I love a classic “Super Scaler” game, so when Victory Heat Rally by Skydevilpalm, published by Playtonic Friends, claimed to offer a “turbocharged neo Super Scaler arcade racing experience”, I was immediately interested. And that interest solidified when I played the game’s demo during a recent Steam Next Fest.
Now, the full game is finally here, and it’s a wonderful thing. Offering easy to pick up but hard to master arcade racing action, Victory Heat Rally is a beautiful example of a “modern retro” game: unmistakably inspired by classics of years gone by, but also incorporating features made possible by today’s gaming hardware.
If you’ve ever enjoyed games like Sega’s Power Drift or the ever-reliable Mario Kart series, Victory Heat Rally is a game that should definitely be on your radar. So let’s take a closer look after the jump.
Victory Heat Rally offers a vibrantly colourful arcade racing experience, set in what it describes as a “2.5D” world. In practice, the game is full-on modern polygonal 3D at its core, but it makes use of a number of stylistic elements and techniques that specifically pay homage to the classic Sega Super Scaler arcade games.
Most notably, many (though not all) of the trackside objects, along with all the vehicles, are represented as flat sprites, affording them a distinctive cartoony look that still isn’t quite possible with polygonal visuals. Meanwhile, the basic geometry of the track and larger background scenery elements are presented using relatively low-polygon 3D. This combination of factors gives the game an immediately striking, distinctive look — and also means that it will run comfortably even on low-powered systems. It runs great on my mini PC with integrated graphics, for example.
There’s actually an optional setting that allows you to deliberately pixelate the game’s visuals for a more authentically “retro” feel, though interestingly the “loggle” setting from the demo where you could turn the tracks into a series of 2D sprites a la the aforementioned Power Drift appears to be absent. This is a shame, though not a dealbreaker.
Victory Heat Rally’s driving uses an incredibly simple driving model, in which the emphasis is firmly on drifting around corners to charge up boosts. I’m yet to encounter a course where it’s necessary to hit the brakes, and there’s even an option in the menus that allows you to activate automatic acceleration, meaning all you have to do is concentrate on steering and drifting.
Drifting is accomplished in a Mario Kart style by holding down a button. As you drift, a boost bar will charge up to three levels, with it charging more quickly during tighter drifts. When you release the drift button and straighten up, you’ll unleash the boost, assuming you charged up at least one level. There’s a pleasing sense of physicality to this, almost like pulling back a spring-loaded toy and letting it twang off into the distance.
This nice feeling of the game having a physical “presence” continues throughout the game thanks to excellent use of sound effects and rumble features in controllers. Hitting an obstacle like a cone feels oddly convincing, and the whole experience feels delightfully like playing with toys. It’s a real pleasure to play.
Structurally, the meat of Victory Heat Rally comes through its Championship mode. This presents you with three series of challenges, each of which consists of three cups. Within each cup, you’ll take on a sequence of one-shot events and conclude with a multi-round Grand Prix session in which you compete against a named rival for points.
There are several different event types to challenge along the way. Circuit races are the most straightforward, placing you at the back of a pack of 12 racers and challenging you to take the top spot over the course of several laps. There’s a nice mix of short and long courses, with lap counts varying according to the course length.
One of the most fun things about Circuit races is how if you lap the back markers, you can slam into them and send them flying off over the horizon with a satisfying explosion and scream. There’s no real benefit to doing this (though there are a couple of achievements related to it), but it is fun, and also helps get around the problem of back markers getting in the way of you maintaining a lead.
Complementing Circuit races are Rally courses, which are point-to-point races in which you attempt to beat a target time. In these events, you also have a co-driver that calls out the upcoming corners in a Sega Rally style, allowing you to prepare accordingly. There are other cars on the course during Rally stages, but it’s only in the cup-concluding Grand Prix that your position actually matters. When participating in a one-shot Rally event, all you need to do is beat the target time.
Then there are the Joker races. These are bonus events that unfold in a “timers and checkpoints” style, but with an element of precision driving folded into the mix. As you progress through the game, you’ll encounter a variety of different types of Joker event. Sometimes you’ll be tasked with hitting as many cones as possible by the time you reach the end of the course. Sometimes you’ll be challenged not to hit the cones and finish with a certain amount of time remaining on the clock. Sometimes you’ll have to boost through checkpoints to earn credit for them. And sometimes you’ll have to earn points by pulling off big, impressive drifts.
Victory Heat Rally starts off very easy. The entire first series of three cups is extremely straightforward to get through, which might lead some players into a false sense of security. From thereon, however, things escalate quite considerably. The races become more challenging by featuring more aggressive opponents or tighter time targets, and the Joker missions become significantly more difficult due to requiring much greater precision to obtain the top ratings.
I’d maybe argue that the Joker races in particular are perhaps a little too hard too soon, but that might just be my own ineptitude and/or completionist tendencies talking; there is no obligation for you to complete every race with a gold medal, as much of the game can be unlocked with more modest results. With how easy it is to obtain gold medals on the entire first series, however, it’s tempting to want to strive for perfection in the rest of the game. How much you let that either enhance or ruin your experience is down to your own self-control. At least it’s quick and easy to restart an event if you keep messing it up!
Victory Heat Rally’s presentation is exemplary. Besides the previously mentioned smooth, slick presentation of races, there’s some lovely character art, also presented in a deliberately pixelated style. Characters are stylised and sexy, further adding to the ’90s flavour of the game, though it’s a bit of a shame that during the Grand Prix events, all the drivers in the results table — including your rival, who is introduced prior to participating in the event — are anonymised. It would have been nice to feel like you were competing against the other characters a bit more. Again, this is hardly a dealbreaker, though.
To go with the colourful visuals, there’s a wonderfully energetic soundtrack, with each of the game’s main environments having its own theme. Many of these tracks feel like they were inspired by the ’90s rave of the original Ridge Racer, with perhaps a touch of Jet Set Radio here and there. It’s an upbeat, lively sort of game, and the music plays a big role in creating that feeling. The high level of energy is compelling, rewarding, even addictive; this is a game you can easily lose a few hours to without realising it, and it’s all because it wraps you up in its friendly, colourful, happy atmosphere. Certainly a refreshing change from many other games around at the moment, and a fun reminder of an aspect of gaming that isn’t necessarily completely forgotten these days, but which it would be nice to see a bit more of on a more regular basis.
Besides simply being a fun game in its own right, Victory Heat Rally is evidence of a pleasing trend in the independent development sector: the resurrection of types of game long thought to be “dead”. For many years, the high-end commercial side of racing games has been either taking itself very seriously with varying degrees of simulation, leaning hard into “urban” culture, which not everyone finds appealing, or overwhelming players with a map full of icons in sprawling open-world experiences.
There’s nothing wrong with these styles of racer in themselves, of course, and they each have their audiences, but those who have long preferred colourful arcade racers such as those we enjoyed on a fairly regular basis throughout the 1990s had been a bit left out in the cold for quite some time.
Nowadays, however, we see a variety of independent developers deliberately paying homage to “outdated” styles of game — because those styles of play still have their appeal. We have games like Horizon Chase following the formula of classic “vanishing point” racers like Lotus Turbo Challenge and Top Gear; we have titles like Super Woden GP 2 acknowledging the appeal elements of top-down or isometric racers; and now we have Victory Heat Rally paying particular homage to both kart racers and classic Super Scaler titles.
While it’s unlikely we’ll ever see a return to the big names of the industry putting out top-notch arcade racers like those of years gone by, it seems the independent development scene has proven itself more than willing and able to take up the challenge of catering to this underserved market.
And I am 100% here for it. Victory Heat Rally is an absolute delight to play, and I’m always happy to support projects like this. Here’s hoping we see many more ’90s-inspired titles from today’s independent devs; these colourful games provide a bit of welcome respite from the bleaker aspects of modern life, and these days, that feels like it’s becoming an increasingly precious thing.
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This looks really good… the art style pops and I think that’s one aspect of these retro inspired racers that I’m glad has been retained. As much as I like my AAA racers, they’re usually aiming at realism over style.
If you’re interested in another racer that’s a little more aligned with Power Drift, there’s an old one on GOG called World Rally Fever that’s not bad though it does lack the wild track design of Sega’s game.
Oh yeah, I know World Rally Fever! Lovely little game, though pretty tough!