If you’re looking for another retro-styled racer to add to what is admittedly a healthy selection on the Switch, Slipstream might be the 1980s styled off-brand super-car racer for you.
It’s clear from the off that Slipstream’s main influences are SEGAs super-scaled arcade racers like OutRun and Super Hang-On. Big open roads, palm trees and incredibly long turns are the order of the day.
There are several modes on offer. First up is Grand Tour, which is essentially OutRun, where you have to drive against the clock through five connected stages choosing where to go next via a fork in the road at the end of each level. Then there’s Cannonball which lets you create one humungous race of up to 30 stages chosen from the 15 tracks available in the game.
Then there’s Grand Prix – your typical series of races against 11 AI opponents with points awarded depending on where you finish. All Slipstream’s modes, apart from Grand Tour, can also be played in local split-screen multiplayer for up to 4 players.
Though, Slipstream looks more like the original OutRun, car handling and its powerslide mechanic come straight out of OutRun2.
While most of the time, you can get around corners by simply breaking, to get anywhere in Slipstream, you need to master how to powerslide. The manoeuvre takes a little getting used to, and getting the timing right is crucial unless you want to slam into a wall and flip your car. But when you get it right, it’s incredibly satisfying to throw your car around a particularly tight turn, narrowly avoiding disaster.
It’s great when it works, but sometimes the tracks snake in a way that if you don’t know there’s another sharp turn coming, you’ll inevitably wipe out. This issue is remedied to a certain extent by the game’s rewind button, which pulls back the action up to five seconds, letting you hopefully take the corner and lessen your frustration. This feature would be great if it weren’t easy to press it by accident and then not have access to it when you inevitably crash on the next corner.
Where Slipstream shines is how it effectively replicates the pseudo-3D of classic 16bit Super scaler SEGA racing games.
While Slipstream is technically in 3D, much like Shovel Knight, clever design and camera trickery make every object on the screen looks like a flat sprite. The game also rockets along at a buttery smooth 60fps. When you are cruising along in the Slipstream of your opponents, the road flickering past you, the game looks fantastic.
However, the music is pleasant but serviceable. Slipstream features the typical synth-wave soundtrack you would associate with the period it lavishly apes, but there’s nothing that stands out.
While OutRun had one subtle reference to Sonic dangling from the rearview mirror, Slipstream goes all out – naming tracks after stages from the blue blur’s venerated early adventures. Winning a cup also shows you a celebration screen where your trophy is surrounded by ‘totally not’ chaos emeralds. Though the most blatant sonic references happen during the Grand Prix, each ‘act’ opens with a splash screen identical to the ones used before each stage in Sonic 2.
Odd references aside, Slipstream is a solid 2.5D racer with decent mechanics and a great visual style. There are plenty of tracks and modes to sink your teeth into, and the moment to moment play is tons of fun once you stop rolling your car on every sharp turn.
If you are looking for a modern take on some bonafide classics, you should consider taking Slipstream for a spin.
