There’s an art form to racing, and I have lost countless hours to both Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsports in my time. Switch owners may have a decent selection of racing titles in the palm of their hands, but nothing quite like the racing titans of Playstation and Xbox. Hot Lap Racing by Zero Games Studio doesn’t claim to be on the same starting grid as Forza and Gran Turismo, instead opting to give us a hybrid “Simcade” racing experience. What’s it Like? Put on your helmet, fasten your seatbelt, and start your engines as we review Hot Lap Racing on Nintendo Switch.
Hot Lap Racing makes a great first impression, your job is to win a bunch of championships, following a range of disciplines from Formula 4, Classic Hatchs, and Supercars, in order to unlock parts for your Ultimate F1 Vehicle, and race in the ultimate championship. It doesn’t hamstring you by sticking you in a 4-cylinder starter car either, giving you a certain amount of freedom to race with the best of them… after you get your license of course. Obtaining your license can be done by completing around 10 smaller tests, or beating a certain challenge. Be warned though, the challenge took me several attempts and that was after I finished all my license tests.
Once I was free to burn rubber, I started to climb the championship ladder. There’s a bit of depth to the career mode, allowing you to move up by unlocking a certain amount of licenses which you obtain by completing races. There’s a reputation system in place, and sometimes it’s rather extreme, punishing you if you dare slide one tire off the chicane. It can heavily reduce your points earned, especially with the AI tripping you up at every turn (more on that later,) making progression slower than usual. There isn’t any tuning or upgrading, so Hot Lap Racing is focused solely on the art of racing. There are unique challenges called “events” which can unlock new cars to use in races. These act as mini-scenarios that are a nice diversion, and add a bit more value and opportunities to experience cars you may not have unlocked yet. Unfortunately, despite purchasing a retail copy, I was unable to test multiplayer modes on launch as I was unable to find a public session.
There’s a fair bit of tread on the tires of Hot Lap Racing, giving players plenty to do. The racing and handling model is similar to Gear Club Unlimited, although Hot Lap Racing leans more into the sim side of things. Despite a few vehicles having “floaty” physics, I really liked how the cars handled and each model felt significantly different. There are also cool easter eggs and throwbacks to games like Daytona USA by SEGA, and it’s very clear that Hot Lap Racing is a laborer of love by racing fans, for racing fans.
Graphically, the car model detail is incredible, and while some are not officially licensed models, you can easily tell what car is meant to be what, especially with a fun take on the liveries. Courses are interesting and varied, and textures for the most part are detailed and help build a believable world of motorsports. You can customise your avatar too, although depending on your preferred view, you may not see much of them.
To help get the race day adrenaline pumping, the OST is a mix of electro-pop, heavy metal, and electric guitar, giving me Joe Satriani’s “Surfing with the Alien” vibes. It’s eclectic, varied, and works well when cruising around a course, or jostling for pole position. I found the car engine noises and screeching of tires to sound a little washed out, unfortunately.
There are some potholes on the racetrack, however, especially when it comes to your AI opponents who will mess up your race more often than not. There were several times when racing I would be in the lead, only to be pitted by an opponent. AI cars seem to be stuck on rails, so trying to get revenge is hard, and keeping the penalty system in mind, it’s not worth it. This wouldn’t sting that much if there was an option to restart the current race you’re on, but alas, even if you wipe out on the last lap, you need to persevere or restart the entire championship. A lot of my losses felt cheap and cheated, and it made for a frustrating experience losing through no fault of my own. This is easily the most glaring problem with the game, and it’s a shame because when Hot Lap Racing works, it works, and would almost certainly be a 90/100 game, but when it doesn’t work it fall apart completely.
Another issue is the game defaulting back to different settings for each race or championship, meaning that when you select your car, you have to manually switch the assists and transmission to what you prefer. This may not sound like a big deal except you can’t go back on the selection, meaning you quit to the home screen, or wait to enter the race, and quit out from there. There were so many times early on that I entered a race in manual transmission, wondering why I couldn’t get out of 1st gear. I’m not sure why such an essential back button is missing, and hopefully, it will be added in a future update.
Alongside these main issues, Hot Lap Racing struggles to maintain a framerate of 30 frames per second. I noticed drops on the starting grid, as well as an odd shuddering effect on the asphalt that made the game look like it was constantly running at a lower framerate. I have no doubts that Hop Lap Racing will be updated and optimised in the future, but as it stands, it’s blatantly obvious that an engine tune-up is needed.
For my vision-impaired racers, there are no accessibility options, so I recommend further research to see if Hot Lap Racing is for you. However, it does feature a bright driving line, indicating acceleration and braking which may provide some navigational markers.
As we turn the final corner on this review, Hot Lap Racing comes so close to taking pole position, only to fall victim to its own AI, spinning it off track. It’s a very impressive undertaking, considering this is developed by an indie dev, and the team’s passion for motorsports does indeed shine through. For those keen racers, you will find a great racer in Hot Lap Racing, but for the less dedicated, the performance may turn off your ignition. There’s a lot of motorsports history, great tracks, and white-knuckle racing in this package, and there’s no doubt that Hot Lap Racing simply needs a small tune-up to go from being a good racer, to a great one.
So, What’s it Like? Hot Lap Racing is like Gear Club crossed with Gran Turismo.