With all the indie racing games out there, it can be difficult to stand out. But Grand Pro Circuit—which frankly could use a better name, I say in the kindest way possible—looks excellent. The trailer for this just dropped on Steam, and I added it to my wishlist just on vibes alone.
It’s easy to look back at retro racing games and call them quaint and unserious, but developers were truly trying to move heaven and earth with the silicon available to them, and it’s projects like Grand Pro Circuit that remind me of that. The graphics, for example, are certainly low in polygon count with crunchy textures and no anti-aliasing, but the result looks authentic and visceral, with wing mirrors shaking in the cockpit view, and sparks flying as the cars bottom out on straightaways. There are even fully animated pit crews!
If Sega ever released a 3D Formula 1 game in arcades, perhaps on the Model 3 hardware that powered Scud Race and Daytona USA 2, it probably would’ve looked something like Grand Pro Circuit, just a little blurrier. And part of why it works so well is the era of motorsport that it’s attempting to convey.
Grand Pro Circuit – Official Announcement Trailer
The cars here, clad in fake, amusing parodies of real sponsors, appear to be much like those of the mid-’80s. But back then, the closest F1 simulation you were going to get looked less like this and more like Pole Position. Even by the time Sega’s Super Monaco GP dropped in 1989, with its gorgeous sprite work, 3D racing games were still only kicking off with innovators like Hard Drivin’.
Grand Pro Circuit, then, feels like the F1 game the world deserved during one of the sport’s most exciting eras, yet technology was still a decade or more away from delivering.
It also commits to the bit. Clearly inspired by PC sim racing games from a quarter-century ago, Grand Pro Circuit’s Steam page even contains a video showcasing the game’s keyboard controls. At the same time, we can observe tire, oil, and water temperatures onscreen, as well as fuel load, indicating this is going to be a bit deeper than the arcade experience some might expect from the game’s aesthetic. I don’t know how many people are going to be interested in that unique combination of modern complexity and retro sheen, but it’s exactly what I’m looking for, so I’m very excited to see how this one shakes out.
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