Sometimes you just don’t need a team of 250 people and a budget in the multi-millions to make a great game that people love playing. Balatro, Infinite Craft, and the like have made it big already in 2024, and now this, one of the best arcade racing games I have ever played bursts onto the scene.
New Star GP comes from a stable you may not be familiar with, but if you are you will love their work. I couldn’t tell you the hours of travel time I have sunk into playing Retro Bowl and New Star Soccer on my iPhone while getting to and from places. Before that, I was hooked on New Star Manager. Yes, New Star Games is probably one of my favorite small game developers ever, and I probably didn’t even realize it.
These games though were great little addictive titles that you could pick up and play for a few minutes here and there, even though that was rarely what happened. New Star GP is different. It’s like somebody took the classic Virtua Racing from the 90s and said, we are going to make one of the best racing games in years.
New Star GP has no flashy F1 licenses. Max Verstappen is not on the title screen as it loads and it somehow doesn’t matter a jot.
First playing on my actual PC was a lot of fun. Big screen, flashy arcade graphics and sound and care handling like an arcade racing dream with an Xbox Elite controller. Then I had a brainwave – I thought, I bet this will be good on my ROG Ally. I was not wrong.
New Star GP positively shines on a handheld PC. The ROG Ally’s 1080p screen looks amazing, and the Steam Deck’s OLED screen is like an arcade dopamine hit you are not expecting.
Never mind 2024 this could be one of the best racers ever
New Star Games is already a BAFTA award-winning studio for its previous work, but New Star GP is its biggest project to date and they have smashed it out of the park and then some. New Star bills itself as making the sports games other companies don’t dare to make, well more fool them.
Here you can choose to start your own race team back in the 1980s if you want and work your way up to modern times, or simply start a Championship and amend just about every factor of the season to play it as you want to play it.
Of course, nothing would matter if the car was handled like it was in mud. It doesn’t. It feels amazing to throw it around the track while the music pumps. Amazing I say. There will be a full review coming in the next few days but we felt it was worth bringing this to the attention of the PC handheld crew before then.
And if you don’t have a handheld like the Steam Deck or Rog Ally, it is even better on a big screen. You can even play it as a four-player split screen with all of you on the same couch and set handicaps for the better players. Oh, stop it. Watch the trailer and give them your money.
New Star GP is available on Steam now priced at £24.99 / $29.99 – It is also available for the Nintendo Switch and on Xbox.
