Overview – developed and published by Antti Mannisto, Turbo Sliders Unlimited is a motorsport racing title, inspired by classic top-down racing games from the early days of racing. Take on 20 player races across a variety of tracks, along with a selection of bonus game modes and community driven creations, like cars and tracks. This title is available exclusively for PC through the Steam platform, with a link to the game at the bottom of this review.
Disclaimer: before I get into the review, I would like to thank the developer for providing the copy of Turbo Sliders Unlimited that was used for this piece, via the Keymailer service. The provision of this software has not influenced the contents of this review, all thoughts and opinions contained within are my own.
Now with the introductions out of the way, let’s get into the review. There is no real story to this title, so I will be going straight into discussing the gameplay. I will be going into the main gameplay elements, as there is so much content in this it would take a very long time to cover it all.
Gameplay – this title is an old school style arcade racer, inspired by the old top down racers of the past. There are two different gameplay modes, with the option for both single player and multiplayer gameplay experiences. This game is aimed at a general audience, offering a game for those who want a serious, casual or sandbox gameplay experience. There is also a big community focus with the game, with the ability to download and share community creations.
First to discuss is the single player gameplay content and general game experience. In the Single player mode, there is a full campaign available, with a variety of tracks to challenge. These race events are against AI opponents, with special events for players to take on. Each of these races have objectives to meet, with stars that can be earned for placements in races. To progress to the next race, the player needs at least 1 star to get to the next race.
The races will have set cars that can be used in the races, starting off with a balanced speedy car that is good for learning the ropes. The further the player gets into the campaign, the further that players get the more selectable options that will be available. There are four car types featured, with a rather basic design for each of them. These cars can be customized and modified, with customization packs that can be purchased in the steam store for a low price.
Then we have the time trials mini campaign, which is a selection of races that players must reach timed targets to gain stars. There is also a Hotlap mode, allowing players to race on tracks and set the best time over 5 laps. These challenges also have the option for ghosts, allowing the player to race against their own best times, giving a competitive element to it. For both Campaign and Time Trials, players can download player made packs, offering new offline content.
Players can also set up quick games, which act as mini cups of multiple single player events. Then there is custom game, where a session can be modified freely. This lets players change vehicles, game modes, AI control and more. These modes and the ability to make custom content is a good touch, as it allows players to be able to extend the gameplay themselves. This provides an almost endless amount of gameplay content, which is great to player retention.
There is also the option for local and online multiplayer, offering a whole suite of content types for players to enjoy. Players can challenge others on leaderboards, going for the best possible time on a worldwide leaderboard. Then there is local multiplayer, which allows for split screen play across a variety of modes like soccer, obstacle courses and more. Last is the online multiplayer, where players can connect to others globally and create custom games and servers.
Moving onto the general racing mechanics, which is where this game sadly falls apart, as there are some unfortunate issues. During races, there is an awkward feel to the way that cars move. As the title suggests, drifting is an important part of the racing experience. However, this does not work as well as one would expect. The cars feel stiff when trying to take corners, which makes it difficult to stay on the track, leading to going off road easily.
There is also a general lack of speed, as the momentum of the cars feels rather lacking. It doesn’t feel like the car is going at the pace that is implied, which can kill the momentum. Then we have the AI, which is one of the worst aspects of this game, as the CPU will either slam into the player, other cars or just stick to the road. This inconsistency in the way the offline CPU racers work sours the experience, creating something that isn’t as fun as it could be.
Last to discuss is the racing physics, which can negatively affect the racing experience. The cars feel like they don’t have any weight to them. This is most noticeable when cars flip over, spin out or get stuck on their sides when contact is made with the environment and other cars. These minor troubles also affect the player during races, as being knocked off the track or spun out leads to significant time loss, losing the position in the race quite easily.
Now with the gameplay covered, it is time to move onto the other aspects of this release, starting with the controls.
Controls – the control system for this release is pretty easy to get to grips with, offering both controller support and keyboard inputs. There is also the ability to adjust the control layout, which can make it a little easier for players to play. However, there are no adjustments to controls that can be made to fix the feel of play, which is unfortunate. In general, the controls can feel like a battle between the player and the game itself.
Difficulty – the real difficulty of this title is in the CPU racers for the offline play, which makes it difficult to judge due to the AI inconsistencies. There is the ability to edit the difficulty of the AI when playing custom games, which can make it a little easier but doesn’t fix the issues. The difficulty of the game will likely lessen if the player puts a lot of time into the game, but I don’t feel the effort to get good at this game is worth the frustration.
Presentation – visually, the game looks fairly good for a small developer, with track designs, environments and vehicles that have a retro charm to them. The performance is stable and looks good at a range of quality settings, with no issues in terms of frame rate or slow down. The menus are pretty clean and easy to read, making them easy to navigate. The sound is good, with some decent menu music and effects that are quite cohesive.
Final Thoughts – I enjoy racing games, so I went into this with some high hopes, but sadly I was disappointed with my experience of Turbo Sliders Unlimited. There is a lot of content on offer in this title, but sadly the gameplay doesn’t live up to the potential that the game has. The handling of cars is inconsistent, with an inability to take most turns at a decent speed, needing to slow down to a crawl. This took me out of the experience, killing all momentum.
The poor AI and unbalanced physics of the game also soured any fun to be had, with the frustration of being hit by a CPU racer and getting flipped over being the worst of it. The amount of customization, the track builder and community content makes up or it a little, but the negatives unfortunately outweigh the positives. I am unsure if I can recommend this game to players, unless it is on sale as the overall quality of play doesn’t live up to the potential it has.
In the end, I give Turbo Sliders Unlimited a final score of 2/5. This is an unfortunately frustrating racing game, with all of the potential to be great, offering a lot of single player and community created content, but it sadly fails at providing a solid racing experience. if you do want to check this game out for yourself, a link to the game will be below.
Link to Steam version (HERE)
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