The red lights are off for New Star GP
In the vast stream of retro racers appearing in the Steam store, New Star GP can be seen as somewhat of an outsider. The developer and publisher, New Star Games, are known for their retro sports games like New Star Soccer and Retro Bowl (not to be confused with Legend Bowl, which we reviewed). Now, they’re dipping their toes into the racing genre and attempting to add some interesting gameplay features to it.
New Star GP has been released on Steam in early access with the promise from New Star Games to gradually introduce new features and content to the game before its final 1.0 release. We took an extensive look at the Early Access version of the game and we were immediately pleasantly surprised by its depth and presentation.
Keeping it authentic
At its core, New Star GP is a retro-looking and arcade-style Formula 1 racing game. New Star Games aimed to give the game a Virtua Racer-like aesthetic, which they successfully achieved. However, instead of going full-out Virtua Racer with New Star GP, the developer opted to add a little “simcade” flair to the gameplay, something we don’t often see in this subgenre in particular. Instead of skidding and drafting through a track with high speed corners only and no need for braking, New Star GP adheres to F1 fundamentals such as a racing line, braking points, and tire wear, all on a full 3D track.
You can race with a variety of different chassis, which you can customize with your own colors and color patterns. If you are an F1 fan with historical knowledge, you should be able recognize these different F1 cars. New Star Games promises to add more chassis to the early access version and presumably as DLC later on as well. While fiddling with the patterns and colors, I tried to recreate the Lotus 99T (1987) and the McLaren MP4/8. Both chassis are represented in the game and hit my nostalgic sensibilities quite well.
Message to New Star Games: Please, do me a personal favor: include on of the first Adrian Newey’s cars, please. The Leyton House CG901. Thanks 🙂
Legendary decades
The game’s tracks and difficulty are organized and split up between five decades of F1 racing : 1980s, 1990s, 2000, 2010s and 2020s. These decades, each of course have distinctive looking cars and tracks that fit in that time period. Your car get progressively faster for decade to decade, with tracks and opposition getting more fierce as well.
As I wrote, the racing itself has a fairly simcade sensibility. Thank god, no skidding and drifting here. It is all about ideal racing lines, cornering speed and brake points. The game offers assists in the form of an actual racing line on the track with brake indication, just like more simulation like racers provide. The car understeers when taking the corners to fast and misjudging a corner will result in some serious gravel trap action. Although the racing feels kind of authentic and the game does take tire temperature and degradation in consideration, the cars are way more grippy than a game like F1 23. This makes it definitely easier to get into but still engaging in the long term.
In the current state of the game, grip levels and tire wear are implemented on a track-by-track basis. On some tracks, driving with either a soft or a hard tire feels considerably different, while on others, there’s little to no noticeable difference. The development team is actively working on creating grip mappings and defining track surface characteristics for every track as we speak.
Club tracks
The tracks in the game are relatively short and inspired by classic and current-day F1 tracks, depending on the decade you choose to play in. All tracks are easily recognizable as their corresponding real-life counterparts, but certain sections have been edited or smoothed out to create shorter and more flowing circuits. On most tracks, lap times typically end up around one minute. As a result, while the racing experience feels tightly competitive and somewhat like a low-poly sim, the tracks take on a more arcade-like approach, reminiscent of games such as the arcade title F1 Super Lap and F1 Challenge on the Sega Saturn. In fact, this game bears a striking resemblance to the somewhat obscure Saturn simcade racer, albeit without the FIA license.
Career mode
In Career mode, you assume control of an F1 racing team. Your role involves making daily decisions, managing the car’s performance, handling sponsors, and even overseeing marketing efforts. You’ll have a dedicated team to support you with these tasks during a race weekend. After each event, your team will contact you for your crucial input on whether to invest in specific aspects of the team and its performance.
Although this sounds very “F1 Manager 23”, in New Star GP it is executed in a light hearted and snappy manner, with fast and very low impact decision making. Many times, you’ll face choices between the suggestions of two team members, which can sometimes lead to tension within the team. Therefore, it’s essential to balance your decisions to keep everyone satisfied, rather than always selecting the most advantageous perk or improvement. If you perform well in a race event, you’ll unlock free perks. These perks can benefit the team by reducing upgrade costs or enhance car performance, such as the ability to slipstream other cars or improve tire life.
The race weekends in Career mode are packed with activities. To begin with, every race event allows you to test drive the car on the track (though the absence of the term “Free Practice” is a bit puzzling). Naturally, in line with the racing’s competitive nature, practicing will better prepare you for the events where you can earn money and trophies. Each weekend presents a variety of potential race events, such as checkpoint races, elimination races, and, of course, the Grand Prix itself.
Championship
In addition to the “Career mode,” there is also a “Championship mode” available. This mode strips away the management features, focusing solely on the core Grand Prix events. You can choose from multiple Championship setups accommodating up to four players. Unfortunately, an online multiplayer mode is not part of the game’s roadmap. However, numerous championship features have been (and will be) introduced during its early access phase, including the ability to configure your own championship for both single-player and multiplayer modes.
No fiddling please
While you have the flexibility to upgrade various aspects of your car, the ability to fine-tune your car’s setup is limited in this game. You can only change the tire compound before each session, with no option to adjust wings or other aspects. This game strikes an interesting balance, delving deep into management and simulation aspects while adopting a full arcade mode approach in other areas.
The CPU difficulty does leave something to be desired. The caricatured versions of real-life greats of the sport tend to lag behind in terms of speed compared to your own character. This is by design of course, as you will always start from the back and you have the limited amount of laps to catch up and reach first place. I personally would’ve preferred the addition of a qualifying event to the list, which would have allowed for more challenging racing by starting closer to the front of the grid. In its current state, the primary reason for not finishing first often revolves around pitstop strategy mishaps. Fortunately, New Star Games has introduced additional difficulty settings in their latest update, which significantly improves the overall experience.
Early Access status
As it stands, New Star GP is a highly enjoyable game that offers significantly more depth than the typical retro racers that have been emerging lately. With its vibrant low-poly visuals and robust driving mechanics, it confidently races ahead of its competition, seamlessly joining the ranks of titles like Hotshot Racing and Horizon Chase Turbo. If you’re in search of a Formula 1 game in particular, I wholeheartedly recommend giving New Star GP in early access a try.
Keep an eye out for a review of New Star GP once it exits early access, right here on Retrolike.net.
