Toybox Turbos Is The Light-Hearted Arcade Racer Your Childhood Will Thank You For

Toybox Turbos has all the bright colours, gold coins, power-ups and weapons to stir up those old arcade feelings once again. Although the studio is best known for its more mature titles like the F1 racing series and GRID Autosport, it sometimes throws in a game for the more casual user.

The game lets you choose from 35 colourful vehicles, like an ice cream truck, a taxi cab or a fire truck, which you race through one of 18 tracks. As you blaze over counter tops, past seemingly giant everyday objects, you can use boosts to get ahead, or use weapons like the giant hammer that will squash your competitors. You will be able to race in local multiplayer with up to four people or connect online with your long-distance mates.

The six game modes will give you a way to stay entertained whether you’re playing alone or against other players. Classic Races are simple ‘be the first to cross the finish line’ type games. In Overtake mode, you score each time you pass another vehicle. In Time Trial you race against your own best time, and in Countdown you try to beat a diminishing clock. In the Escape mode you try to speed ahead and avoid getting swept away by an incoming flood that rises quickly behind you. Finally, in the Elimination mode you will race against different bosses in each round. Yes, bosses! That’s bringing it back to the old school.

The game is available to purchase now from the Steam Store with the 10 per cent off pre-order special. It is scheduled to be officially released on Tuesday, but could come sooner since things are now moving faster than expected for the developers. This game is similar to Micro Machines from the 1990s, but it adds some in-game features, online multiplayer and updated graphics. It’s a fun game to play with others when you have guests to your home. The controls are so simple that people of any age or skill level can pick it up easily. Nobody will take you seriously if you play it on a simulator (trust me), but it can be done.

While this silly old-school racer made me grin, I started thinking of so many of my favourite childhood racing games and how they would look remastered. What old school racing game do you wish was resurrected into modern-day form?