Looking back to the early 1990s, I think I can trace the start of my gaming addiction to the grand exuberance of arcade racing games. On some weekends, my parents would haul my sister and I over to our grandparent's house outside the city, which just happened to be right next to the local arcade and mini-putt. Now, I was born at the tail-end of the arcade era and feel like I never got to have a full appreciation for the environment and games as a teenager or adult, but there was something about the sensory overload of it all that just can't be replicated today. The inside of this particular arcade would have been mesmerizing for any 8 year old; flashing lights, blaring sounds, backlight on neon paintings of space, smoking ashtrays - and the arcade cabinets! Specifically, the racing cabinets. I was amazed by the fact that these racing cabinets came complete with hulking plastic masses of Recaro seats, steering wheels, pedals and shifters. None of it was necessary, but it somehow made me want to become a glorified Speed Racer. These racing games, particularly the ones made by Sega (OutRun, Hang-On), provided such a sense of speed, style and responsiveness that I simply became obsessed. I just needed one more run, one more checkpoint and invariably, one more quarter (thanks Grandma).

A few days ago, I got the itch to re-live those glory days and picked up the Sega Ages re-release of OutRun on the Switch. While it's a neat little package that gives the property the respect it so rightly deserves, something was....off. The game is there, sure; it's the same pixels and same framerate (at least to me). But the "experience" was missing. I didn't feel the same sense of style and speed that I felt sitting in those racing seats. Of course, it makes sense then that for games like OutRun, Rush, Hang-On, Daytona, etc., the plastic is as critical as the pixels. The experience of interacting with the machine, as well as the game, is what brings these titles to life. Without the cabinet, the game feels like it is filled with drawbacks. Checkpoints? Time Extensions? Cornering? None of this felt right in OutRun without me being able to put my literal pedal to the metal. That's not to say that there haven't been great arcade-style racing games since. Franchises like Ridge Racer and Burnout have done a great job of emulating the speed and style of an older generation of racing games. But these games are more complex than their 1990s counterparts and they require such attention and focus on winning that it is hard to get lost in the moment.

And then I found Slipstream. And oh dang, am I re-living the glory days.

On paper, Slipstream is really, really simple. You can speed up, slow down, turn, and if you press the brakes at just the right time in the corners, enter into some absolutely colossal drifts. Moreover, if you manage to get behind an opponent, you'll build up a slipstream meter that will immediately yeet you past the other driver, potentially into some trees or Neolithic pillars at the side of the road if you're careless. But there's a science behind Slipstream's simplicity in that the controls are so tight, the music so synth and the speed so fast that it's all you can do to manage a few maneuvers as you hurtle along each diverse track in a seamless transition at lightspeed. And there are so many ways to hurtle yourself! There's a grand-prix mode where you earn money to spec your car to go faster or handle better, as well as single or endless races where you can take on more-than-capable AI opponents (each of whom has their own distinct character). Interestingly, the developer, ansdor, has also recently added some modern aesthetics with a Battle Royal mode to mix things up, where you continuously race against AI opponents, while each opponent in last place at the end of a stage is eliminated until a single driver remains.

The modern aesthetics don't stop with the most popular game mode of the last 5 years. Slipstream also takes advantage of high-refresh rates to deliver a feeling of speed that I've never experienced before. Playing this game at 60hz is one thing, but if your able to experience it at 144hz or higher, you are in for an absolute treat as you see the pixelated clutter around each level fly by. The developer (and it is only one developer) has done a phenomenal job of meticulously re-creating not only the old arcade racing look and feel, but also the whole experience that I so desperately wanted. It's all of the throwbacks, with none of the drawbacks.

Check it out if you're interested! https://store.steampowered.com/app/732810/Slipstream/