Having competitors in the gaming market is always a good thing. Football games used to be a lot better back when FIFA and PES (or eFootball, or Winning Eleven) were fierce rivals. The years when Battlefield and Call of Duty used to wrestle for FPS dominance were also the ones spawning the best games in the franchise. Sadly, the same cannot be said about Formula 1 games. There’s the F1 series by Codemasters (now owned by EA)… and that’s it. There’s just one license to be held, so there’s no way for a competitor to show up and stir things up. Or so we thought. Let’s talk about New Star GP, a game that had no right to be as cool and enjoyable as it is.

You’ll probably look at the pictures in this review and assume that New Star GP is a love letter to Sega’s Virtua Racing, released way back in 1992-3. At first, that was also my first impresion, and to be fair, the reason I even wanted to cover it in the first place. I assumed it would be an easy-going, arcadey racing game, a throwback to simpler times with less polygons and cooler soundtracks. That’s not exacty the case, however. Sure, the gameplay and physics are not as simulation heavy as an actual Formula 1 game, but New Star GP is far from being a simplistic arcade racer devoid of depth.

Do you remember the Formula 1 games from the late 90s? Have you ever played any of the titles developed by Paradigm back in the Nintendo 64 era? Games like F1 World Grand Prix clearly lacked the modern physics from today, but were also quite impressive in the amount of customization options, as well as car tuning possibilities. New Star GP is a midpoint between those games and an old-school Sega arcade racer. From the arcade side, you have boosts, accessible controls, adorable low-poly visuals, and some extra modes, such as checkpoint races before an actual event. From the simulation side of things, there’s team management, car tuning, tire selection, properly braking before a turn, and even being careful during pit stops.

I really liked its career mode. You start off by naming your driver and customizing the look of your 80s F1 car (you need to proceed through each decade accordingly). Each weekend is comprised of a series of events, which aren’t just limited to a qualifying round and the actual race. As previously mentioned, there’s even the opportunity to race through checkpoints, just like in Virtua Racing. Winning races and completing objectives grants you money to spend on new car parts, as well as trophies which grant you new members to your team’s staff, giving you extra bonuses. Nothing too fancy, but way more than initially anticipated.

If full-fledged simulations aren’t your cup of tea, New Star GP still features arcade modes for a more casual experience. Granted, it will never actually feel like a true retro racing game from that era (if you really want something akin to that, buy Virtua Racing for the Switch), but it’s still very accessible, and chock-full of content. As previously mentioned, there are five F1 decades to choose from, and I loved the fact each one of them features realistic engine noises for their cars. Cars from the 90s and 2000s will feature the iconic high-pitched roars we all know and love, whilst 2010s cars sound somewhat quaint and disappointing. Just like in real life.

I ended up spending most of my time handling my team in the main career mode, though. There’s nothing bad about this arcade mode, but most of these modes are best enjoyed on a console port of the name, namely the four-player splitscreen multiplayer option. Meanwhile, I could just become a rascal in the main career mode, developing rivalries with racers, all whilst boosting past them during a race just to anger them even further.

Finally, I’d like to point out that, despite it clearly looking like a love letter to Virtua Racing, New Star GP is a lot more detailed than its main source of inspiration. Each locale vividly resembles its real-life counterpart, be it Monaco, Baku, the Middle East, or the Brazilian Grand Prix (it is erroneously listed as Brasília, but that’s clearly Interlagos). Nothing is licensed, but clearly meant to resemble something famous, be it the scuderias or the drivers themselves. Ayrton Serafino, anyone? As to be expected, the framerate is downright perfect. Not a single issue to be reported in this aspect of the game.

I loved that New Star GP ended up being nothing like what I was expecting from it. I thought I was going to get a simple and straightforward love letter to Virtua Racing, only for it to be something more akin to the best F1 racing games from the mid to late 90s, with a perfect blend of accessible physics and simulation elements. New Star GP is adorably retro in its visuals and vibes, but it’s got some surprising amount of depth and an interesting career mode. A little hidden gem in the racing scene, without a doubt.

Graphics: 7.5 A bit more detailed than that classic Virtua Racing graphical style, but still very pleasing to the eyes and adorably retro.	Gameplay: 8.0 Not quite an arcade racer, but not quite a full-fledged racing simulator. It’s something in the middle. It’s still very accessible, despite being meatier than your average retro racer.
Sound: 7.5 Even if the soundtrack is just fine, the sound effects are magnificent. Each F1 car sounds exactly as it should, according to its specific decade. It’s oddly nostalgic and refreshing.	Fun Factor: 8.0 I expected Virtua Racing, and I ended up getting F1 World Grand Prix ’98. I ended up getting more than expected. New Star GP is adorably retro in its visuals and vibes, but it’s got some surprising amount of depth and an interesting career mode. A little hidden gem in the racing scene, without a doubt.
Final Verdict: 8.0

New Star GP is available now on PS4, Xbox One, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Intel i7-12700H, 16GB RAM, RTX 3060 6GB.

A copy of New Star GP was provided by the publisher.