I still remember that time, a small GBA and a cassette could let me play from school until dark. Now that I have "Ultimate Racing" installed on my mobile phone, the feeling once I start using it, hey, it really feels like it did back then!
To be honest, compared with the previous racing games on GBA, the graphics of current mobile racing games are indeed much more refined. The racing cars made of pixel blocks on the GBA back then are simply terrible to look at now, but they were still exciting to play at the time. As for this "Ultimate Racing", the scenes of city streets, country roads, and beach tracks are very similar, especially the feeling of passing traffic, which is much more exciting than the open tracks on GBA back then.
However, what surprises me most about this game is its "sense of tension". I still remember playing racing cars in the GBA era. The most exciting thing was overtaking at the extreme limit in a narrow traffic flow. If you were not careful, you would be hit and killed. This game retains that "thrilling" feeling! And it also has nitro acceleration. Press it at the critical moment and you will get that pushing feeling - although the phone has no vibration feedback, just looking at the picture is enough to make you excited. Unlike many racing games nowadays, which blindly pursue real physics, they lose the refreshing feeling of arcade games.
As for the shortcomings, the touch screen operation of the mobile phone is still not as accurate as the physical buttons. Back then, the GBA's cross-pad plus two buttons made it stress-free for blind operations. Now, when sliding the screen on a mobile phone, I'm always afraid of my hands slipping. But what haven't we, the nostalgic party, seen? Back then, two PSP joysticks were broken, so the adaptation cost was nothing.
This game is free, and there is no disgusting krypton gold system. It is pure racing. You can play how you want. It's really suitable for old players like me who occasionally want to regain their youth. There is no need to secretly bring the GBA to school like in the past. Now you can take out your mobile phone and play a few games, and you can relive your dreams during your lunch break.
To be honest, games nowadays are getting more and more dazzling, but what really moves an old gamer like me is the simple and pure driving pleasure. Although "Ultimate Racing" is not as good as those masterpieces, it allowed me to regain the energy to stay up late and play the game when I was stuck at 99% progress. Youth is gone, but the persistence is still there.
If you are also an old handheld gamer, you might as well download and try it and see if you can drive that childhood racing car in your memory🚗💕