Steam’s in the midst of a racing fest at the moment, and as you can probably imagine if you’ve not taken to tuning out the litany of driving-related words I’ve carved into the tree that houses the esteemed RPS treehouse in the short time I’ve been here thus far (believe me, I don’t blame you if you have), I’m in my element.
One of the games I’ve spotted as a result of this celebration of all things car-ish is Star Racer, which doesn’t involve cars at all. It’s a retro-style ship racer that lets you blast your fellow competitors to bits, feels very much inspired by the likes of F-Zero and Wipeout, and just emerged from early access the other day.
This 1.0 release comes a year and a bit after Star Racer devs Whatnot Games pressed go on a year and a bit-long early access drag race in March 2024, having raised funds via Kickstarter.
“It feels so good that we were able to get to this day,” developer Brennan Anderson wrote on Steam, “But this 1.0 release is just the beginning. We have planned work to fix bugs and optimize the game. There are many more features we want to bring to Star Racer (yes, including online multiplayer), more platforms we want to be on.”
As part of hitting 1.0, Whatnot’s devs have updated Star Racer’s free demo, which I’ve given a go to get a taste of the blippy and bloopy adrenaline rush it has to offer. While you’re limited to just a handful of tracks and characters in this free version, as well as a tutorial to help you get started, it’s a nice blast. I started off in a regular race as an alien being called M.O.M who pilots a ship dubbed the Flipping Frog.
While it’s easy to run out of energy and crash out if you boost too hard or forget to strafe-drift through the long, sweeping bends that a lot of the courses boast, there’s a wonderful zippiness to the flight. Some sections see your ship stick close to the ground and others ping it up into the air so you can properly fly for a bit.
Then, towards the end of a race, police ships dubbed “The Fuzz” rock up to try and take you and your fellow competitors out, like a cartoonish version of Need For Speed’s hot pursuits. There are also death races, which as you might expect revolve around taking out all of your foes with well-timed spinning and ramming, rather than outpacing them. All of this is soundtracked by some cool tunes from composers Grant Kirkhope, of Donkey Kong and Banjo-Kazooie fame, and Mason Lieberman.
Finally, I can’t not mention that another character in the demo’s a detective-looking fella called Thrash Whiplash, which has to be at least milling around the pantheon of best video game names to ever video game name. You can check Star Racer out on Steam here.
