Last year’sF-Zero 99was a nice little surprising treat, but fans of futuristic sci-fi racing games such as F-Zero and Wipeout have been waiting for actual new entries for a while now. And as such, it becomes time to turn to the indie game scene and see if they’ve cooked up a proper spiritual successor to these games already, or at least something similar in spirit. And at today’s Kinda Funny Spring Games Showcase, we saw Thunderful, Coatsink and developers Ghosts step up to help deliver such a game in the form of Phantom Spark, whose latest trailer you may check out below.
Right on Track
Set in the land of Tyvahl, Phantom Spark sees you racing along its ancient tracks, either solo or with friends via local split-screen or online play. Described as being a momentum-based time trial racing game, the goal is to annihilate whatever records are presented to you, with success coming down to being able to properly mastering the track set out in front of you. After all, one false move and you end up in a humiliating crash, as seen in the clip, so being fast and reckless certainly isn’t the way to go. The emphasis on studying every bit of the track in order to find little ways that can shave off precious seconds brings to mind the level design ofNeon Whiteand other games with an emphasis on speedrunning, which hopefully suggests immaculate level design here as well.
Aside from showing off a lot of fast-paced gameplay, Phantom Spark’s new trailer also introduces players to a couple of the guardians of each track, who players will need to defeat in one-on-one races to advance and unlock new levels, ships and more. The game apparently promises unique rivalries with these characters, which hopefully makes for some interesting story bits as well, especially since Tyvahl looks intriguing – even when speeding by at ludicrous speeds – so it should be interesting to see any sort of story that fleshes out the game’s world.
Review: F-Zero 99
Where the series' debut Tetris proved that strategy can stem from every moment, F-Zero 99 asserts victory can come and go in just as fast a speed.
The rivalries extended to online play as well, where you can race against the ghost ships of other players and try to compete to have the best time on the leaderboard. With its twisty and insane yet impressive-looking track design, Phantom Spark might just have what it takes to be the next great sci-fi racer, and we’ll see if that’s the case when it comes out this summer for all major platforms.
