Having lived through the 1980s, I’m not sure I want to revist the era of the Austin Metro, but I might be tempted as casual synthwave racer Neon Highways gets a demo version available through Steam.
Indie developers Flowbit Studio have chose a retro-futuristic vision of the decade, which is understandable especially with recent trend for retrowave, neon-noir and all the other stylistic ways of describing what we used to think the future would look like. And while it’s a tiny casual driving game rather than sim racing, sometimes it’s good to chill out a little.
The announced demo version hasn’t gone quite live yet on Steam, and there’s a full release planned for 2025 with 12 highways in six different regions, unlockable supercars (the screenshots show three which appear inspired by a Corvette, Counatch and Delorean), the obligatory 80’s arcade synthwave soundtrack and retro effects like CRT scanlines, subtle film grain and VHS-style artifacts.
Graphically it looks OK for a casual endless driving game, and from the short excerpt video on the store page, the soundtrack sounds suitably cinematic enough for the type of 1980s movie you’d hire from your local video store because there was a cool car featured on the cover. As you might expect, the engine noises and handling aren’t particularly authentic, with the cars appearing to float a little at times in the video, but that’s not really the point of the game.
The demo release appears to be lagging a bit behind the press announcement, at least for the UK Steam page, but if you want to try it out for yourself on the PC, you can find Neon Highways on Steam, here, and wishlist the full release to keep tabs on it. Or check out some similar endless riding and driving games, including Motorcycle Night Ride, and more, here.
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