Game Reviews

Race the Sun - And they rode off into the sunset

Star onStar onStar onStar onStar off
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| Race the Sun
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Race the Sun - And they rode off into the sunset
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| Race the Sun

Race the Sun is a darty dashy solar-powered arcade game that's all about not letting the sun go down on your angular racer. Just like Elton John said once.

It's also reconfigured every 24 hours, so you're never blasting through the same spires, tilting blocks, and shifting walls.

The minimalist art style and reaction-testing, exploratory gameplay blend together to make an experience that's worth coming back to time and time again.

Sunny spells

You weave your ship through the towers and mazes that the game throws at you by tapping on the screen. The closer to the centre of the screen you push down, the less sharp your turn.

You can perform barrel rolls as well, which look cool but don't seem to do much more than make you crash into things accidentally.

The aim of the game is to get as far as you can before the sun sets. Once it's slipped below the horizon your ship runs out of power and you stop. Scooting around in the shadows cast by the buildings that cover the world will slow you down.

So you need to weave and dodge, swooping through the canyons and corridors the game generates for you every day. It's a surprisingly graceful experience, with each delicate turn feeling like the arcing twist of a bird in flight.

Or at least it does until you slam into a tree, or a block pivots at the last second and you get crushed under its weight. But that's all part of the fun. And with the levels changing all the time, you feel like you need to conquer them before they switch.

Ain't no sunshine when it's gone

There are challenges to complete that help you level-up and unlock new abilities and upgrades which you can bolt onto your ship. And you'll chase them, because chasing is fun.

Race the Sun is a comfortable fit for mobile. It's sharp enough that the play sessions don't last too long, but its inbuilt evolutionary habits mean you'll come back every day to something new.

This constant flux brings a sense of freshness to proceedings, and makes for a game that rewards you with new ideas and adventures on a regular basis.

Race the Sun - And they rode off into the sunset

A clever twist on the futuristic racer that changes itself regularly and rewards exploration and experimentation
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.