New Star GP Review

New Star GP has the most depth I’ve seen in a racing game. In the past, developer New Star Games has focused on recreating classic retro sports games with Retro Goal and Retro Bowl, alongside mobile sports games like New Star Cricket, New Star Soccer, and New Star Baseball. Thankfully, I’m not critiquing the originality of their game titles. The developers of New Star GP said they are trying to make the best retro racing game they could. They might have succeeded.

New Star GP has two primary game modes: Career and Championship. The latter is where players can get straight into racing, including local split screen racing with friends, an option that feels rare in modern games. But the selling point for New Star GP is the immense depth and care that goes into the single-player Career mode. Players span five decades of racing, upgrading vehicles, traveling the world, managing a team, and managing relationships with other drivers. There is so much more to get into, but I’ll save the details for later. New Star GP might look like a retro racing game with the same style, but it also has the depth of an RPG.

The amount of care and effort that went into making this game a worthwhile experience is palpable every step of the way, but it also refuses to take itself too seriously. New Star GP’s career mode has so much to balance between car upgrades and crew relationships, but there is also enough random good and bad luck to keep things from getting stale. Crew members can get hurt and sit out the next race, while other racers might pressure you to donate your winnings to a charity for kittens. While I might not have expected this to be a game for me, New Star GP pulled out all the stops.

Take the Wheel

As someone not used to most retro or modern racing games, New Star GP’s controls took some getting used to. Rather than Mario Kart’s simplified “hold A to go,” New Star GP uses the right-hand trigger for more dynamic speed controls. Lightly pull the trigger and you’ll get some speed, but hold it down and it’s like putting the pedal to the floor. Learning to master different pressure levels, and hitting the brakes (left-hand trigger) at the right time, will be key to making it around curves without skidding off the track.

New Star Games was kind enough to send me multiple versions of the game so that I could try racing on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Steam. It may not be surprising, but I do not recommend using a keyboard for this game. I did try it, and it did not go smoothly. The Nintendo Switch version and the PlayStation version both have their benefits. The PlayStation controller feels like a better fit. I found that I raced better when using that controller. The Nintendo Switch version has the opportunity for handheld and tabletop mode, but the highlight was how accessible multiplayer was. Every Nintendo Switch comes with two joy-cons, which means at least two players can face off in split screen right away.

Multiplayer is always a great way to play, but New Star GP is not as easy to jump into as a universally familiar game like Mario Kart. Whoever has more experience with retro racing games, or has played some of New Star GP already, will have a clear advantage. But thankfully, the real highlight of this game is the career mode.

A look at the game’s retro style.

Split screen with up to four players!

Start Your Career

Career mode is the single-player mode for New Star GP. Players will compete in Grand Prix races on various tracks in cities like Quebec, Vienna, and Brasilia throughout five decades, starting in the 1980s. Earn enough points in one decade to progress to the next, more challenging decade. To succeed in Career mode, players will balance everything from car upgrades, licensed tech, unlockable perks, crew happiness, and relationships with the other racers. The depth and care that goes into this mode is where New Star GP shines.

Starting with the basics, players will earn a currency called bux from each race, earning more for performing well. Bux can be used to upgrade the car to increase things like top speed, acceleration, handling, and more. Players can also earn trophies from races, unlocking a new perk with every five earned. Perks are tied to various crew members and can give special abilities when equipped, such as the ability to draft behind other cars, faster pit stops, or more bux from sponsors. Before each Grand Prix, players can compete in replayable races to earn bux and trophies and get to know the track. These races can be time trial, checkpoint, or elimination-style races. But the Grand Prix can only be raced once each decade, so only start when you are ready.

Players will also consider their relationship with crew members and other racers. The perks mentioned above are tied to specific crew members like the chief engineer or the pit leader. Increase their happiness to the max, and the perks will have additional bonuses, but if they are unhappy, they might leave the crew entirely. Sometimes ahead of a race, you will have the chance to spend time with crew members. This could be walking the track with the chief engineer or taking part in a photoshoot with the PR manager, among other various activities. Choosing one over the other will increase happiness and anger respectively, so it’s important to balance time wisely.

Meanwhile, each grand prix puts you up against the same group of racers. These racers might start the career completely neutral towards you, but over time, they can either learn to respect you or become your heated rival. Rival racers will act more aggressively toward you during a race, making it harder to pass them and potentially causing you to veer off the track or even crash. Negativity will mostly come from the way you handle yourself on the track. Keeping a respectful distance from the other cars will go a long way, but if you make contact or cause an accident, it will be reflected in that driver’s opinion of you.

Sometimes, after a race, you will be interviewed. Trash-talking other racers is a quick way to turn them aggressive, but publicly agreeing to donate your winnings to charity can improve your standing with everyone. But don’t forget you also need those bux to upgrade your vehicle, so maybe earning respect comes at the cost of a future victory. The dynamic choices and consequences of career mode are an amazing addition to a racing game that I didn’t know I wanted.

Your character and car are customizable.

There’s no telling what will happen between races.

Drifting Along

I had to write about the career mode at length because I found it the most exciting, but New Star GP also impressed me with the depth of its racing simulation. Pit stops are not just a formality or something that eats up time. The amount of gas in the tank impacts speed, handling, and breaking. The tires will also wear down over time and change effectiveness based on dynamic weather conditions. Knowing when to pull into the pit lane is key to a successful race, and I have formed a few strategies throughout my career.

What has worked for me is patience. Trying to overtake every other racer in the first lap is a great way to get in a wreck and worsen your relationships over the coming decades, ultimately making the races harder on yourself. Instead, I prefer to take things slowly at the beginning and push the car hard in the final few laps, usually crossing the finish line on fumes. Blazing by the other racers as they sit in the pit bay takes a lot of pressure off of trying to weasel past them on a tight turn.

New Star GP’s career can take up to fifty hours to complete, so I may have yet to see the ultimate results of my strategy. Maybe taking the lead while everyone’s in the pits will backfire when I find out that all the other racers see this as incredibly rude. For now, though, I’ll take my trophies and see what happens in the next decade.

Managing a pit stop takes practice.

It’s all about a spot on the podium.

In Conclusion

Even with the hours I’ve put into multiple versions of this game, there is still a lot to learn. But that’s not intimidating, it’s exciting. There is so much that can happen in New Star GP that I’m looking forward to whatever random things are left to experience. I’ve gotten a few calls from “shady characters” that will ask me to make sure another racer doesn’t reach the podium in exchange for thousands of bux. I haven’t accepted any of it yet, but I wonder what would happen if I did. Would that ever come to light? If it did, would all the other racers immediately lose all respect for me? My rival also broke into my garage and painted my car with clashing colors. I’m curious to see what else a burning rivalry might result in.

Plus, it is exciting to know that every player will have different experiences. Every crew member has strengths and weaknesses that will impact gameplay. For example, one of my chief engineers was basically “accident prone,” so there was a chance that he would get randomly injured and sit out the next Grand Prix. This resulted in me losing access to certain perks and no advice on my pit strategy. In another career, my PR manager had the “easy to get on with” trait, and I only noticed this after they were so upset that they were on the verge of leaving. So it made me wonder how easy I am to get on with.

New Star GP brings the fun of retro racing games to the modern era in a brilliant way. I am not a person who is usually drawn in by racing games, especially with an emphasis on single-player, but I still found myself jumping up from the chair with each victory, knowing everything that went into that result. New Star GP is a fun racing game, and it’s also so much more. If you have even the slightest interest in the genre, this one comes highly recommended.

New Star GP is available today on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.

Verdict

New Star GP has all the style and charm of classic retro racers, but all the depth of a modern racing game. While not everyone will pick up the mechanics right away, the option to play split screen with friends is a feature that feels rarer and rarer these days. But where New Star GP shines is in the single-player career mode. Spanning multiple decades and traveling the world, players have to manage their crew and the dynamic relationships with other drivers on the track, all while upgrading their vehicles just to keep up. I don’t often think of racing games as a genre that has engaging single-player modes, but New Star GP pulls it off brilliantly.