Victory Heat Rally feels like a missing link in arcade racers

destructoid.com:

I’d be surprised if Victory Heat Rally didn’t catch your eye. It’s an intoxicatingly colorful and energetic-looking title. Based on the aesthetic from Sega Super Scaler racers like Power Drift and Rad Mobile, it’s a far cry from the mostly drab modern racing market. I’ve been following it for what feels like forever, but it’s taken me some time to get around to the demo.

Thankfully, Victory Heat Rally is more than just appearances. Without hyperbole, this is one of the most compelling racing titles I’ve played in a long time. It’s fast, vibrant, and deftly captures the attention-grabbing magic of old arcade titles. Just by following its development, I knew that Victory Heat Rally was going to be a worthwhile title, but I couldn’t imagine it would be this good.

The most recent demo, Shakedown Demo Gold, is actually a considerable slice of gameplay. While it took me a half-hour to see what I wanted to see, it was more than I expected it to give up. Of the 12 planned racers, three of them are featured in the demo, but only one is unlocked from the start. I lost count of how many tracks there are, but at least more than four of the planned 36.

There’s a career mode that takes you through a series of challenges ranging from avoiding traffic cones to straight-up racing. This culminates in a more standard grand prix event.

After finishing that, you can noodle around with arcade mode or time trial. There’s also multi-player present in the final version. As I said, it won’t keep you going indefinitely, but it’s more than just a quick sampling.

While Victory Heat Rally bases itself on the visuals of Super Scalers, I’m reasonably certain the tracks are fully 3D. Early videos showed it using sprite scaling for the tracks, but this