A review code for Victory Heat Rally was provided by Playtonic Friends for the purposes of this review. This has not influenced the review in any shape or form. I just thought you should know.

EGX 2024 might have been a bit of a dud, but, you may recall, I did manage to get hands on with a few games that got me excited for the future. Of those titles was Victory Heat Rally. Developed by Skydevilpalm, and published by Playtonic Friends, Victory Heat Rally released on Steam in October. A couple of months later, the pixel-art racer is gearing up to arrive on Nintendo Switch. So, how does the pixel-art heavy racer handle on Nintendo’s 7 year old machine?

Start Your Engines

That’s the first thing you notice, by the way. Victory Heat Rally pops in a way not enough games do. Everything is so vibrant, colourful, and, above all, bright. Victory Heat Rally is the purest visual sugar that’ll make you glad eyeballs can’t get cavities (to the best of my severely limited dental knowledge). 

It’s backed up by being incredibly smooth. Each race is extremely fast, so performance is, naturally, vital. Throughout my time with Victory Heat Rally I didn’t once suffer a noticeable drop in performance while on the track. There seemed to be one or two moments of stutter while tracks loaded up, but nothing that derailed the racing experience at all. 

Drive to Survive

And, I have to say, the racing experience is pretty top notch. Victory Heat Rally’s championship mode is where you’re likely to spend the bulk of your time, and you’re gonna have a pretty good time there. You enter with 3 drivers to choose from, and have the opportunity to unlock more as you progress. Every driver has unique stats, and you get the opportunity to further influence how you race through some car customisation options. Each location houses a number of races and time trial rallies, that culminate in a Grand Prix consisting of every track you rattled through on your way to it. WIn the GP, move onto the next area. Rinse, repeat.

Victory Heat Rally doesn’t just give you a new character at the end of each GP, however. Once you’ve won your gold medal, you’re invited into something of a one-on-on battle against the rival driver of that area. Each racer gets a health bar, and you whittle your opponents down by simply leading them in a race. Sounds simple, but, in my experience, the difficulty seemed to ramp up some in those duels.

The game plays well, too. I did a little bit of tweaking to find a set up I could get on with, and, once I’d found a formula, everything clicked. The most positive praise I can give Victory Heat Rally is that everything about it is slick. Zipping around those tracks is, for the most part, a real joy. Learning (and nailing) the boost mechanic is a joy. As the difficulty spikes towards the back end of the mode, those head to head moments against specific racers is thrilling. It really is a lot of fun.

The other modes are largely deviations of what you find in the Championship mode. Arcade GP allows you to replay the games Grand Prixs, and Versus is the titles multiplayer offering. All welcome, though, as I say, the game is built of Championship mode, for me.

Stalling at the lights

My only issue is that there are a handful of courses that just aren’t great. For the most part, Victory Heat Rally’s selection of tracks is great. There are a handful around the middle of the Championship mode that just don’t work, however. The beach and ruins are just frustrating. You’re asked to make jumps across areas that aren’t fenced around the edge, and, more often than not, the momentum sends you flying off the track. When CPU controlled racers are having the same issue you are, I’m inclined to believe it’s an issue with the game, rather than an issue with the person in control.

Conclusion

Victory Heat Rally is fast, frantic, and a lot of fun. A couple of dud tracks don’t detract from, what is, a very well put together package. A joy to look at, a joy to control, there’s so little to detract from what Skydevilpalm have produced here. A strong recommendation from me.