NeoSprint

Super Sprint is not just a great racing game, it’s one of the best games ever made. And you don’t have to take my word for that, because when Next Generation magazine decided to countdown the top 100 games of all time, this Atari classic came in number 59. It was able to perfectly straddle the line between precision driving and utter chaos, especially when you were playing against friends. Now, nearly four decades later, Atari is bringing the series back with NeoSprint, a loving tribute that brings the overhead racer into the 21st century. Can this game work without an arcade-style steering wheel? That’s what we’re about to find out when I review NeoSprint from Atari.

If you went to a pizza parlor or bowling alley in the 1980s, then there’s a 100% chance you ran into Super Sprint. With its memorable three-person cabinet and massive steering wheels that you couldn’t resist spinning as violently as possible, this Atari classic took everything that great about the Sprint series from the 1970s and turned it into one of the most exciting racing games of the 1980s. They then followed that up a few months later with Championship Sprint, a sequel that looked exactly the same, but offered a whole new batch of tracks to race. For a brief moment in 1986, it looked like this was going to be the relaunch of a whole new generation of Sprint games.

Unfortunately, that did not happen.

It has been thirty-eight years since Atari released a new Sprint game, and in that time a lot has changed. We’ve gone from Mode 7 to the rise of polygonal racers to games that somehow look even more realistic that real life. In a world filled with Forzas and Gran Turismos, I sometimes wonder if there’s even a place for the type of overhead racing game that I grew up with. Could it be that these games are simply too outdated to be fun? If NeoSprint is any indication, then the answer to that question is a resounding “NO WAY!”

Nearly fourty years after leaving its mark in the arcade, Atari has unexpectedly revived the Sprint series for a modern audience. NeoSprint picks up right where Championship Sprint left off, giving a whole new generation of gamers a chance to experience the chaotic fun of getting into multi-car pile ups while speeding around impossibly sharp turns. It may not have the giant steering wheels of the arcade cabinet, but this is a faithful sequel that takes what was so great about the 1980s games and adds just enough modern comforts to make it feel like a brand-new experience.

In that sense, Atari was wise not to shake things up too much. We’ve seen far too many classic franchises lose that thing that made them special when being transformed into a so-called modern game. NeoSprint could have very easily been turned into a fairly straight-forward 3D racer, like everything else on the market. Instead, Headless Chicken Games has honored the racer’s roots by sticking with the overhead look. They’ve improved the graphics, added weather effects and even gave us a couple of ways to follow the action, but fans of the older entries will feel right at home with this update.

More than anything else, NeoSprint feels like a game that was made for consoles. This is a game that is absolutely bursting with different play modes and goodies to unlock; the kind of thing that will keep you glued to the screen long after the nostalgia has worn off. Between the campaign, the obstacle course, the grand prix mode, the time trials and even a free play mode with almost unlimited content, thanks to the robust level editor, this takes everything that worked in the arcades and uses the console to deepen the experience in every conceivable way.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, NeoSprint stays surprisingly close to the arcade game. We obviously don’t have the steering wheels to violently whip around, but the developers do a good job of translating that arcade feel to modern control pads. About the only addition to the gameplay is a handbrake that will allow the racer to take tighter corners. I was happy to see that they didn’t add a turbo button or try to cram in power-up items, instead opting for a pure race. If you feel like you need an extra challenge, you can add obstacles to the course, like oil slicks and traffic cones. That’s about as over-the-top as the game gets.

This sequel does a surprisingly good job recreating the utter chaos that came with playing Super Sprint with your friends in the arcade. The tutorial tells us early on that this is a racing game that is all about strategy, and it often feels like that strategy involves creating a bunch of multi-car pile ups. The computer-controlled cars aren’t just driving simple lines, they are playing offensively and aren’t afraid to knock you off your path. Most of the races were decided by me crashing the competition and then gaining a lead so massive that it was impossible for anybody to catch up. Save the perfect driving for the time trial mode, because I found a lot of freedom in just bashing my way through most of the events.

On the downside, this can lead to a game that often teeters on being too easy. Except for the modes that demand more precision, I found myself dominating the competition by simply being the biggest bully on the block. I sped through almost all of the campaign with very little pushback, which made me yearn for slightly better competition. There are just too many times where the computer will get turned around or stuck on the track and just stop racing altogether. It reminded me of when your buddy would realize they were so far behind that they just gave up, only it’s not as satisfying when the computer does it.

That is a minor problem and one that can be mitigated by bumping up the difficulty and adding more racers on the course. The game has a lot of challenge modes that will actively punish you for driving like an out-of-control madman, so what works in the campaign may not be the best strategy when tackling the obstacle course. And you’re going to need that Zen-like precision if you intend to unlock all of the bonus items and cars the game has to offer.

For the most part, the items that you unlock are connected to the track editor mode. This is one of the best additions to the Sprint series, giving fans a chance to create and share their own stages, ultimately giving the game an almost unlimited amount of content. While I’m not the kind of person who tends to use these track editors, I like seeing what crazy monstrosities the community is able to come up with. From my experience, the editor was easy to use and deep enough to create some truly memorable tracks.

Much like its arcade counterpart, NeoSprint is designed with multiplayer in mind. You and your friends will have a great time trying out all of the user-created content, and there’s just something about smashing into your buddy’s car that never gets old. Unfortunately, all of this is reserved for local play only. This is a real missed opportunity, especially given how spotty the computer can be at times. With so many tracks to play, I was hoping for online multiplayer modes. Or even an online leaderboard for the different tracks. Sadly, you’ll have to invite your friends over to experience the competitive multiplayer fun. That’s disappointing.

What isn’t disappointing are the visuals. NeoSprint has a nice clean design that updates the look of the 1980s games without being too flashy. I also really like that you can either have a fixed camera angle or one that is a bit closer to the track and follows the car. And did I mention that the game is filled with Atari references. Between the different characters, cups and cars you unlock, there’s a lot of Atari product placement, which perfect fits this style of racer. That might annoy some people, but I found the whole presentation to be incredibly charming.

This is an example of a developer understanding what made the old school games so much fun and expanding on it in smart ways. By keeping the gameplay relatively simple, they allowed the spotlight to shine on the tracks and the multiplayer chaos that comes from hairpin turns. Throw in a track editor and all kinds of extra goodies to unlock, and you have a game that fans will be playing for a long time to come. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another thirty-eight years for the next installment.