I would love to know why there are so many motorbike racing games in the market. Is it because it’s easier to render, and cheaper to license: a Kawasaki Ninja than a Porsche 911? Is it because there are very few high performance models in the market, meaning that you don’t need to spend that much money and manpower on them? RiMS Racing is yet another title on a very saturated niche, but thankfully, it does have some features that make it stand out from its peers.

Each of these motorbike games focuses on one specific feature to pretty much justify its existence. The MotoGP games feature all licensed racers and tracks from the world’s premier motorbike racing league. Ride focuses on having a crap ton of bikes for you to ride on, being mostly a two-wheeled Gran Turismo. Meanwhile, the TT Isle of Man games appeal to those who are into the Snaefell Mountain Course, the most ludicrous racing event in the world. RiMS Racing has a niche of its own: engineering.

That sounds a bit disappointing, but hear me out. Actually racing around a track with a motorbike is basically half of RiMS Racing‘s gameplay loop, half of what it has to offer. You can tune and tweak literally every single nut and bolt attached to your bike. You can adjust its physics and deal with how much fuel you want to start the race with in order to save weight. You can also tweak the strength of the brakes in order to assess how you should drive around the track without crashing head first into a wall. If you’re not into this more management and physics-based kind of “gameplay”, you can still play RiMS Racing as a borderline arcade/simulator hybrid, but you’ll be missing on what sets the game apart from all the others.

Thankfully, despite being so hell-bent on drowning players onscreen, graphs, and charts, RiMS Racing is a fun RACING game in its own right. It’s nowhere near as frustrating to play as its focus on engineering would suggest. Well, it can be frustrating, but that depends on the level of realism you choose to play the game on, which can be tweaked at any moment in the pause menu. You will still have to learn how and when to properly brake, or else you’ll still fly around like a ragdoll in a tornado. Still, it’s a bit more forgiving than most of its peers and a bit more lenient with newcomers, especially due to its serviceable tutorial mode.

RiMS Racing‘s issues lie mostly on its presentation and lacklustre amount of content. There are only eight bikes to choose from. Sure, all of the good brands are here, such as Ducati, BMW, and Kawasaki, and you can tinker and tune to your heart’s content, but there are still only eight bikes. There aren’t many tracks to choose from, either. Don’t get me wrong, there are some dope circuits to race on, such as the Nürburgring, but RiMS Racing‘s track variety is a lot smaller than any of its competitors.

Its visuals are good, but only in parts. It runs at a constant 60 frames per second, even with tons of bikers onscreen. The few bikes included in the game are well-rendered, with each nut and bolt being visible on first-person view, for instance. This is contrasted with the less impressive tracks, and the immense amount of pop-ins present in each of them. I assume that’s an issue from the game’s engine, the same one used on the WRC games. The difference is that rallying, as crazy as it is, is usually raced at around seventy to ninety miles an hour, so the game has enough time to render trees from a distance. These bikes are blasting through each track at twice the speed, so that might have been the main issue.

RiMS Racing has enough qualities to stand out from the rest of the motorcycle racing crowd, but be aware that you have to be a fan of tuning and physics in order to fully enjoy everything the game has to offer. You can still ignore these sections and enjoy its pretty decent racing mechanics without an issue, but you might be a bit disappointed with its lack of content. It’s good for what it tried to achieve though, laying a nice foundation for a more polished and content-rich sequel.

 

Graphics: 7.0 RiMS Racing runs incredibly well and its motorbikes are well-rendered, but the rest of the game didn’t exactly impress me very much visually. It also suffers from a noticeable amount of obvious pop-ins.	Gameplay: 7.5 It can either be the single most punishing motorbike racer on the market or one of the most forgiving (albeit still very challenging) titles in its niche, depending on how you customize its physics. It’s heavily focused on tuning your bike’s stats, so if you’re not into graphs and physics, you will only enjoy half of what the game has to offer.
Sound: 7.5s It features a surprisingly good licensed soundtrack and realistic sound effects, but it’s also unbearably loud and has uneven sound mixing.	Fun Factor: 7.0 RiMS Racing has its unique features, namely on its insane level of customization before races. It’s fun to play, but it’s a bit lacking in content.
Final Verdict: 7.0

RiMS Racing is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Seres S/X, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on PS5.

A copy of RiMS Racing was provided by the publisher.