[Updated 23/09/2023 Review]

My favourite arcade racing games are the ones that introduce mechanics that completely alter how you view and attack racing lines. In BallisticNG, you're essentially driving a jet-engine hovercraft with very little friction, so you float and slide around turns. Your ship's airbrakes help you nudge your nose and body where you need to be to properly slide into the corners, at the cost of punching down your top speed for even slightly tapping it.

Once you get the hang of how to flow like water through even the toughest of corners (or you already have lots of XL and Wip3out experience) the feeling of tackling the tracks at Zen Hardcore difficulty delivers a feeling of euphoria completely unmatched by any other racing game.

Sadly, this skill wall has ensured that online will forever be dead. You pretty much have to ping people in the BallisticNG discord if you want to race someone, which involves having to look at the terrible and unfunny weeb memes and zoomer humour that pollute the space. Even if you do find someone to play, almost everyone has different ways they prefer playing (which is a good thing!) - there are multiple physics models to choose from, playing with or without custom ships and tracks, and preferring different speed class and AI difficulties. However, this means that you're forever trapped in a niche within a niche, forever alone to play against the Hardcore AI that doesn't pose a threat after you've mastered the tracks.

The soundtrack is a wonderful mix of trance and techno that harkens back to the OSTs and liscensed soundtracks of videogames past, particularly from 1997 to 2002, an era that basically serves as my happy place. Vonsake, Xpand, and Shiftdelete all knocked it out of the park with music that'll keep you in the zone as you grind to improve.

BallisticNG is my favourite racing game of all time. It demands perfection, and if you have the time and desire to chase that, then you'll have one of the best racing game experiences of all time.