20 Mar 08
Play Sunset Racer for free
Against-the-clock racing is a tricky sell: the highway can get mighty lonely with only your old lap times for company.
But it can work: most commercial racers out there include a time trial mode, satisfying the self-improvement side of us and emphasising growing skill over arcade-like chaos. The game has to be good, though - why else would you bother going round the same track twice?
Sadly, Sunset Racer 1.X: Evolution isn't.
Evolution's fatal flaw is that the car is horrible to drive. It handles like an directionally challenged elephant on roller-skates and there's no way you can get around the 90 degree bends with anything other than a wide, ponderous arc. It feels so damn heavy - where are the exhilarating handbrake turns, the smoking drifts, those flawlessly executed shortcuts across the pavement that feel like you're shaving seconds off the time? Here you can't even mount the pavement. You just bounce off, the game shrugging its shoulders at you with manic indifference.
It's a shame, because Evolution could have been a lot of fun. The various tracks are all permutations of the same city roads, divided off to create new routes. After playing and unlocking several tracks you start to know the city: the landmarks, the car parks, the funny kinks in the road. But it's unlikely you'll get that far because the driving is so painfully uninvolving.
They called this game Evolution. What a painful irony it is that the gameplay is trapped in the 80s.
Controls
Arrow keys, plus space to change the camera angle and ESC to pause.
Tips
Watch out for traffic crossing your path: you may not be able to go down the side roads, but they can.
Play Sunset Racer for free
4Car: More driving games
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