HTR+ Slot Car Simulation Review

Slot car racing is certainly something of a niche, I don’t think anyone could dispute that. Gaming, while not niche in any sense, does have a tendency to appeal to a certain group of people, as opposed to the mass market (give or take a few exceptions). So there was never much hope for a game based on slot car racing to find a particularly large audience. In fact, one might wonder why such a game actually exists. I certainly did and after playing the game for a couple of hours, I still do. The premise itself is a little shaky and HTR+ does very little to convince players that this is an unusual experience that’s worth trying out.

So to clarify, HTR+ is essentially the videogame version of Scalextric. Players use the mouse to control the power of a slot car around various developer, and user-created tracks, which of course means it’s also possible to design your own tracks with the specialised in-game editor. There’s also a car customisation feature and a variety of racing options. That’s the game in a nutshell, but it’s also everything the game has to offer. While HTR+ is perfectly capable of providing a slot car simulation, it fails to make that something actually enjoyable. As someone who once loved Scalextric in my youth, I thought I’d find it at least a little bit fun, in that assumption, I was very wrong.

This PC version is based on a mobile game of the same name (minus the +, of course), and while I can’t attest to the quality of that iteration, I can only assume that it works better on a mobile format. The control scheme is the first of the game’s sins: in order to accelerate the car you have to drag a slider up and down using the mouse, with each direction increasing or decreasing speed respectively. It’s an attempt to replicate the pressure sensitive controls of actual slot car racing but ultimately proves to be a lot more difficult and unpredictable. It becomes a little more intuitive over time, but it’s no match for the real deal.

Due to the poor control and feedback mechanics, a race can often feel like a random dash to the line rather than a calculated series of turns and straights. It should also be noted that this mouse control is the only input offered in the game. Being able to plug in a controller and use the trigger buttons would’ve been ideal, but it’s not supported as of yet. In fact, any other form of control would have been nice. Just using the mouse in this way can actually become a little painful after 20 minutes or so.

Races are further worsened by the hilariously awful AI. Even at the higher difficulty levels they have a tendency to come off the track at just about every other corner. Although every so often a track will pop up that the AI is horrendously good at, making it very, very difficult to win and unlock the next race in the championship. This makes races even more random, with most being decided by whoever has the best slot on the track - which is typically the one with most outer corner sections through which you can go full throttle, for some reason.

If you saw the word championship and gained a little hope, then allow me to crush it for you (before the game does). The championship mode is essentially a series of races on different tracks; win one, and you move on to the next. You win money with which you can buy upgrades for your slot car. It’s not particularly engaging and only that inevitable sense of progression will keep you going. Not that it’ll last long, I was able to complete the championship in just over an hour.

That short play time would be somewhat forgivable if the customisation options were far more expansive, but that’s simply not the case. Upgrading your car requires quite a lot of replaying (which you’re not likely to bother with) in order to gain cash. Even if you can be bothered with building up loads of money, there’s not a whole lot of choice. You can improve and change the body, wheels, engine and chassis, among other small changes; these all improve your car in theory but it doesn’t seem to make all that much difference on the track, that random racing style knocks on yet another in-game mechanic.

The track editor is also a bit of a let down. I figured that this was where the game would shine, but instead it’s an incredibly bog-standard mode with a limited array of customisation options. The track itself can be created with a fairly decent selection of slaloms, tight bends, crossovers and even a loop-the-loop, but I can’t help but feel as though there could be so many more track variants. What’s more, there’s no option to place scenery around the track, which is one of the coolest elements of the developer-made circuits.

Downloading user-created tracks is fun - for about 15 minutes - then they all start becoming rather familiar. That lack of track parts means there’s an equal lack of track variety available online. Plus, there’s no online multiplayer so you’ll just have to race the stupid AI on these repetitive tracks. The game does place scenery around the tracks, giving them a little bit of visual flavour, but the overall good, bright visuals aren't enough to save HTR+ from failure.

So yes, the visuals and indeed the overall presentation are far and away the best part of HTR+, although the mechanics and customisation options didn’t put up much of a fight. It can be fun during those natural racing moments: close-calls, dramatic crashes and the like, but if you already own a Scalextric set, or heck, even a cheap knock off, then you’ll be much better served digging that out and dusting it off. If you don’t own one, then this is not the place to get your slot car fix. It is, on the whole, lacking in content for the price asked, and when the content provided is generally of a poor quality, there’s no reason to buy this game at all. You’re better off playing a free flash game on the web.