Horizon Chase Turbo — Peace Unexpected
Keeping on the topic of peace in games after Dorfromantik, I stumbled on a game that’s not usually in my purview, thanks to the Epic Game Store. Horizon Chase Turbo, by Aquiris Game Studio, looked at first glance to be a pretty simple, low-res racing game. I was a straight up Mario Kart kid and haven’t deviated much from that formula, save for F-Zero and a short stint with Burnout Revenge. But it was free, and I literally had nothing to lose. If I only knew what I know now, I would have willingly purchased it at full price. Horizon Chase Turbo is not only a lovingly-crafted love letter to games past, not only a well-realized and tight game in its own right, but also an unexpected form of inner peace. Not the same calming peace as I’d find in Dorfromantik, but a focused peace. Let’s unpack some of that.
Horizon Chase Turbo (HCT) is a hyper-distilled racing game, barebones in the best way. Pick a mode, pick a track, pick a car, go. Players always start in 20th place, in the back, but it’s still anyone’s game. In its distilled form, HCT is wonderfully simple. There’s no drifting, no items (aside from a few nitro boosts your vehicle is equipped with), no vehicle strength/durability, and no edges to fall off. From green light to finish line, players have to go fast and maintain that speed as best they can.
To its credit, HCT makes that sensation of rubber-burning speed easy to hit through its controls. They are deceptively simple. For anyone who’s played a kart racer in the last…twenty-five years (maybe more)…the controls can be easy, but require a level of dedication to master. Drift-boosting, side-swiping, item-dragging, all can come second nature to a seasoned kart racer, but there’s no need for that here. Aside from steering, there’s only three buttons that need pushing: go fast, stop going fast, and GO SUPER FAST (accelerate, brake, and nitro, respectively). In my first race, rocketing toward 1st place came naturally, but double-checking the controls, simple as they were, was a pleasant surprise.
The first challenge in any race is in thinning the herd, bobbing and weaving around the lesser racers to get closer to the front of the pack. Once players have worked their way up, they have to both maintain their precarious position and continue working further up. HCT doesn’t make it easy; between the drivers making the chase for 1st place difficult in their own right, the tracks are designed with turns in mind. A miscalculation, a turn too slow, a turn too fast, could send players’ cars careening into the barriers, causing a spinout or a full-on car flip. Don’t worry, the car’s fine, but precious momentum is lost! Regaining that speed and ground could prove difficult. Plus, players will want to keep an eye out for the blue medals on the track (granting more points in the main campaign), gas canisters (refilling the vehicle’s supply), or nitro canisters (providing one more nitro boost) on the track.
Collecting points (from medals and higher finishing positions) unlocks more regions (more races!), upgrade races (better vehicles!), and vehicle races (new rides!). They are, by no means, required, but the game effectively scales with the player; one who hasn’t demonstrated skill in the California races (first region) won’t be able to progress to the tracks in Chile (second region), nor be presented with upgrade/vehicle races outside their demonstrated skill.
The music is genuinely ascendant for Horizon Chase Turbo, all composed by Barry Leitch, a musical veteran from the first generation of video games and composer of the inspirational Top Gear soundtracks. On the one hand, every track, including the literal title screen, are composed to maximize excitement. Heavy percussion and beats, heavy techno-inspiration, heavy synths, all blasting into players’ skulls at thrilling rhythms. And the ELECTRIC GUITAR, ooh, just absolutely stealing the spotlight for the absolute most thrilling parts of the track. Alone, the music is phenomenal. But paired with the gameplay, it’s a perfect marriage of hyping players up, and keeping them hyped up through the whole race. It complements the gameplay and, despite its heavier musical elements, never quite overpowers.
The final major element that HCT rides on is its nostalgia factor. Aside from the soundtrack, there’s a great deal of inspiration drawn from 1992’s Top Gear, mechanically-speaking. Just check out some Top Gear gameplay, you’ll see. What jumped out to me was the vibe of older, driving arcade games, Pole Position, OutRun, or Hang-On. With tracks that only seemed to consist of flat landscapes and sharp turns, blurring speeds, and bright colors, Horizon Chase Turbo channels all of them. There is so much nostalgia riding in HCT, but it stands on its own to the untrained eye all the same. It is a product of its time, while drawing on all the best that its forebears left as legacy.
Now, to end with my first point. Horizon Chase Zero is a game that helped me find a sort of peace while playing. Short-term flow, if you will. It’s so easy to get drawn in, to find that high and hang onto it through and beyond a single race. The vice grip on a controller, not of rage, but of drive. The music acting as a supplemental pulse. A focused serenity. It is a thing of beauty.
Also, it has local multiplayer if you’re less of a calm, more of a strangle-my-dear-friends kind of person.
All images courtesy of Horizon Chase Turbo’s Steam page, unless otherwise noted.
