Sometimes you see a screenshot of a game and you immediately think: “I need to play that. “Classic sprite scale racer Slideway is one of those games for me, which is why I’m excited to see the indie title get a wider release on April 7th for Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.
Slideway has been out for a few years now, but only on PC, via Steam. It’s a fun, beautiful tribute to Sega’s classic Proto-3D Super Scaler racing games, like Super stable, Power Drift, Rad Mobile and of course, Run out. Candy-colored skies, gratuitous palm trees and synth wave tunes nostalgia-swelling was coupled with a drift-focused handling model and a handful of late 80s and early 90s performance cars, like Nissan Z32 and Lancia Delta Integrale.
In fact, Slideway offers several different modes that emulate the gameplay style of some of the aforementioned games. A game titled Grand Tour takes you through all of the game’s languages through branching paths, Run out-Style. Grand Prix is more like Climb up, with a championship-style format and a money prize given to the finish, which you can then use to upgrade your ride. And for this console release, Slideway is getting new features like the ability to rewind the game if you don’t get it, complete with a VHS tape rewind effect when you do. Perfect.
I cooed Slideway years ago for a dollar on Steam, and while I enjoyed it, let’s be honest – PC isn’t the ultimate place to experience such a streamlined, old-fashioned arcade racer. For that very reason, I’m excited to see this game come to Nintendo handhelds. I recently upgraded to the Switch OLED, and I can’t wait to see how those colors appear on the handset’s upgraded display. Honestly, the system could use more riders like it.
