Since first seeing it a few months back, Hot Lap Racing is a game I’ve been excited about. A multi-discipline racer on the Switch. Providing a taste of what other consoles have had for ages, whether via the staple first party franchise, or other third party offerings. This seemed like it could be a great one, so I was waiting for its release so I could see what Zero Games Studios had crafted.

Experiencing Hot Lap Racing for myself has been… eventful. It’s left me with a cocktail of feelings to the point I’m still not sure how I feel about it. Right from first load, and the very basic tutorial of accelerate, brake, and steer, I could tell things were off. Even if I couldn’t say exactly what. Such understanding came quickly when I started up Quick Race mode to get to grips with the handling.

Hot Lap Racing leans into the arcade style of mechanics. Heavily. Braking to a stop is done in a matter of seconds even when over 200km/h. All but the tightest of corners can be taken at a higher speed than I was expecting. Neither of those things are bad, but there’s more. There’s very little weight to the cars, which can at times see the vehicle get out of control easily. And if an accident occurs which causes the vehicle to spin off, there’s no getting it under control until it stops.

What worse, is that aside from the wheels turning, there’s no visual feedback for what’s happening on track. Cars look like they’re gliding across the track rather than driving. They’re pretty much static whether taking corners, heavily braking, or even crashing into other vehicles. No tyre smoke when sliding through corners, or marks appearing on track. It feels somewhat lifeless.

All of that bad I could forgive, if the framerate wasn’t so poor. It aims for 30, but seems not able to hit it most of the time. The action stutters along in that middle ground where it’s noticeable enough to be an issue, but not to the point of seeing each frame tick over. It’s not the sort of thing one needs to be dealing with when reactions need to be quick. Especially with the small amount of times it has frozen for a second or two, leaving no chance of reacting to what cannot be seen.

Such framerate issues I had considered might be because of the number of racers on track. So it was a surprise, when heading for Hot Lap mode, to find the issues persisted when I was the only one on track. Somehow, it felt like such issues magnified themselves slightly when I was the only one on track, as the action felt even more stuttery as I blasted around these tracks for the fastest times.

Even with the issues, I still wanted to give the career mode a shot. This career mode started me at the Feed Racing School, where I could complete a bunch of training missions followed by a race to progress to the professional events. Or skip those and prove my worth with the Bernier Challenge, which was a simple time trial event I barely managed to pass.

The training in the career is more in depth than that initial drive upon first load. There’s gates to drive through with specific actions tied to them. Accelerate, turn, or brake. Or be going a certain speed. Fail to perform one of those actions, and reset. Go off track, and reset. Touch a cone, and reset. It was less frustrating than I was expecting it to be, but then these missions are meant for beginners.

The professional events use a tier system. Single-seater, GT, and endurance disciplines are featured, with a number of championships for each. Win to progress to the next tier, rising in rankings until getting to the Formula X-treme Championship. It’s not as simple as winning these championships, as the reputation system adds another layer to it. A layer that tries to push the balance towards a more sim-like experience.

A licence is earned for completing a championship, with each being ranked from S to E depending on several factors. Winning gains reputation, as does performing the fastest lap. But going off track and causing crashes will lower it. Earning too much negative reputation will start to lower the maximum rank available. The S rank is also only available with all assists off, so no traction control, no racing line, and manual gears.

Another factor is that just rising in the ranks alone isn’t enough to compete in the Formula X-treme Championship. The car that will be used in it needs to be built. This requires nothing more than completing the objective of each part to earn it, with those tasks being stuff I’m already doing. But it ensures that I’m doing nearly every event the career holds to finally get the chance at the Formula X-treme Championship.

I find it a nice way of setting out the career mode, but it does feel counter to how it is set out. Though there’s a choice in what to do to progress to the next tier, it almost feels moot considering everything needs to be completed anyway. And with the current performance issues, the higher tier of events can prove too challenging to want to dedicate much time to them.

Hot Lap Racing is a very mixed bag, then. There’s fun to be had with it, with the arcade-style driving mechanics being great once used to them. There’s a decent variety of tracks, with multiple variants for each. A good selection of vehicles across all its disciplines, with both historic and modern choices. But then there’s the bad, not all of which can simply be removed through optimisation.

Weightless cars that are easily spun. A choppy framerate that makes reacting to the action tricky. Online modes that, while a good inclusion, are completely dead. It is unfortunate that such problems exist within Hot Lap Racing, as it makes a recommendation difficult. For those who can overlook the issues, there’s definitely fun to be had. But there are far better choices for a racing game on Switch unless you absolutely want to dominate some production cars in a single-seat speed demon.

Images Taken From:
Hot Lap Racing | Nintendo Switch [Docked]