:
- [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/311800/Black_Ice/][Black Ice]]
- [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/746850/Cloudpunk/][Cloudpunk]]
- [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1222680/Need_for_Speed_Heat/][Need
for Speed: Heat]]
- [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1019310/VirtuaVerse/][VirtuaVerse]]
Of course, if all you really care about is the arcade aspect of these
games, you can check out the
[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/400020/Atari_Vault/][Atari Vault]]
or any of the other classic games sold on Steam by companies like Namco,
Atari. For something like Nintendo, you'd have to settle for buying used
classic consoles or delve into the world of emulation.
|
