Indie Games News/Previews #7

The 90's Arcade Racer by Nicalis, Inc. (201?) - PC, Mac, Wii U

Except this time it's not a gaming news post at all really - kind of the opposite actually. It was, you see, many moons past that 90's Arcade Racer first crossed my path and it was truly love at first sight. Racing games have long been one of my favourite genres, particularly arcade style ones, and many of my favourites are from the 90's, so as you might imagine, a game with a name like this sounded like a more than tantalising prospect. Better yet, judging by the screenshots and a demo video, it looked absolutely fantastic. Sounds too good to be true, right? Hopefully it won't end up being another case of an indie developer getting in over their head and bailing but it's already massively delayed.

The game was originally the brain-child of a Greek gentleman called Anthony, perhaps better known online as Pelikan13, who launched a Kickstarter back at the start of 2013 to fund his tribute to the arcade games he, and many others no doubt, enjoyed while growing up. The campaign was successful and the development of the game was underway, with an intended release date of December 2013. This came and went with still no game which by then had been moved on to a developer called Nicalis with whom Anthony was now working. Over the coming months a few screenshots were released, occasionally a new video or snippet of information, but still no sign of the actual game.

And unfortunately this continues to the present day. As far as I can gather it's the Wii U version that's slowing the whole project down but very little information is forth-coming from Nicalis and backers' messages are going unanswered. Until recently there had only been two updates this year, the last in May, and backers had begun asking for refunds. Luckily, not two days past another update appeared from Nicalis who are apparently pressing forward with the game. It may even be nearing completion! Hopefully the delay is just a case of an overworked or disorganised developer. I would love to see this game released, it really does look superb and exactly the kind of racer I would spend unhealthy amounts of time on. Is anyone else waiting as keenly as I?

Gameplay Video: Here's the first trailer for the game I saw way back in 2013. I think you'll agree it looks effing brilliant! Hopefully we will find out for sure one day...