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Classic Games (Games) Games Hardware

The Rebirth of Arcade Racers -- On Kickstarter 79

Posted by timothy from the insert-coin-to-pledge dept.
An anonymous reader writes: While big budget racers like The Crew and Forza chase realism, in recent years we've also seen a return to the racers of old with checkpoints, a ticking countdown, little in the way of AI and banging chiptune soundtracks. As a new article points out though, they're not in the arcades any more though — they're on Kickstarter. The author tracks down the creators of three indie games that look to Daytona rather than Gran Turismo for inspiration, and find out why we're seeing a resurgence in power sliding.
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The Rebirth of Arcade Racers -- On Kickstarter More

The Rebirth of Arcade Racers -- On Kickstarter

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  • Extreme-G (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    How I miss the original. I'm hoping that in 15 years Mario Kart will turn into Extreme-G with how the series is developing. Twitch controls with courses that wind and play with gravity and shooting missiles at the people racing past above you on another part of the track. After the first game, the courses and gameplay mellowed out (track design and weapon selection specifically)

    When ever I see Roach from The Witcher 3, I can only think of my favorite bike from Extreme-G. With considering how abused and misu

  • I used to game... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by singularity ( 2031 ) * <.nowalmart. .at. .gmail.com.> on Thursday June 18, 2015 @10:44AM (#49937199) Homepage Journal

    Growing up in the 80's, I played video games quite frequently. Now, though, I find myself avoiding them.

    One reason is cost. I realize the cost really has probably not gone up that significantly from the NES days, but at that time it was my parents paying for a new console and games. Now I have to figure out how to justify a $60 game.

    Another reason is that I much more enjoy a "play for 10-30 minutes, have fun, and then walk away" type of game. MarioKart is a great example of this. I can play with 0-3 other people and have fun. We can play for 10 minutes, or we can play for an hour. When we get done I can put the controller down and not feel like there is more to do. The playability even remains after I have "beat the game". Commingled in there is an easy learning curve. Sure, the game might be challenging, but I do not want to spend an hour just getting the basic controls figured out.

    I am sure there are more games that fit this description, but as a casual gamer I am not willing to do the research just to figure out what games are out there. It is far easier to load up an emulator and play the original Castlevania for NES.

    The games described int he article do seem to be closer to the type of game I would like to play.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      $60? I just bought 8 games for $20 on Steam's summer sale...

    • Man, if you didn't play Portal, you're missing out.

      (And Starcraft).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      For me, it is free time and energy. Dang adulthood life. :(

    • I feel the same way as you,. Interestingly, NES games were $40 back in the mid 80's which is $86 in 2015 dollars....so games have gotten cheaper...but so has everything else electronic.

    • Re:I used to game... (Score:4, Informative)

      by cheesybagel ( 670288 ) on Thursday June 18, 2015 @12:22PM (#49937827)

      I used to think the same thing. Then I started playing World of Tanks. It's free to play and each game takes 15 minutes.

    • There's this insinuation in your post that casual games don't exist anymore. Really, in recent years, games have moved in a decidedly casual direction. Even developers and series that were reliably "hardcore" - BioWare, Elder Scrolls - are watering things down so that the games can be played in smaller chunks.
      Those games are still probably outside of your parameters, but ever hear of say Angry Birds? I realize that one's a few years old already, but I don't have a smartphone or a Facebook account, so I'm no

      • I definitely think there are games out there fitting my needs - as I said, I place the blame partly on me for not wanting to do the research to find them.

        I do agree that there are a lot of casual "Play this game on the bus on the way to work" games out there for mobile devices. Mobile device gameplay is a whole other ball of wax, though. I would prefer to sit down in front of a large screen and use physical buttons. I suppose I am just old like that. I can see the appeal of mobile gaming, and have played a

    • The playability of simple games lies in good multi-player implementation: MarioKart, Mule, Poker, Canasta....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MrL0G1C ( 867445 )

      Now I have to figure out how to justify a $60 game.

      Why on earth would you want to pay $60 for a game!?!?!, Games coming out now are no better than games which came out 3 years ago and you don't need super hardware to play 3-year old games.

      Gog, Humble Bundle, Steam, Amazon etc sales and simple price drops, plenty of top games for 5 to 10 US/EU.

      GOG.com - summer sale on right now! DRM Free [gog.com]

      The Humble Store: Great games. Fantastic prices. Support charity. [humblebundle.com]

      Set an alert, pay when the price is right:
      Amazon price ale [camelcamelcamel.com]

    • > Growing up in the 80's, I played video games quite frequently. Now, though, I find myself avoiding them.

      You were (I assume) a child then so you've liked playing games in general. I guess if you were your 80's age now you would be gaming since games now are AWESOME... if you have time for gaming (which you don't)..

      > One reason is cost. I realize the cost really has probably not gone
      > up that significantly from the NES days, but at that time it was my
      > parents paying for a new console and games.

  • Nostalgia sells. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DerekLyons ( 302214 ) <fairwater.gmail@com> on Thursday June 18, 2015 @10:45AM (#49937207) Homepage

    "in recent years we've also seen a return to the racers of old with checkpoints, a ticking countdown, little in the way of AI and banging chiptune soundtracks."

    As much as people bitch about Hollywood and it's endless sequels, remakes, reboots, and re-imagings... the reality is, that's what sells.

    • The people bitching about remakes and nostalgia raping are not the ones buying the shit.

    • I don't disagree that nostalgia sells, but I do disagree that what we are seeing here is purely nostalgia-driven. I, for one, prefer unrealistic "drift-style" racers to simulations - I get a lot of enjoyment from going as fast as possible, negotiating courses through a mixture of careful positioning and controlled drifts, with the height of skill being completing a lap without releasing the accelerator, without crashing.

      Games which deliberately ape the looks & sounds produced by old systems may indeed r

      • I get a lot of enjoyment from going as fast as possible, negotiating courses through a mixture of careful positioning and controlled drifts, with the height of skill being completing a lap without releasing the accelerator, without crashing

        Careful positioning? Skill? Controlled?

        No friggin' way. ;-)

        The optimal racing game should be playable by a sugar-crazed 8 year old who keeps the throttle mashed down on full, bashes and crashes into everything, never touches the brake, and has no idea what a gear chang

        • The optimal racing game should be playable by a sugar-crazed 8 year old who keeps the throttle mashed down on full, bashes and crashes into everything, never touches the brake, and has no idea what a gear change is ... and you can still succeed.

          Or a 48 year old who is reverting to his sugar crazed 8 year old self after eating some marshmallow cereal on their day off. Kudos to you sir, for a laugh out loud moment.

          Older versions of Gran Turismo could be played with skill, but you could also play a lot with just frenetic glee.

          I stopped playing Gran Turismo when the game became more hardcore wheel-user centric.

          also remember playing Street Fighter on SNES a long time ago at a party ... some of the guys knew all the combos and all the fancy stuff ... and some of the guys were almost randomly button mashing (OK, me) to surprising effect. You can't anticipate what I'm going to do if I have no plan or idea of what I'm gonna do.

          Ha, yes. My adult sister did that to me when we were goofing off in Tekken Tag Tournament on the PS2 on a weekend, she ran circles around me with Ling Xiaoyu. It got even worse when she figured out some of the special moves and juggled me into the air w

      • I, for one, prefer unrealistic "drift-style" racers to simulations - I get a lot of enjoyment from going as fast as possible, negotiating courses through a mixture of careful positioning and controlled drifts, with the height of skill being completing a lap without releasing the accelerator, without crashing.

        Didn't one of the Gran turismo's have a drift centric rally mode? Or am I mis-remembering? Maybe it had to be earned or something?

        I suspect I am not alone in finding that simulation-style games are not enjoyable without matching realistic controls, but have neither the space to dedicate to wheels, joysticks, throttles, pedals etc. - nor do I particularly want to spend the money or devote the time.

        I gave up on Gran Turismo when the game became less casual friendly and more wheel-centric. Maybe I just need to find somet inexpensive quality wheel, yeah right.

        For example, much as I am pleased that Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen exist, I personally am holding out for No Man's Sky, simply because releasing on PS4 first means it is far more likely to have a simple control scheme which works on common controllers.

        Yep, me too, though I'm going to try out Elite Dangerous as well, once the PS4 version releases. I have a x52 HOTAS I picked up for War Thunder. I don't actually use it with War Thunder because the PS4 version doesn

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

      Much like war games and Flight Simulators driving games are going too far.
      It is really hard to drive fast around a track. Race car driver spend years develop their skills.
      I want to jump in and burn up a track!

      I am really into flight sims but then I love to fly PA-28s and 172s vs 747s in FSX.

  • Check out Power Drive 2000 [kickstarter.com], might be something you'd like.

    You can follow their twitter here [twitter.com].

    Some of these 'old' style games look way better than new "mainstream ones" to me.

  • What else do you need to know?

  • I never much cared for realistic racing games... except the arcade games. Something about trying to get to the next checkpoint before the timer runs out is very satisfying in a primal, visceral way. I'm glad that the power of PCs and home consoles has let us explore the world of game design like it has, but I wish more developers would look back to the arcade era for design cues. Just about any game is worth spending a quarter to try. It's the game that get you to come back and spend more quarters that real

    • I say this without sarcasm. I played through that game's entire progression and learned a lot about the physics of a car. Playing the harder races and difficulties taught me how to corner properly before I ever took the wheel myself. While I can't stand racing as entertainment, it also gave me a bit more appreciation for those guys that have to do so many laps.

  • hmm (Score:2)

    by nomadic ( 141991 )
    Greatest racing game of all time: Star Wars Episode 1 Racer. It is the perfect racing game. This is not a joke.

  • Am I the only one that finds it pretty underhanded to give us a link that says "they are on kickstarter" but doesn't actually link to one of those kickstarter projects? It's not quite a deceptive goatse link, but at this rate, I'd want links in the blurb to list the domain they point to.

  • There is no racing game chasing realism other than Richard Burns rally. Every other racing game on the planet has ridiculously unbelievable physics. if you want a realistic racing game on pc your options are basically zero. Calling "The Crew" a realistic game is way beyond insane. I've never seen anyone being so out of touch with reality. And i've worked in a psychiatric hospital.

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