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Trying out the free Christmas SAGE 2023 demo of Victory Heat Rally!
SAGE is the Sonic Amateur Games Expo--although the team has had intentions of releasing the game commercially: there are older demos on Steam https://store.steampowered.com/app/1594060/Victory_Heat_Rally/ (2022) and itch https://skydevilpalm.itch.io/victory-heat-rally (2021) that appear to have different modes, and a driver select, which this SAGE demo does not.Earlier visuals https://selectbutton.net/t/fading-brakelight-obscurity-ii-championship-edition-part-1/113/1372 had an elevated, segmented Power Drift look; the tracks are smoothed out in these demos, but the cars and the stage sprites still have a definite old Sega "Super Scaler" arcade look, and you could call the overall vibe an updated Sega "blue skies" style with an even more up-tempo theme. The itch page indicates that dev skydevilpalm is two artists ("based in Las Vegas," according to their home page https://www.skydevilpalm.com/), and the game has other contributors for other aspects.
The itch page also still says the game will be published in 2022; there have been complaints on Steam and itch that the devs have been silent lately, and even the recent SAGE demo downplays the updates somewhat, but a response to one complaint notes that the devs post regularly on X--which I have not verified as I don't want to log on to X if I can possibly avoid doing so. :PP
There's also a 2020 demo--which I also did not try--on SAGE host site SFGHQ: https://sonicfangameshq.com/forums/showcase/victory-heat-rally.731/
This 2023 SAGE demo features cotton candy sweet graphics and music, glitchy, harsh, unbalanced sounds, control mapping that can leave you unable to navigate the menus (which I did, of course; reinstalling didn't help but I was able to reset my controls by deleting the config file from my Windows user profile folder (C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\VHR_THE_FINAL), thanks to a tip at https://steamcommunity.com/app/1594060/discussions/0/3274691973514108079/#c3386156547857723332 : D) (and the game didn't respond on my DS4, even using DS4Windows; the DS4 worked fine with it when run as a non-Steam game through Steam, though) (and the menu BACK key ISN'T Esc, it's Backspace = ooo...so people are gonna get stuuuuuck if they're like me ; ), and controls that take a little getting used to, but the drift-to-boost shtick quickly becomes addictive.
The controls WERE killing my dang ol' wrist--I suppose maybe because it's SO over-the-top arcadey that there's never a reason to use Brake or release Accelerate--until I found, in the MISC menu--which unlike the other option screens can only be accessed from the main menu, not the Pause menu = oo--the "AUTO ACCEL" option, which holds the gas pedal down for you! = D A feature every true arcade racing game should have, my tortured ol' joints say! ^ _^ (I refer you also to the otherwise janky 10-second racing segment in a side route in Seaside Hill Act 2 in Sonic Generations https://youtu.be/WbX1l9WEzS4?t=5601 = D)
So, I had fun! Once you get the hang of boosting, the demo rips along, and you can absolutely nuke the little super-deformed CPU cars off the track if you slam into them hard enough. The last stage in the demo is a rally stage, with Sega Rally-style turn call-outs. ^ D^ |
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| | | | Oh RIGHT the Christmas SAGE 2023 demo download page is https://sonicfangameshq.com/forums/showcase/victory-heat-rally-christmas-sage-23.1991/ |
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