It’s been seven years since Aquiris’ excellent arcade racer Horizon Chase (Free) arrived on the App Store. Since then, the sport has been on a tour of its personal, hitting quite a lot of different platforms and consistently including new content material to get pleasure from. About a month in the past, we lastly bought a sequel when Horizon Chase 2 () roared onto the Apple Arcade service in anticipation of a wider launch in 2023. I’ve been taking part in the wheels off the sport since then, and I figured I’d write up a evaluation in case anybody wants a nudge.

Just as the primary sport was, Horizon Chase 2 pays heavy homage to basic arcade-style racers like Gremlin’s Top Gear/Lotus and SEGA’s Out Run. Races are high-speed affairs stuffed with loads of hairpin turns, nitro boosts, and nasty collisions. The colours are vibrant, the tunes are pumping, and the physics are extra desirous about being enjoyable than being reasonable. As a sequel, Horizon Chase 2 has an additional job past simply being a very good racer, nevertheless. It additionally has to indicate what it has to supply that the primary sport didn’t, a job that may be fairly robust when the earlier sport noticed new updates at the same time as current as a couple of months in the past.

If you simply leap into the sport, the primary massive distinction is an apparent one. The easy, albeit enticing, flat-shaded, low-poly look of the unique sport has been changed with one thing a bit extra visually spectacular. There are extra trackside objects with better element, nicer visible results, and an total better complexity in how every part seems. There’s lots of verticality to the tracks, and also you’ll journey via areas the primary sport by no means deigned to take us. Amazingly, the sport hasn’t misplaced its retro appeal whereas making this step. It jogs my memory a little bit of how Out Run 2 managed to considerably enhance on the graphical constancy of its predecessor with out dropping its pure “blue skies” vitality.

The soundtrack, then again, sticks to what works. That means Barry Leitch is again to grant the sport a peppy synth vibe that virtually oozes the texture of the early Nineteen Nineties. While I wouldn’t say it surpasses the unique, it definitely stands comfortably beside it. A great purpose to play with the sound on, little doubt. It’s simply gorgeous to me how simply Leitch can set up the setting and stakes of a race simply with the primary few seconds of every observe. Like the entire greatest online game soundtracks, it’s simply as a lot part of the sport’s character as its graphics.

The different very apparent new component is the net multiplayer. The new Playground theoretically permits you to race towards different human gamers in rotating occasions. I have to admit that within the month I’ve spent with this sport, I’ve had solely the spottiest luck discovering different individuals on-line. I find yourself racing towards AI bots for probably the most half, which I most likely don’t want on-line play for. I suppose that is the price of the sport being briefly unique to a selected service on one particular platform. At least for now, if you wish to play towards different gamers, you’ll most likely have to rearrange one thing amongst your mates or utilizing the sport’s official Discord server.

But hey, even in the event you don’t contact the Playgrounds in any respect, you’ve nonetheless bought lots to dig into. There’s the returning World Tour mode that takes you thru a whopping fifty-five new programs set throughout 5 completely different nations. The sheer number of these tracks is unbelievable, and when mixed with the upgraded visible punch, it’s straightforward to get distracted wanting on the programs whilst you’re racing on them. The issue curve is acquainted, with the primary handful of races being easy sufficient to deal with no matter your talent and subsequent tracks turning up the warmth steadily till you’re boiling in your individual sweat. I discover the observe design on this sport to already exceed the primary, and that was no straightforward feat.

In phrases of the particular mechanics of the sport, Horizon Chase 2 covers acquainted floor. This, just like the music, is a case of not fixing one thing that wasn’t damaged. You get that very same weighty-yet-light really feel from the primary sport, a system that’s baked into the fingers of Top Gear and Lotus veterans, however utilized to way more superior course layouts. Weaving skillfully between your opponents, kicking on that nitro on the excellent second to fly into the lead of the pack, and narrowly lacking a brutal crash with a signboard as you lean like hell into a decent curve is simply as triumphantly thrilling as ever. Like within the first sport, it’s simply plain enjoyable to drive in Horizon Chase 2. What extra may you ask for?

Of course, you’ve additionally bought unlockables and upgrades to think about. As you race, you’ll unlock new tracks, vehicles, and customizations, and might use the forex you’ve gathered to tune your favourite automotive as you prefer it. Using vehicles in races earns expertise for that automotive, and after they degree up you may improve their stats. At the beginning of the sport, you could have 5 very completely different automobiles to select from. You’ll unlock ten extra, and if the primary sport was any indicator I’m certain that quantity will solely go up over time. That stated, the way in which the improve system works incentivizes you to discover a automotive you want and keep it up. Well, you may at all times grind up one other one in the event you like. It simply means extra racing, and there’s nothing flawed with that.

Is there anything I ought to point out? The contact controls really feel just a little higher on this sport than the primary, however that would simply be right down to a greater UI structure. You can naturally use an exterior controller in the event you’d desire to. I discovered there was only a contact of added lag by taking part in that method, however nothing too critical. Such is the character of Bluetooth gadgets. You’ve bought some new Achievements to go for, and a few of them are fairly intelligent. Oh, I didn’t point out the unlockable Tournament mode both. It’s only a strategy to dip in and play some fast challenges whenever you don’t really feel like getting caught into World Tour. More scoops of ice cream on an already teetering mountain of candy treats.

If you really liked Horizon Chase, you’ll love Horizon Chase 2. If you’ve by no means performed the primary sport, you may simply leap in with this sequel and have a good time. It’s in some methods an anticipated sequel, however I don’t suppose there’s something flawed with that when there was so little to complain about within the first sport. I had really let my Apple Arcade subscription lapse, however I signed proper again up once more for Horizon Chase 2. It didn’t let me down. Now all we’d like is to get the net inhabitants just a little extra energetic. Hopefully that’s a difficulty that may clear up itself with time.