Indie game designers often come up with great games, oftentimes much better than the big studios come out with, so I like to review them, not only to check out what’s new, but to support them as well. Most of these games are small, and usually simplistic, but most times they’re fun to play. New Star games in one such company, we’ve looked at a couple of their offerings in the past, New Star Soccer and New Star Grand Prix, both are fairly decent games overall. Today I’ve got another offering from them called Super Laser Racer, and when first loading it I had memories of the original Asteroids, the very first version with just green lines basically,  so saying that you know this game isn’t something that’s going to tax your graphics card, but that’s not to say it’s a bad game. Super Laser Racer is a racing game as you might expect, and it’s actually rather fun with several tracks to race on, different ships to unlock and even a track editor included so you can create your own. So read on to check out some screen shots and a couple in-game movies as well…

This is a download only game so there’s no box. Starting it up you’re greeted with the menu at first, there’s no big splashy start up screen or introduction, it just gets right down to the game.

Before we get into the actual game, here’s the Editor. You can create your own track from the ground up basically, starting with the background color and adding things like walls, tiles, objects, racing lines and even the pit stop. Like the game itself, it’s a basic editor, but that’s all that’s needed really.

 

It’s fun to play around with for a new track to race on, but you won’t need a new track for a while because the game itself will take a while to finish really.

Specifications:

Super Laser Racer

Super Laser Racer is an exciting combat racing game set in outer geometric space. Blast your way to the top of the leaderboard using lasers, missiles, bombs and more! Super Laser Racer is like nothing you’ve played before!

Try the free demo or purchase the full version for $9.99
vFeatures:
* 12 exhilarating tracks
* 12 racers to unlock
* 4 challenging tournaments
* Bombs, cannons, lasers, mines, missiles, plasmas!
* Online leaderboards
* Unlock new ships
* Eliminator and Survival race modes
* Create your own tracks

When you decide to start racing you’ll start off by choosing the tournament, in the beginning you’ve only got one option, you’ll have to play to unlock the others. After you choose the tournament you can choose your vehicle, you’ve got a few to choose from, but there are more that will need unlocked. Each vehicle has it’s own attributes just like nay other racing game.

Before you start racing you’ll get to see some basic info telling you what things you’ll see on the screen and what you can run into on the track, things like weapons, turbo boosters and shields.

Here are several screen shots of the race on two different tracks. There’s a pit stop on each track as well, that allows you to recharge your shields.

Playing the game can be difficult in the beginning, the controls are a bit hard to get accustomed to, at least while using the keyboard control scheme. One thing I do like about this game is that you can use a gamepad, I’ve got the Xbox360 adapter for my PC and I used the Xbox360 controller to play Super Laser racer and it was much easier than using the keyboard controls.

Playing the game you’ll run into several different types of weapons that are randomly given to you by running over the red X boxes. You might get laser, plasma, mines or even bombs to help you slow down the other racers. There’s also Turbo Boosters as well that will speed you up a bit temporarily. The game is rather fun overall, it’s a nice distraction, and you’ll want to keep playing to unlock the vehicles and new tracks. The sound track is decent, a techno, bass heavy style, and the sound effects are well done also.

As you can see the graphics are very basic, but basic is good sometimes, and for this game it works very well, I really like the retro gaming feel of it.

Here’s a couple videos for you to check out:

Conclusion:
Super Laser Racer is a great little game that should keep you busy for a while, it offers many unlockable things to keep you playing, and you can even create new tracks with the built-in editor. The graphics are retro styling, but they’re well done, and the soundtrack is pretty good too.

If you’re looking to get your retro game on, then check this out, you can try the demo for free or grab the game for only $9.99.

 

Pros:
+Fun, retro style gaming
+Can use gamepad controller with it
+Track creator/editor included
+Several unlockables and different tracks to play on
+Inexpensive

Cons:
-Can be difficult with keyboard controls

Grades:
Overall
Design
Performance