Riff Racer PC

Riff Racer for PC is an unusual racing game, combining the elements of both arcade and musical games. The production was initially available as Race Any Track on Steam's Early Access. It was developed by FOAM Entertainment, based in London and founded by Phil Clandillon and Steve Milbourne; both of them used to work for Sony Music and received The Guardian's Media Award for Digital Innovation.

Mechanics

The mechanics of Riff Racer combines the arcade-like elements of such productions as the WipEout or Trackmania series with musical games like Audiosurf or V-Ribbon, released for first-generation consoles. In the game, you participate in a series of futuristic races taking place on procedurally generated tracks full of sharp bends, floating in space. The gameplay is purely arcade-like and the tracks are filled with many ramps and jumping platforms, which allow you to perform spectacular stunts.

The definitive feature of Riff Racer is the fact that the tracks are generated based on the game's soundtrack — or the music files on your own hard drive. To succeed in the game you need to drive to the rhythm of music, and you can earn bonus points for e.g. perfectly synchronizing your driving with the soundtrack. Here are also tokens for you to collect, spread all over the tracks, which you can use to unlock new cars.

Game modes

Riff Racer focuses on the singleplayer mode, allowing for experimenting with various soundtracks in order to find a track hat would suit your preferences the most. The game does not feature a traditional multiplayer mode, but instead enables you to race against other players' “ghosts” on their custom tracks, where you have to beat their score.

Technical aspects

Riff Racer for PC utilizes simple oldschool graphics, featuring the distinct neon style from the 80s. The game's greatest asset is its original MEGA Engine, which can generate racing tracks based on MP3, FLAC, OGG and AAC/M4A music files.

Last updated on 17 May 2016