Arcade Racers a dead genre?

murphyebass

I picked up Xenon Racer for €6 on a psn sale the other day. Plays identically to Ridge Racer which for me is a great thing.

It got me thinking is the Arcade Racer genre dead or close to death?

I don’t want an open world racer with a corny storyline.

I want a path with a championship I can follow and complete unlocking **** along the way. Simple.

Arcade racers like Sega Rally or Outrun where I need to get to checkpoints to continue seem to be dead along with Ridge Racer and the like.

Is there just no market for it. Took a small studio to create the budget title in Xenon Racer for example.

McFly85

I’m a huge fan of the arcade racer genre, but they seem to be getting rare alright.

There’s Dangerous Driving, released last year by some of the original burnout devs. It’s fun but very rough around the edges.And I will be getting the hot pursuit remaster, that was great fun-but can’t really think of anything else.(Burnout Paradise doesn’t count, it’s a terrible mix of arcade racing and open world, and easily the worst in the series imo)

I think new IP arcade racers had struggled from the last generation. I remember Blur and Split Second came out around the same time and I enjoyed both immensely(still play them from time to time), but as far as I recall neither were financially successful and the split second studio ended up being closed. It’s possible that unique, big budget arcade racers just aren’t considered financially viable anymore.

I would love a Split second sequel, a remaster of Burnout 2 and a new wave race but I can’t see any of those things happening unfortunately.

Retr0gamer

Forza Horizon is carrying the torch and it's an incredible series of games.

There's a few indie games that are coming that carry the Sega Blue skies aesthetic but remains to be seen if they are going to be good.

If you want a great Outrun 2 clone then get Oh Deer. It's only available now on the humble bundle store but it's awesome if unfinished.

murphyebass

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Forza Horizon is carrying the torch and it's an incredible series of games.

There's a few indie games that are coming that carry the Sega Blue skies aesthetic but remains to be seen if they are going to be good.

If you want a great Outrun 2 clone then get Oh Deer. It's only available now on the humble bundle store but it's awesome if unfinished.

I don’t own an Xbox so Forza is out for me. And my laptop isn’t really that powerful so probably won’t be good enough to run Oh Deer.

Be interesting to see what comes out of Sega Blue Skies!

Greyfox

I recently got Horizon chase turbo which I love, brings you back to the days of outrun. Open world driving games are a great example of games that like to waste a players time, I should always be able to click on a map and fasttravel there.

murphyebass

McFly85 wrote: »

I’m a huge fan of the arcade racer genre, but they seem to be getting rare alright.

There’s Dangerous Driving, released last year by some of the original burnout devs. It’s fun but very rough around the edges.And I will be getting the hot pursuit remaster, that was great fun-but can’t really think of anything else.(Burnout Paradise doesn’t count, it’s a terrible mix of arcade racing and open world, and easily the worst in the series imo)

I think new IP arcade racers had struggled from the last generation. I remember Blur and Split Second came out around the same time and I enjoyed both immensely(still play them from time to time), but as far as I recall neither were financially successful and the split second studio ended up being closed. It’s possible that unique, big budget arcade racers just aren’t considered financially viable anymore.

I would love a Split second sequel, a remaster of Burnout 2 and a new wave race but I can’t see any of those things happening unfortunately.

I didn’t pick up Blur or Split Second. I still have an old 360 somewhere so might have to right that wrong.

o1s1n

Not a new game, but kind of in a way as it was rebuilt from the ground up, Virtua Racing on the Switch is absolutely amazing and plays beautifully. Definitely worth checking out if you haven't already.

johnny_ultimate

Split/Second has the worst rubber banding AI in the history of racing games, but myself and my friends were addicted to playing it split screen for multiple years. Will always have a lot of affection for its dumb Michael Bay thrills, and how it takes the endless appeal of racing game shortcuts to a new extreme.

McFly85

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Split/Second has the worst rubber banding AI in the history of racing games, but myself and my friends were addicted to playing it split screen for multiple years. Will always have a lot of affection for its dumb Michael Bay thrills, and how it takes the endless appeal of racing game shortcuts to a new extreme.

Yep, nothing like dropping an air traffic control tower on your mate as he’s heading into the home stretch

AI rubber banding was horrible alright, but there was enough variation in the tracks and modes(loved the one where you had to avoid missiles) that I can still enjoy it from time to time.

murphyebass

o1s1n wrote: »

Not a new game, but kind of in a way as it was rebuilt from the ground up, Virtua Racing on the Switch is absolutely amazing and plays beautifully. Definitely worth checking out if you haven't already.

Haven’t got a switch. Stuck with the Wii U as it has most of the games the switch ported. Couldn’t justify moving to the switch tbh.

murphyebass

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Split/Second has the worst rubber banding AI in the history of racing games, but myself and my friends were addicted to playing it split screen for multiple years. Will always have a lot of affection for its dumb Michael Bay thrills, and how it takes the endless appeal of racing game shortcuts to a new extreme.

There’s definitely a good degree of rubber banding in Xenon as well which is an awful shame. It’s the only thing that I’d say hold it back from being a superb game. It’s great but rubber banding always feels cheap.

o1s1n

murphyebass wrote: »

Haven’t got a switch. Stuck with the Wii U as it has most of the games the switch ported. Couldn’t justify moving to the switch tbh.

I was the same as yourself up until last year, tried to bleed as much entertainment out of the WiiU as I could before moving over!

The Switch is definitely worth picking up now, so many good games it's hard to keep track.

CastorTroy

For Wii U you can get Fast Racing Neo. Haven't played it myself but seems to be compared to the likes of f-zero and Wipeout

McFly85

CastorTroy wrote: »

For Wii U you can get Fast Racing Neo. Haven't played it myself but seems to be compared to the likes of f-zero and Wipeout

Speaking of, it’s crazy that there hasn’t been a new F-Zero in 16 years. GX was excellent, seems like it would be an easy decision for Nintendo to make one for the switch.

murphyebass

o1s1n wrote: »

I was the same as yourself up until last year, tried to bleed as much entertainment out of the WiiU as I could before moving over!

The Switch is definitely worth picking up now, so many good games it's hard to keep track.

To be honest I just don’t get enough game time to justify it. I have about a dozen games on the Wii U that I still want to play. A new Nintendo console will be out by the time I play those!

murphyebass

CastorTroy wrote: »

For Wii U you can get Fast Racing Neo. Haven't played it myself but seems to be compared to the likes of f-zero and Wipeout

Played it. Great game. But it gets very fast and tough as nails very quickly imo.

PopePalpatine

When I read the thread title, I was thinking more along the lines of NFSU2 and Most Wanted. I think I spent 1000 hours playing NFSU2 thanks to its Free Play and Single Race modes, and it didn't have NFS15/Heat's janky physics. I suppose with the amount of money the game throws at you, Horizon 4 can emulate that, but I still wish there were more modern "street racing" games that could match up.

murphyebass

PopePalpatine wrote: »

When I read the thread title, I was thinking more along the lines of NFSU2 and Most Wanted. I think I spent 1000 hours playing NFSU2 thanks to its Free Play and Single Race modes, and it didn't have NFS15/Heat's janky physics. I suppose with the amount of money the game throws at you, Horizon 4 can emulate that, but I still wish there were more modern "street racing" games that could match up.

They’re more along the lines of open world arcade racers which feels like a sub genre of its own.

Ridge Racer was simple. Here’s your championship mode. Win a race to unlock cars and move on.

And as I said before the likes of a Sega Rally or Outrun or if I go older still Burnin Rubber on Amstrad. These games were simply get to the checkpoint to move on.

PsychoPete

Was playing Outrun Coast 2 Coast on the PS2 recently, still love it. Remember playing it at an arcade. NFSU2 really needs a remaster! I play a lot of FH4 but mostly if I'm playing a racing game it's a sim racing game

irishguitarlad

Would love a remaster of Burnout 3, played the shít out of that game.

PsychoPete

irishguitarlad wrote: »

Would love a remaster of Burnout 3, played the shít out of that game.

Was it Paradise that was remastered?

Jordan 199

PsychoPete wrote: »

Was it Paradise that was remastered?

Yes.

EoinHef

What about Wreckfest? I enjoyed that game,simple enough too

Thecageyone

If there was a way to bypass all the crud/cringe 'story line' in Forza H4 it would be a fantastic Arcade racer IMO. Love the racing in it, and the graphics are sublime [on PC] but the rest of it is a headache. There's a tonne of customization, tuning etc but you could just buy pre-set cars and go all Arcade

I would imagine the NFS series is about as good as you'll get for pure Arcade these days.

PsychoPete

Thecageyone wrote: »

If there was a way to bypass all the crud/cringe 'story line' in Forza H4 it would be a fantastic Arcade racer IMO. Love the racing in it, and the graphics are sublime [on PC] but the rest of it is a headache. There's a tonne of customization, tuning etc but you could just buy pre-set cars and go all Arcade

I would imagine the NFS series is about as good as you'll get for pure Arcade these days.

My biggest hate about FH4 is doing the trial races and the players that just stay last while everyone else does the work to win

fixXxer

I would pay almost anything for a proper sequel to Split/Second Velocity. Spent so long with it, a really really fun game. Or Blur, that was great too but was more Mario Kart style combat racing.

Onrush was a free PSN game a while back. Decent enough game but it didn't draw me in the way Split/Second did.

johnny_ultimate

Well whatya know, Eurogamer just posted an article about how the genre is having a ‘bit of a moment’ thanks to two new games due out next week

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-09-01-arcade-racers-are-having-a-bit-of-a-moment

Retr0gamer

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Well whatya know, Eurogamer just posted an article about how the genre is having a ‘bit of a moment’ thanks to two new games due out next week

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-09-01-arcade-racers-are-having-a-bit-of-a-moment?page=comments

Came here to post that

McFly85

Hotshot Racing had completely dropped off my radar, it’s looking great, will be a day 1 purchase for me! Reckon it’ll be a good one for the switch.

I’d never heard about Inertial Drift but I’ll probably pick that up too, a racer with a unique control scheme and RR Type 4 vibes is something I hadn’t realised I needed until now

I guess we can happily say that arcade racers are alive and well!

Dcully

The new Project cars 3 is an arcade game, SMS have diverted their efforts of pcars 1 and 2 to the arcade scene this time round.

gizmo

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Well whatya know, Eurogamer just posted an article about how the genre is having a ‘bit of a moment’ thanks to two new games due out next week

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-09-01-arcade-racers-are-having-a-bit-of-a-moment

Had to read down into comments to find a reference to the one I'm still holding out hope for...

MrBelmont 1 day ago
Can someone give the people who are/were doing 90s Arcade Racer a kick up the chuff please?

Right up the chuff.