Project TurboBlast's vehicles have wheels, but it's an antigrav racer in spirit

It's difficult to find arcade racers where the handling isn't either mundane by dint of hewing too closely to ancient inspirations, or too fussy or difficult by dint of having been designed by sickos who are much better at these games than I am.

Project TurboBlast hits a sweet spot, judging by its demo, from its on-the-nose name to its F-Zero-on-wheels boost-happy racing style. "Don't blink," the announcer yells at the beginning of each final lap, and I don't think I did.

Let me clarify "F-Zero-on-wheels". TurboBlast's tracks are wide, twisty, often suspended above an abyss, and covered in glowing boost pads, like every antigrav racer you've ever played including the likes of WipeOut. Your actual vehicles are on wheels, however, both cars or bikes, and you'll need to drift around every corner like in a Mario Kart or a Victory Heat Rally, one of the better arcade racers from recent years.

TurboBlast really is all about managing your turboblast. Aside from the boosts littered across the track, you have a slowly re-filling boost meter that can be used to build speed at any time. If you empty that bar, your vehicle becomes "critical" and will explode after a single tap of damage, until it begins to recharge. Slip into a drift when going round a corner and you'll instead fill a different bar, which once full will also give you a boost of speed. Oh, and when you catch any air time you can perform spins and tricks, which if timed correctly... also give you a boost.

It's boosts all the way down, then, with a high skill ceiling. I needed some practice before I could build and maintain my top speed, which was particularly difficult when I was unfamiliar with the tracks, and I can imagine the best players spending entire races at the very edge of exploding their car. Still, the demo seemed forgiving enough that when I did crash off the track, explode or fall far behind the nine opponents in a race, I could normally catch up with a good track segment during in which I hit a chain of boosts and drifted smoothly around each corner.

Or sometimes I just came last. Like I said, I'm not actually that good at these games.

Project TurboBlast is aiming for release sometime this year and the demo I played is available via Steam now.