|| REVIEW || Ultimate Racing 2D (PC)

Developed By : Applimazing                                          Published By : Applimazing
Category : Indie, Racing, Sports                                Release Date : January 6, 2020

If you had told child me that the games I was playing were going to become much more advanced, I would have been excitedly impatient. If you also told me that when I grew up, I'd still be playing games that reminded very much of my childhood games, I would have called you crazy. Yet, here we are, where I am plenty eager to fire up the top down racer Ultimate Racing 2D.

Where most games today rely on power-ups and introducing some form of combat to the racetrack, this game foregoes all of it and gives you a truly classic top down racer. You'll get the normal pickings from a simulation-style racing game such as single races, full seasons or a career. From there, your options widen as you can choose from a great number of racing divisions.

Choose from classes like Formula 1 and stock cars, or dirtbikes and lawnmowers. There really is a lot to choose from ranging from serious to whacky. The tracks are just as plentiful as the cars. Some are your run of the mill oval circuits, on dirt or asphalt, but there's a great mixture of road courses as well. 

Once you select your division, you'll be allowed to build your schedule from all these tracks. And when I say build, I mean that literally. You can add as many tracks or as few as you'd like, picking and choosing as you please. Or there's an option to use pre-selected tracks respective to the series you've chosen to race in. This was one of my favorite aspects of the game because I'm a huge fan of F1 racing, and the tracks were brought into the game pretty perfectly. 

The racing itself is pretty straight forward. You can use the arrow keys on your keyboard (something I haven't done in who knows how many years), or a controller. But, turning controls will always be respective to the direction your car is facing, so right is always the right side of your car, not the right side of the screen. 

There's also a ton of customization available to you, bringing your experience anywhere from full simulation to "kart" style. You have the ability to turn on/off options such as if you need to qualify for races, whether or not you'll need to make pitstops, and the one "whacky" option available in this game is whether or not you can make use of a boost. This latter option gives you a boost meter that can be fully depleted only once a lap. 

If you're a fan of the goofy, whacky style of racing games where you need to rely on combat and power-ups to help you win, Ultimate Racing 2D might not be the game for you. However if you enjoy or can at least appreciate a simulation-esque styled approach, you could easily lose some time to this title. It's quick to learn, a little challenging to master, but all fun just the same. The top-down perspective might take away from the racing experience itself a little bit, but the detail that is given to the tracks and surrounding area definitely makes up for it.

Game Rating : 7 / 10

Pick up the game HERE on Steam

This game was played on PC (Steam)
Also available on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch

Thank you Applimazing for providing a review key!