European Street Racing Demo

Racing games aim to provide you with the sensation of speed without putting your life in danger, nor anyone else, while also allowing you to cruise through various locations around the world. On the other hand, sometimes the fun factor is much important than gritty realism, meaning that you do not want to worry about accurate steering and weight distribution and just concentrate on jumping as high as you can at the next ramp.

European Street Racing is an arcade racing game that allows you to do exactly that, while also being able to customize the vehicles you buy and adjust their performance to fit your requirements. Thus, by changing its physical and cosmetic aspect, you can personalize each vehicle to adhere to your own preferences and heavily improve your experience behind the wheel.

As the name implies, the races take place throughout Europe, mostly on the streets of big and recognizable cities, such as London, Madrid or Moscow. As an interesting feature, it is worth noting that when you race through London, the traffic changes lanes in order to respect reality. However, that is about the first and only thing that comes remotely close to realism in the game.

Since no arcade racer would be complete without nitro, it is present in the title at hand as well and its purpose is the same as in the rest of the games: a temporary speed boost, useful when you run into trouble and you need to quickly regain some lost ground. The nitro bar can be refilled by performing various tricks during the race, such as passing very close to traffic cars or drifting through corners.

Although the graphic quality is decent and the car geometry levels is satisfying, the reflections could have used a lot more work, because they do not look convincing at all. Other than that, the environments are rather nicely modeled, with every location containing some sort of famous landmark to make it more obvious.

In the end, European Street Racing may not raise above mediocrity in most aspects, but it can be fun in short bursts, if only to laugh at the handling and the clunky physics. The traffic is a nice addition, because it certainly makes the races a lot more difficult.