My purchase last year of a Steam Deck rekindled my long-dormant love for arcade racers. High quality and modern entries in the genre are few and far between, though.
Enter New Star GP, which looks like it might fill the whole in my heart that’s been there since I played F1 Pole Position on the SNES in 1993.
Here’s the announcement trailer:
The arcade racers I liked best always had more going on under the surface than they first appeared. New Star GP seems to follow that same model, being a “pick-up-and-play arcade driving experience”, but also allowing you to deal with “tyre choice and wear, component reliability, slipstreaming opponents, fuel load, and even pit strategy,” according to its Steam page.
There are Grand Prix, checkpoint and elimination races, and time trials to compete within. You can also start your career in the 1980s and move forward to a new decade – with a new style of car – after winning a season. Races take place in real world locations, such as Naples, Brisbane and Vienna, but there’s no mention of them being based on real tracks. I suspect licensing costs would prevent that.
New Star GP doesn’t have a release date yet, but it’ll arrive in early access when it does launch. The initial release will feature only the ’80s and ’90s decades, with future time periods and new cars and tracks to be added over 2-4 months after release. The price will increase whenever it hits 1.0, too.
