Slipstream

Note: I own the game on Steam, but I wanted to leave a review over here on GoG due to a some reviews I disagree with. This is a quality arcade racer that takes me straight back to when I used to play F-Zero Advance or Ridge Racer Type 4. Graphics are beautiful, but I recommend downscaling the resolution to 1x or 2x, because at full resolution the sprites look too clean and don't resemble a period arcade game. Please play the tutorial and don't listen to some of these other reviews that are saying the drift mechanics don't work. To initiate a drift, turn, let go of the accelerator, tap brake, and then accelerate. It's that simple, just LT+RT. The drifting is not spotty at all, it will activate every single time. If a reviewer gave the game one star based on that mechanic not working, they simply didn't put in the few minutes it takes to get used to the controls. There's a lot of different stages, each one is gorgeous, and a lot of different game modes as well, and I enjoy every single one of them individually. If you want to play a traditional racing game campaign, you can do Grand Prix. If you want to run a custom playlist of stages, you can run Cannonball. I sometimes even run Cannonball with rivals turned off and no enemy racers so it's just a casual cruise where I can drift through my favorite stages and enjoy the feeling of speed. I give Slipstream a 4/5. I have two complaints: the rival AI are straight up BS cheaters. I spent about 3 hours this evening completing a perfect run of defeating all 5 rivals in a row, and that was only on medium. They only appear in Grand Tour and Cannonball, however. The soundtrack is ok for the first few hours, but I quickly tired of it. You can load custom mp3s to be played ingame, but it's a lot easier to disable the music and play your own selection in a browser tab or media player. Your favorite eurobeat, smooth jazz, vaporwave, or futurefunk are the perfect complement to experience pure arcade racer bliss.

Was expecting an old school racer and found a weird boring drifter racing game. Really after the first race, i was bored to death. most of the time you are by yourself and you just drift by other cars with no issues. the backgrounds are the same thing over and over. I guess i was expect pole position or top gear, but it just wasn't what I expect. Let my buddy play it too and he said the same thing. Maybe i didn't make it far enough into the game, but it was a letdown and i have no want to try it again anytime soon.

Slipstream is pure arcade simplicity and fun. It's a true pick-up-and-play game. A retro racer with over the top physics. There are several game modes and you can also play split-screen up to 4 players! The sense of speed is quite exciting, especially if you turn the screen shaking and tilting to the max in the options menu. Graphics are old-school with really colorful and beautiful locations. There's a lot of inspiration in SEGA, as several tracks are named after Sonic the Hedgehog's levels. The best part of the game is the music, composed of a lot of amazing synthwave 80's style compositions. You can switch the songs during the race so you don't always have to listen to the same ones in the same tracks. Something I really like is how some of the game modes consist of tracks strung together, so instead of racing laps on the same track, after one finish, you drive across the next one. One of the game modes also features alternate paths so at the end you can go to a track to your left, or another to your right. On the bad side, there's not a lot of content in this game and the tracks don't have a lot of variety in their gameplay (a few jumps, gadgets, obstacles or particularities in each one would give it a lot more style... I hope to see something like this in an expansion or a sequel). Still this is not a problem if you want a casual game to have a lot of fun in a quick play. (By 'casual' I don't mean 'easy'!) On a personal note, it's important to say that this game was made by one guy from Brazil, using Linux and libre software. You can read a bit about the development process in the author's website and in the game's site. https://slipstre.am/demo-tapes/ This game is really affordable so if you like arcade fun simplicity go buy it, crank up the volume and enjoy!

The game is highly underrated from my point of view. I grew up with classic racing games like the Lotus series or Jaguar XJ220 on the Amiga. It is not exactly the same experience, but very enjoyable. I failed the first few races, but then i learned how to drift. That is very necessary to win a race. Remapping the controller buttons from RT and LT to A and B is also recommended. Start drifting is easier with this setup for me. Like others mentioned, the third part of the tutorial is broken. It's not a big deal, but i hope the devs will fix this.

The game is an old schoold arcade racer. So don't expect any form of realism. I am not talking NFS aracadenss I'm talking Outrun or F1 Race for NES arcadeness. Knowing how basic racing works will do you no good here, having fast reflexes is what matters. Better think of this as a rythm game. And being and old school arcade racer it has fairly simlistic gameplay, it has only two mechanics you need to learn - drifting and drafting(slipstreaming). Once you make yourself familiar with those it all depends on your reflexes and your knowledge of the track so you know when to start drifting and on which side of the corner you need to stay so you can go into the next corner with maximum speed or without crashing. The game requires a solid amount of concentration since some corners require a split second action. That's it. If it seems a bit shallow you might be right but that is the whole idea of the old school arcade racer - stripping down racing to bare reflexes input. There are five cars but each one is hadnling a bit differently. I'd wish there were more een if they hadnled the same just for aestheitc sake. Theere is a variety of tracks and all of them look great. The graphics for me are the high point of the game. There are rivals and each of them has their set of lines for overtaking/wining/losing. It is not much but adds some charm to the game especially when you encounter Bob Ross in his Lancia. The game accomplishes it's purpose of being an arcade racer. I can only whish that the developer expands on this and adds more mechanics to the gameplay, more cars and even a story mode ala Initial D. The full price seems a bit steep for the content it provides which is the only drawback for me.