Cool Races

Although it doesn’t take much to put together a racing game, it takes a lot to design a good one, regardless of whether you aim it at the casual market or hardcore racers. Hence, fun and challenging gameplay mechanics are a must in both cases, because there’s no joy in a game that plays itself. Things like graphics and sound effects matter as well, but they should come second after the gameplay.

Cool Races is a retro racing game designed for casual players who just want to take it easy and have some fun for a few minutes every now and again. However, it must be mentioned right off the bat that the gameplay is pretty dull and repetitive, not to mention annoying most of the time. Hence, it’s a pain to handle the vehicles, and the tracks look the same as well, which promotes boredom.

You can choose from multiple cars before starting a race, as well as multiple game modes, such as free practice, single race or bomb run. Aside from the fact that the single race option adds AI cars to the mix, they all look and feel the same, even if the end goals are different. The cars differ in color only, although they do come with different stats, even if they don’t really matter out on the track.

Each track is different in terms of corners and layout, but they look the same once you start driving around them. There are no different textures or tiles to make you feel like you are tackling a different challenge, so the experience gets boring in a rush. The controls are not helping either, because the cars react pretty wildly to your input, even if you are not going particularly fast.

Lastly, the visual quality is not very satisfactory, even if the game is designed to look retro. It’s not enough to use simple colors, on the other hand, since people managed to make beautiful games even when technology was very basic. Hence, everything looks washed out and, most importantly, the same, which hurts the overall experience the most.

When it’s all said and done, Cool Races could have done a lot more with the elements at its disposal, but the developers chose to keep things as boring as possible. Thus, it’s hard to believe that anyone can play this for more than a few minutes before boredom kicks in.