Ocean Drive Challenge Remastered Reviews

At first i thought meeeh.. As frustrating as the old games.. But then it became as addictive as those old games too..

Short but sweet: a true gaming masterpiece. Good graphics, good music, multifaceted gameplay elements and subtle physics give Slipstream a run for its money. Definitely better than that 80s Overdrive game. Some claim this game has stutter issues due to Unity, but I didn't notice much of an issue, I was running on 60 fps mode though. EDIT: I do have a gripe about this game, I noticed colliding with a cone uses the same collision method as a rock. This needs to be patched/updated in a new update. Also, the story kind of just seems tacked on, and well, kind of tacky.

Ocean Drive Challenge was a halfway decent OutRun clone that came out of Microsoft's long-defunct XBLIG program. It finally resurfaced on Steam a while ago, but now suffers from stuttering issues that are all too common in many Unity projects. If you value buttery smooth frame rates in racing games, you're not going to get that here, unfortunately.

This game is actually pretty good. There's not a whole lot to it, and honestly it's a port from the XBL-Indie game line-up that got axed years ago. A one-dude studio. It's just a simple Outrun clone with an 80's-ish aesthetic. There isn't really much as far as a story goes and what little is there is pretty absurd. I'm not sure if that was intentional or not but either way I like it. Though there isn't much written dialogue, there are spelling mistakes throughout. Not an issue for me, but to some it could be a gripe I guess. The game only contains a few synthwave-ey tracks, which work and sound okay but grow old quickly. There are recycled assets, some minor graphical glitches during certain sections of the race, and the annoying fact that you can get hung up on the "wall"(edge of the screen), especially going through tunnels, which can get frustrating as it can slow you down and cause you to lose precious seconds needed to reach the checkpoint. None of those issues are anything game-breaking though and it's all worth it because once you taken a few runs and start getting in the groove of the traffic and getting a feel for the steering, it suddenly clicks. At first it seems like there's WAY too much traffic. Like, "ruining the game" traffic. Once you get the feel of the controls and the handling though, you begin to be able to manage that traffic a lot better, and soon you're weaving in and out of impossibly packed corners with ease. Swerving between tight clumps of vehicles that are all moving at different speeds, and rarely even scratching your paint. You start to realize that the game is really about avoiding other cars, and it's actually pretty damn fun. The hit-boxes are just forgiving enough to make you feel like a bad-ass without making you feel like you're driving with an invincibility star activated. It feels really good. So good that I wish there was more to it. No meat and potatoes though. Just a value meal. There are 3 characters, each with their own slightly incoherent "story", which is really just some small lines of dialogue that read out chronologically across the top of the screen at certain points throughout the race in the form of speech bubbles. The same every time. Corny but amusing, and honestly it's just a small extra that didn't really need to be there anyway and I actually enjoyed it, so I'm not complaining. I think if it were a little better localized it would make more sense but there seems to be a bit of a translation gap. The writing on the screen can be toggled on or off which is a nice little touch since once you've completed a character's story and have read what they have to say, there really isn't a need to have it play out again and take up space on the screen. Just like in Outrun you have to make it to each checkpoint to continue to on through the next section, which changes the scenery and look of the area. There are no branching paths to choose from while making your way to the end. To "win" the race you must simply make it to the end of the last section. There are no other cars to race against. Just a steady flow of traffic, narrow tunnels and tight corners hindering your path to success. Ocean Drive Challenge will definitely scratch the Outrun itch for anyone looking to do so, or anyone who can enjoy a little arcade racer with tight controls and a small entry fee. This game is obscure and buried on Steam so waiting around for it to go on sale may be an exercise in futility. To me it was worth the 6 bucks.

Purposeful narrative, thrilling challenge-based gameplay, hypnotic visuals, rapturous soundtrack. Good good good.

After its price drop easily worth the money and also some of your time, if you enjoy Sega's OutRun (Arcade, 1986). Of course it's just an indie OutRun clone with only minimal animation on its sprites. So expectations down. Furthermore, it only has one single player arcade-style game mode and only one course with various sections, just like OutRun. However, it has less sections and even lacks the routing between them, which is a trademark of OutRun. So what does it right? The gameplay is really good! The controls are responsive and fun (unfortunately only digital), the sprite scaling and the sense of speed are great! In all these regards it is, for example, superior to another OutRun clone on Steam: 80's Overdrive. The traffic is done quite well, too, with different vehicle types on different speed and with different behaviour. Thankfully, their hitboxes are relatively gracious and enable you to slip even through narrow gaps (however, collisions with the environment can be very frustrating and painfully time consuming). The music is also a plus! The game offers three tracks, and I think two of them (including the song that you can hear in the trailer) are really great for driving, hardly get old and overall create a cool mood together with the speed and the nice coloring. There is a scoring system and an online leaderboard. [code][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/39372135][b]Lists of Niche[/b][/url] is dedicated to finding games on Steam with roots in classic consoles, computers and arcade machines. We categorize them in helpful lists that will hopefully grant some insight into gaming's history, too.[/code]