Turbo Sliders Demo

Circuit races are always fun to watch, because the drivers are free to push their cars to the limit and try their best to overtake the other participants for hours on end, in some cases. Video games have tried and succeeded to portray the same atmosphere a couple of times over the years, even if the graphics engines are only now beginning to approach photorealism.

Turbo Sliders is a top-down racer in which your goal is to cross the finish line first, while trying to beat the competition and stay on the track at the same time. The game may have an arcade feel to it, but the handling is a tough nut to crack, and you may need a few races to get acquainted with the controls. Not only that, but the AI puts up a challenge as well, just to make things more interesting.

As already mentioned, the perspective is an isometric one, which means that you only get to see the cars and the track from up in the air. Although this means that you can easily prepare yourself for the upcoming corners, the game actually makes it difficult to see what’s next, because only a bit of the track is visible on the screen at any given time, which yet again increases the difficulty level.

The game comes with a variety of cars and tracks to choose from, all of which are designed to provide you with fun and long-lasting entertainment. It is also possible to organize small tournaments against the AI and compete in multiple races one after the other, in order to see who’s the winner in the end. Online races are available as well, in case you are ready to face other humans.

Visually, the top-down perspective is not to die for, but it’s certainly not ugly either. The cars are nothing more than indistinguishable blobs of color, but they do leave persistent skid marks behind them and the tracks look realistic after a couple of laps. The lack of post-processing effects allows you to concentrate on the actual racing instead.

In the end, Turbo Sliders is about as fun as a top-down racer can be, although it is obviously not for everybody. Hence, if you enjoy the challenge and do not mind the primitive graphics, the game should keep you happy for a long time.