Race.a.bit Review

Race.a.bit is a nod back to the days of RC Pro Am 2 and Micro Machines on the NES. Back when racing games were designed around console limitations, often meaning you could rarely see the corner ahead of you. Developers, Headup Games, have targeted a pretty specific niche with Race.a.bit; hoping to win the attention of those that loved top down racers in the ‘90s.

Right from the off, everything feels incredibly retro; but not in a cheap and old way, rather a well designed and polished manner. The music is of course, chiptune, adding to the retro aesthetic. There is a pretty big selection of songs, some are great and some are a bit poor. All of them fit in greatly with the game’s theme though. Graphically the game is pretty basic, but thematically it fits perfect with the game.

The game doesn’t offer a lot of content to begin with; there’s a very basic local selection of tracks that come with the game. I managed to sit and complete them within the space of an hour or so. The main chunk of content on offer is found in the community created maps, with players unleashing their creativity on Race.a.bit’s track creator.

There are also different cars to be unlocked; I like using the sports car because it looks like a Mustang. There’s a also a few F1 cars and a tank along with others that I am yet to unlock. The cars are unlocked through completing different challenges, and provide some extra objectives for players to complete. Although the game still falls short of a desirable amount of content in my opinion.

The track creator is one of the most impressive features in Race.a.bit. Incredible ease of use and a variety of options, create an imaginative playground in which players can build their own tracks and share them with the world. A search function makes searching for specific tracks much easier, but there are also filters for most popular and most played.

A large aspect of Race.a.bit is its social elements. The game loves leaderboards, and expects you to have a group of friends also playing for you to compete with. There’s a worldwide leaderboard for you to compete on, but playing against random people isn’t the same as competing with your nearest and dearest. Leaderboards mixed in with the map creator show a very community driven experience, with the developers basically just providing players with the tools to create whatever they wish.

My biggest issue with Race.a.bit is the lack of developer created content; the game is currently £6.99, which is by no means expensive, but a little more effort from the developers might have justified the spend. There are a lot of community created tracks, but some of them are pretty poor, and you really have to search for some of the great ones. I also find the driving itself gets a bit repetitive after a while. Top down 2D driving games involve very little input and never end up being anything more than pressing the directional keys. This is fun for a while, but becomes quite tedious after a few hours of play. It’s an issue that undermines the entire experience, and will likely put many off playing more than a few hours.

Race.a.bit is a great throwback to 8-bit and 16-bit racers, but these were games created out of technical limitation; they were fun experiences in their prime, but have aged quite badly now. Race.a.bit does a great job of emulating these games, but finds itself falling short due to a lack of developer created content, especially since the community driven content is also a mixed bag. For those who fancy a quick nostalgia trip back to the late ‘80s, this is for you; just don’t expect to get more than a few hours out of it.