PS5 is lacking in good arcade racing games

[wheelhp]

What do you think? Yes there's GT7, though it's not exactly arcade. And for the sake of the thread, if it has a ps5 version, it counts as a PS5 game, but if not, then no. So Ps4 versions do not count. Here's my list of "good" ps5 arcade racing games, that represent the PS5 console generation and are "new" in at least graphics if not other things too:

Redout 2
Wreckfest
Hotwheels Unleashed 2
Crew motorfest


I think that's literally it. The problems with the last two games are evident though. Hotwheels is really boring and Crew motorfest is the grindiest arcade game. If you spent another $60 to get crew 2 and play that to get vehicles, you can import them like I did, but otherwise by itself, Motorfest is way way too grindy. That makes it much less fun to progress in than it should be. Now if you don't like grindy games, then you won't pick up hotwheels or motorfest, leaving yopu with only two good PS5 arcade racing games. It's a bit dismal, no?

I guess I am coming from the PS2/ps3 generation of consoles, having a larger ps2 arcade racing collection makes it feel like PS5 is doing everything wrong with its "slim arcade racing pickings" who wants to play 5 different versions of a kart racer that are all equally terrible?

Guess my point is we should have at least 15 GOOD arcade racing games out by now, with much less grindy crap involved.

 

[egl92]

Actual gen exclusive there is nothing.
NFS Unbound, I tried it with EA Play and uninstalled it immediately.

Maybe Dirt 5 and Grid Legends. Both availabe on PS4/PS5 One/Series.
Two underrated games, which I personally find quite fun.

Dirt 5 has some things like gymkhanas and the voices of the donut media guys that I don't like. But there are moments when it reminds me of a kind of off-road Driveclub. In fact, some ex from Evolution worked on Dirt 5.

Grid Legends. GT7 and Forza Motorsport for one reason or another end up boring me, with Legends on the other hand I keep coming back from time to time to enjoy some races. It's something that also happens to me with Wreckfest.

It's not a good time for arcades. It seems like everything now has to be a simulator, an open world GaaS or too grindy.
Let's hope some indie can give us some fun.

New Star GP. It's currently on Steam early access and has a demo on Xbox. I have tried it on Xbox and the game looks promising.

I don't know if Horizon Chase 2 will be realised for PS5/Xbox Series and what is Funselektor (Art of Rally) working on.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Arcade racers are a dying breed. The racing game genre as a whole is just not as popular as it used to be and developers do not like to take big risks with unknown concepts. As a results you get all these simulators that are similar to one another and just endless sequels of the "safe" arcade racers like NFS/The Crew/Forza Horizon. Car licenses cost money so when devs set out to make a game they wanna make sure it appeals to the broadest consumer base possible. As a result most games just end up "meh" without any innovation. Add in the exclusive preorder bonuses/MTX/DLC/grindfest/bugs from rushed development and the landscape looks even worse.

Having said that, the indie scene has given us some great arcade racers. They may have unlicensed cars and smaller in scope but no less fun to play. My only gripe is a lot of them seem to go the pixellated nostalgia route or a top down view. Lots of people like that but it would be nice to have a retro feeling game with modern graphics. IMO Driveclub on PS4 is one of the best arcade racer in years. Perfectly captures the old PS1 NFS feel but with astonishing graphics and weather effects. Killing Evo Studios is one of Sony's biggest mistake.

Anyway, other than the ones mentioned, here are some alternative arcade racers you can try:
Circuit Superstars
Classic Sport Driving
Dakar Desert Rally
Formula Retro Racing
Hot Lap League
Hotshot Racing
Inertial Drift
Karting Superstars
Lego 2K Drive
Slipstream
Trackmania
Trail Out

And a few pending release:
Classic Racers Elite
Hot Lap Racing
Japanese Drift Master
Over Jump Rally
Victory Heat Rally
Wreckreation

These all should be pretty recent racers but apologies if some of them are PS4 generation.

There's no shortage of racing games, they're just not AAA titles so might be rough around the edges. And if they all fail, no reason not to play oldie goodies. Burnout Paradise or NFS HP Remastered is still better than most new racers today

 

[ScottPuss20]

Time to bring back Ridge Racer.

 

[wheelhp]

They already tried that, Unbounded didn't do too well, but it was a fun game

 

[INEEDNAWZZZ]

Its a PS4 title, and a fairly low budget one at that, but Gravel was one that I put far more time into than I initially expected. I actually think it was a better DiRT 4 than the actual DiRT 4 in many ways, as its more in line with the earlier titles in that series and takes a lot of inspiration from them (even the name is similar, c'mon). Being a Milestone game, it has some questionable physics in certain situations but is a good time for the most part.

 

[wheelhp]

Its a PS4 title, and a fairly low budget one at that, but Gravel was one that I put far more time into than I initially expected. I actually think it was a better DiRT 4 than the actual DiRT 4 in many ways, as its more in line with the earlier titles in that series and takes a lot of inspiration from them (even the name is similar, c'mon). Being a Milestone game, it has some questionable physics in certain situations but is a good time for the most part.

Gravel was quite decent actually. The special edition on sale it totally worth it. My gripes with the physics are minimal, but the jump physics can be a bit... interesting, but more fun than the crew 2's increased gravity!

 

[ocallz]

People need to try Table Top Racing, a PS4 game but works on PS5.


It's a full arcade racer, it's not dissimilar to Mario Kart in many ways.

The only problem is the player-base is somewhat lacking, but theres an active group of locals.

 

[wheelhp]

I'll have to give it another go then! It was fun when i played the demo. At the moment playing inertia drift which is difficult to get used to but I'm coming back for more

 

[ocallz]

I really recommend it, it was free at some point with ps+, but only like £5 for game and DLC.

We really enjoy it, only downer like I said is we could do with more players.

If you try it, msg me at OCallz on PSN!

 

[inCloud]

The racing game genre as a whole is just not as popular as it used to be

Mario kart 8 has 50 millions copies sold, Horizon 5 passed 37.800.000 players.

 

[m355y]

I like the look of this New Star GP quite a bit, although I’m gonna wait for a native PS5 version because I’m sure I heard that’ll have more cars on track etc.

 

[VincentVendetta]

NFS Unbound is pretty good actually, flawed but still pretty good. A shame it didn't sell.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Mario kart 8 has 50 millions copies sold, Horizon 5 passed 37.800.000 players.

Mario Kart is an exception because it's pretty much a "mainstream" title. Anyone who has a Wii/Switch has it as a party game, not necessarily because they're racing fans. Also getting bundled with the console definitely pads those numbers too.

Horizon I think was free if you have subscription to the MS game pass thingy. How many of those players just logged on for a few minutes to try it out and then never touch it again? If you only count the people who consciously go out to buy the game and play it long term (e.g. more than 10 hours), those numbers will be a lot smaller.

Compared to other genres like FPS or RPG racing games are a lot smaller in percentage now compared to PS1/2 days when Gran Turismo was regularly topping the sales charts. In the last few years especially sim racing has gotten more popular at the expense of arcade racers. Maybe on mobile they're still popular, but none of these are quality games OP is looking for.

 

[inCloud]

How many of those players just logged on for a few minutes to try it out and then never touch it again

It working both ways - people could buy something and don't finish. You can easily track it in modern games with achievements.

Compared to other genres like FPS or RPG racing games are a lot smaller in percentage now compared to PS1/2 days when Gran Turismo was regularly topping the sales charts

Every Horizon game topping sales chart. Considering that its available on least populated console, available at gamepass and battling with Call of Duty that outsell any GT game in first month, its sales comparable with GTs.

Mario Kart is an exception because it's pretty much a "mainstream" title. Anyone who has a Wii/Switch has it as a party game, not necessarily because they're racing fans. Also getting bundled with the console definitely pads those numbers too.

Do you have proofs that GT in PS1/2 era was any different?

 

[strela]

Horizon I think was free if you have subscription to the MS game pass thingy. How many of those players just logged on for a few minutes to try it out and then never touch it again? If you only count the people who consciously go out to buy the game and play it long term (e.g. more than 10 hours), those numbers will be a lot smaller.

I really don't want to argue because it's pointless. But I am going to say this. 60% of players arrived at the festival site in FH5. It's the first achievement you unlock. It's reasonable since it's a free* game. You know how many players arrived at the festival in FH3 that was never a free* game? Well it's just 70%. So much for players are playing way more when they pay for a game.

 

[sirjim73]

I really don't want to argue because it's pointless. But I am going to say this. 60% of players arrived at the festival site in FH5. It's the first achievement you unlock. It's reasonable since it's a free* game. You know how many players arrived at the festival in FH3 that was never a free* game? Well it's just 70%. So much for players are playing way more when they pay for a game.

Interestingly this stat sort of proves everyone's point

As you point out above, it was always this way pretty much. If it wasn't, people wouldn't have "backlogs" since the dawn of time (I've got backlogs on PS3, PS4 and Series S and technically even on the PSP [although I had to recycle the battery when I found it was bulging - be careful with the batteries on these things!]

However, it also proves "player figures" can be bloated - for one thing, of the 37.8m quoted by @inCloud for FH5, that 60% stat indicates about 12.5m "players" have not even completed the opening demo sequence that lasts around 5 minutes...!

(Query, how many of the remaining 22m got to the second achievement?)

And also, it also says - 22m players is still a pretty big number. It's hard to argue with the fact that FH4/5 have both appealed to big audiences including audiences normally outside driving games.

From the sales leak, we also know that GT7 is the second highest selling Gran Turismo game after GT3 (just talking sales numbers here).

So there ARE still driving games that are very popular.

What i think might be arguable though, and in that sense @LeGeNd-1 may be on to something, is that outside of a small number of games on each system, the drop off in sales SEEMS to be dramatic I.e. most people are only playing ONE driving game on PS, and/or Xbox. Every single driving game franchise other than FH5 and GT7 seems to be struggling (not sure about The Crew:Motorfest figures yet). Whereas, in the past, gamers might have played 2,3,4 or 5 driving games during a year.

Even Forza Motorsport, we don't have any players/sales figures for that yet as far as I know - it has been out 6 months , so by now you can rightly believe if the figures were good Turn10 would have been itching to tell us something, surely, because MS are all about pushing big Game Pass player numbers right now (especially "engagement stats")? After all, the 10m figure for FH5 came around and was mentioned pretty early on.

 

[inCloud]

Every single driving game franchise other than FH5 and GT7 seems to be struggling

Genre stagnating. Poor game design, questionable content production strategies, licensing and lack of innovation.

Only hope is that indy devs will come with something interesting.

 

[strela]

Interestingly this stat sort of proves everyone's point

Exactly, but still people will give much more importance to sales numbers in comparison to engagement numbers. I'm just saying it's wrong. Engagement numbers are still an indicator of how popular a game is.

 

[LeGeNd-1]

Thanks @sirjim73 for expanding my point clearer than I did.

I'm not going to look for hard numbers here because I will be here forever, but basically what I'm trying to say is apart from the Big One on each platform (e.g. Mario Kart on Wii, Forza on PC/Xbox, GT on PS), there is a steep dropoff in popularity in racing games compared to other genres. And even for those big 3, if you look past the sales numbers and actually look at long term player engagement, the numbers will be even less rosy.

It can feel like racing games are doing okay, because we are on a site that specialises in racing games. Everyone here plays them. Every week there are new ones being announced, and updates for existing ones. But actually we are in a bubble and doesn't reflect the wider gaming world.

Back in the day of PS1 all of my buddies know and play Gran Turismo, NFS, Test Drive, Ridge Racer. You go to arcades and there are Daytona USA, Outrun, Sega Rally, Crazy Taxi machines. Cars were cool. Then gradually from the late PS3 generation onwards things started to get stale. The old franchises were just coming out with boring sequels, there were less innovations in the arcade genre, and people just don't talk about racing games all that much anymore. I don't know anyone in real life now who still plays GT, or even racing games on a regular basis. If you ask a random kid on the street to name 5 new racing games now they would struggle.

The last few years has seen the rise of racing sims and esports more than arcade games, but apart from Assetto and iRacing none of them became household names either. Even esports participation numbers are grim compared to the usual MMORPG and FPS games. How many players truly make a living out of racing esports compared to other genres?

If you're an indie developer, would you take a huge risk in licensing expensive cars & tracks to make yet another anonymous sim that will struggle compared to GT/FM? Or would you try and make an arcade racer for a market that is getting smaller by the day? Do you go licensed arcade and try compete with FH/NFS/The Crew? Or cut costs and make a generic arcade racer that no one will even care about? How would you innovate to make your game standout? Almost every variant of racing has been done already and the ones that stray too far from the basic formula doesn't sell (see Onrush). It's a steep uphill climb. In the end you will probably go the usual RPG route. Safer, less costly and you'll find a wider audience. Meanwhile, developers of existing racing games doesn't feel the need to innovate or be nice to their customers because we don't have a lot of choice. So the genre stagnated, old fans get turned off, you struggle to get new fans to the genre, and the cycle continues.

Oh and I haven't mentioned the way the real life automobile industry is going with EV, autonomous driving, cars are killing kids/dogs/the planet/etc. Most young people nowadays doesn't even care about driving let alone be a car enthusiast. F1 might be going strong thanks to DTS but now the racing is boring and people are turning off too. There are other better motorsport series but your average joe probably doesn't know them. So it's going to be even harder for racing games to capture the imagination of the general public moving forward.

I don't know the answer really. But I just feel we are past the peak of racing games and that era is not coming back. Sure the games we have now are really, really good technically and graphically compared to anything 10-20 years ago. But everything just feels kinda samey and stale. It doesn't "wow" you anymore. I'll still play them because I love driving and racing no matter what, but I don't ever expect the glory days of being able to find a copy of Gran Turismo or NFS Underground in every kid's living room to return.

 

[inCloud]

what I'm trying to say is apart from the Big One on each platform (e.g. Mario Kart on Wii, Forza on PC/Xbox, GT on PS), there is a steep dropoff in popularity in racing games compared to other genres.

Does it? Basically in every subgenre there are one-two flagships and bunch of sidekicks with few millions copies sold.

Cars were cool

Games were cool. Now they all the same and there isn't any reason to buy something other than flagship

If you're an indie developer, would you take a huge risk in licensing expensive cars & tracks to make yet another anonymous sim that will struggle compared to GT/FM

Why would you? No need to make another simcade, but without content that big boys have.

Or would you try and make an arcade racer for a market that is getting smaller by the day

But it doesn't. There are interest for innovative(or reinventive) car games.

see Onrush

Onrush is pathetic downgraded clone of Motorstorm.

But everything just feels kinda samey and stale.

Because it is?

 

[dirt88]

just wish trailout would come out but i fear that it coming to console is dead as nothing has been said in over a year

 

[MXH]

Onrush is pathetic downgraded clone of Motorstorm.

I took a dump on Onrush as well for what I also thought it looked like - a poor man’s Motorstorm.

I still deeply regret not getting it way earlier, rather than spontaneously buying it on sale for pennies. It certainly wasn’t for everyone but I ended up loving it. In my experience, it tried something else and was actually fun. 35+ hours well spent, and one trophy away from Platinum.

My belief is still that the anticipation for a new proper Motorstorm inspired game killed Onrush from the moment it was revealed. It was always pretty much destined to be DoA for that reason alone.

Either way, shame that you can no longer level up, earn crates and buy stuff in SP in Onrush ever since they shut down the servers. Otherwise I would’ve easily tripled my playtime.

 

[Scaff]

Good one coming soon if you like isometric arcade racers and always wondered what GT2 would be like as one.

Super Woden GP II is headed to consoles sometime around the summer (no exact date yep), I've got it on Steam and it's brilliant.



This is a link to the Steam Page, which should give you an idea of the wonderfulness it covers.

 

[egl92]

Super Woden GP II it's brilliant. Good news that it is coming to consoles.

A game that is now on sale on the PS store is Classic Racers Elite.

There are no races, they are time trials with cars from the 60's.
It's short and quite easy but with good variety of tracks and cars. The control of the cars is quite good.

I wasn't expecting much and it surprised me. I have liked what I have played so far.

I've given NFS Unbound a second chance. I hate how quickly you rise to the highest search level and the police chases every time you finish a race , but otherwise it's pretty good.

 

[tomo 427 S/C]

Good one coming soon if you like isometric arcade racers and always wondered what GT2 would be like as one.

Super Woden GP II is headed to consoles sometime around the summer (no exact date yep), I've got it on Steam and it's brilliant.



This is a link to the Steam Page, which should give you an idea of the wonderfulness it covers.

I've never heard of this before and don't usually care for isometric things, but I now want this

 

[egl92]

just wish trailout would come out but i fear that it coming to console is dead as nothing has been said in over a year

Is now available on Xbox.