Retro Highway

When it came to Sega's arcade racing games in the 1980s, I was always partial to Hang-On. It's not that OutRun was bad, but there was something about hopping on that fake motorcycle and weaving in and out of traffic that was more visceral. I was reminded of those arcade days while playing the new game Retro Highway, a racer that takes the old school thrills of Hang-On and adds enough modern hooks to keep you playing long after the nostalgia has worn off. But will that be enough to prevent Retro Highway from being yet another half-baked racing game with throwback graphics? That's what I want to find out in this review.

Would you believe that when the developers sent out codes for Retro Highway, they compared the style to both OutRun and Road Rash, but not Hang-On. Part of me wants to spend the rest of this review trying to figure out the thought process that led to this oversight, but instead we're going to talk about Retro Highway, the new game where you ride a motorcycle until you crash.

Okay, there's more to it than that. Retro Highway is a throwback racer where the goal is to drive as far as you can, all while picking up coins and completing challenges. There's no story, no characters and no brakes. Hell, you're not even racing against anybody. This is a speedster that will take you back to the days when all you had was an endless highway full of cars to avoid and nasty turns to navigate. Your job is to stay on the bike as long as you can, no matter what this game throws at you.

Knowing that simply driving forward would eventually get boring, first-time developer Gearhead Games has wisely made a lot of the experience about collecting coins and completing missions. These tasks can range from avoiding coins for a set amount of time, jumping over a certain number of cars, reaching increasingly difficult distances, collecting close calls and using the various power-ups. Most of these challenges can be played on any of the six stages, but there are some that will require certain conditions. For example, in order to survive a blizzard for 30 seconds, you'll need to spend some time cruising the icy roads in the Rocky Mounts.

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As we complete the missions and rack up the coins, we'll unlock new (and harder) levels with more traffic and unique obstacles. A good instance of this is when you're speeding through intersections on the desert highway and avoiding road construction in the big city. You'll also find oil spills and icy patches on the road, as well a nice variety of cars that won't get out or your way. Some of them involve ramp trucks that will allow us to get big air and fly over the traffic. But watch out, because you definitely don't want to smack into a billboard or the tunnel ceiling. That's just embarrassing.

It's worth noting that there are three different power-ups you can collect to help make each level a little easier. One of the powers is a magnet that will attract all of the coins on the course, even if you're not on the right side of the road. Speaking of coins, there's another power-up that will multiply the amount of coins you're collecting, which is incredibly useful when you're trying to save money for a new bike. The final power-up is a shield that will help prevent a catastrophic crash. You can spend coins to upgrade all three of these powers, which will mostly extend the length of time you get to use them.

Beyond collecting coins, buying new bikes, upgrading the powers and unlocking new stages, there really isn't a lot to do in Retro Highway. This is the kind of game where you'll do and see just about everything in a sitting or two, even if you haven't completed 100% of the challenges or unlocked every bike. The repetitive nature works best in small doses, making this a great game when you have a few minutes to spare and a Switch close by. Spending hours binging the game will only highlight the flaws and monotony inherent with this concept.

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Like a lot of throwback racing games, there isn't much depth to the gameplay. The developer compared their game to Road Rash, but Retro Highway is not even close to being that ambitious. You steer left and right and occasionally press the turbo button, and that's pretty much it. You can't slow down, drift or even punch the cars next to you. Not that I necessarily wanted to. In other words, I wasn't all that surprised when I saw that this game was first released on Android and iOS devices back in 2018. Retro Highway definitely feels like the kind of game designed for mobile platforms.

It also looks like a game that started out on phones. This is yet another one of these throwback racers that tries to look like the pixel racers of yesteryear, but comes off a little too clean and glossy to fully sell the illusion. The visuals are colorful and fun to look at when you're driving, but they don't hold up when you crash and start looking at the finer details. What's more, I couldn't stand the music in Retro Highway. It makes the attempt at a chiptunes soundtrack, but the songs are far too aggressive and overpowering for the racing action. I would have preferred the developers tried to emulate the more laidback tunes found in OutRun and Hang-On.

But like those classic racing games I can't help but namedrop, I have to admit that Retro Highway's simplicity worked on me. While I would have preferred a little more meat on the bone, I still had a great time completing the challenges and trying to outdo my high scores. The simplistic gameplay is appealing and I like that all six locations have unique personalities. This is a solid first-effort from a first-time developer, and although it's never as much fun as the titles its imitating, Retro Highway makes me excited to see what Gearhead Games will come with next.