Thank you Atari for sending us this game to review!

Sprint was a classic top-down arcade racing game where you raced others on a track, seeing your tiny car. In the original arcade, it had a large steering wheel where you could turn your car with pretty good accuracy, but it was tuned in such a way where messing up was easy, too. There were other 'Sprint' games over the years, like Sprint 2 and Sprint 8, along with several others. NeoSprint somehow manages to capture the essence of that controlled chaos in this lovely reimagining of that classic game.

NeoSprint updates the formula with many modern features, starting with a campaign mode. I played most of my time in that mode, though from what I can tell it's mostly meant to be the means to unlock all of the built-in tracks. It's not too difficult, which is good because there isn't another way to unlock those tracks. It only takes a few hours to get through, and I found the campaign mode simple but fun the whole time. It's just a bummer that if you want to dive right into multiplayer out of the box, you can't unlock tracks that way as far as I can tell.

Before starting a race, you can choose between nine vehicles, pick its colors, and choose if you want a skinny or wide hips and chest area. (You toggle between a male and female look.) You can also adjust the steering sensitivity, which at first I wasn't sure if it would make much difference, but after testing it seems like skilled players probably want that maxed out.

Each of the nine vehicles not only look different, but feel different, too. Each has its own Acceleration, Max Speed, and Turn stat, which are represented by comparative bars. From what I can tell, certain vehicles do seem to be better than others depending on your skill, but any can win, especially against the campaign mode, which isn't that difficult overall. I did have to retry several times, but I was able to get a gold medal on all cups without too much difficulty.

The Acceleration level is pretty much what it sounds like; you reach your top speed more quickly from a stop. Max Speed is also what it sounds like; once you reach your top speed, that speed is faster with some other cars than others. What surprised me is how much of a difference Turn can make. A higher Turn allows a car to turn more sharply at higher speeds, requiring less slowing down and hand braking. The hand brake works as you expect, and lets you skid into a turn, and that really helps, but it can also slow you down a lot, losing precious momentum. Some of the cars with the highest Max Speed take a little while to get there, or they are fast in a straight line while having a middling Turn stat. The cars seem fairly well balanced, though there are a few that seem like, stat wise, would not do as well overall.

My favorites are the Havoc OR1, the Lynx HG-01, and the Stella HS. The NB 2600 is also interesting as it has crazy acceleration and the second-fastest speed, but that low Turn makes it not the best most of the time. Some cars are head-scratchers; I don't understand why the Bailey 681 is there, when the Havoc has the same Acceleration and every other stat is higher. Maybe there is some hidden reason that makes the Bailey worthwhile, but I can't figure out what it is. It does look really cool though. I guess that's just the name of the game, balancing out priorities.

While only the campaign can unlock tracks, that's not all that's available to unlock. While there aren't any new cars available as far as I can tell, you can decorate your cars via unlocks. Each car starts with ten solid colors available, but eleven more two-tone color sets can be unlocked for each car, and some look really good. Outside of vehicle liveries, the other major unlocks are track building pieces.

There are several other game modes for single players, like Free Races where you can play any track you like, or a Grand Prix where you can play any four levels to make your own circuits. There are also time trials and obstacle courses. These are where the real challenge in the single player mode lies. When you complete a set of either time trials or obstacle courses, you can unlock more liveries and track building pieces. You unlock more based on what medal you earn; gold earns more than silver which earns more than bronze.

While the 52 built-in tracks is quite a solid selection, the real highlight is that built-in track builder. Well, that and tracks built there are shared online for anyone to play! At the time of this writing, there are almost two hundred tracks available from other players online. I tried making a track, and it's not too difficult, other than not supporting the mouse on PC. You can use keyboard keys which are basically mapped to whatever equivalent gamepad buttons would be. It's really designed to be controller-centric, and it shows the most in the track builder, as the rest of the game naturally fits controllers best. I hope they will add that in the future; it could make track building much easier. Even still, it's not too bad.

Outside of the campaign, time trials, and obstacle courses, most of the rest of the modes like Free Race and Grand Prix support using downloaded online tracks. You can try them in Free Race first before downloading for future custom Grand Prix races. I really love the flexibility on offer, and the nearly endless playability for those who love this game.

And thankfully, I personally find it a lot of fun. When I was younger, I played R.C. Pro Am on the NES. While that game was significantly different in a lot of ways, the controls were largely similar, in that left and right steer the car no matter what direction the car is facing. That took some adjustment at first, but once it clicks the controls are just fine. On an Xbox controller, You accelerate with either the A button or by holding RT, and you press RB to use the hand brake. B or LT are used to stop or reverse, and LB is used to identify your car, since there can be up to eight on the screen.

Speaking of screen, the game offers two visual modes. The first is focus follows track, which is the most like the classic game. I personally find that this mode makes things a bit too small on the screen, but it's understandably the only mode available when playing multiplayer. Focus follows car is available for single player modes, and it zooms in on your car somewhat and follows you around the track. This mode looks a whole lot better and it's more exciting to watch, too. I highly recommend using that when playing solo, though when playing with friends, it may take more adjustment.

I love that NeoSprint doesn't forget that Sprint 8 offered local multiplayer, in that case on one screen just like this does. I do recommend playing on a large screen though! I also appreciate that it supports Steam's Remote Play Together feature as well, making virtual local play possible. But I am convinced a proper online mode would more than pay for itself via increased sales. The lack of a proper simultaneous online mode is a miss, but even still, the game is a blast.

The way you control your car, the sliding around and sloppy play, the floaty physics when you jump all contribute to a game where perfection is not really a thing. And I am all about that. Cars crash into each other, they fly off of the track, they catch fire - it's all in a day's racing. And it's so much fun. Local multiplayer also works great. It's so much fun to play that just while writing this review I put several hours into 'double checking that I had things right'.

In this case, it really is all about the gameplay. The graphics suit the game well, and look nice and cartoony, but are hardly revolutionary. I will say that the neon look of some of the later levels does look pretty sharp, though. The music is totally fine and fits to the purpose, but is also not extraordinary. It's the gameplay here that draws you, and that's perfectly fine with me.

Morally, the game is pretty clean. Cars crash, and can fly off the track, but no one gets hurt. One of the females has an outfit that exposes midriff. Another says 'Oh my god' once when you beat her in the campaign.

Technically, the PC version was nearly perfect until I had a blue screen of death (BSOD) in Windows right when I was starting a new race. At this point, after my PC came back, my save was totally corrupt. The way it corrupted the save, I wasn't able to recover it from another computer, and I couldn't even start a new game. I had to delete the save files after someone from the developer gave me a hand on the Steam forum, and gave me a new save file with all of the tracks unlocked. It wasn't exactly where I left off, but it was close enough. The situation causing the BSOD was actually a bad controller driver; I had to remove it and it's been stable since. Also, the game works perfectly in Linux and on Steam Deck. It's Steam Deck Verified, and I concur - it works great.

Atari's NeoSprint is a top-down racer that I really enjoy playing. It's one of those I could actually see myself playing for ten minutes here and there for quite some time. I do hope that I am able to setup an eight-player game with people and controllers, and I think it would be a ton of fun. I think NeoSprint has real potential, if enough people find out about this gem of a game. At MSRP, I can understand waiting for a sale since it lacks online multiplayer, but on the other hand, downloaded tracks promise to keep you plenty busy. NeoSprint has been an unexpected highlight this summer, and highly recommended.