There have been racers with zero gravity, racing inside tubes and now with ULTRATORO we have races on the outside of tubes – or torus (tori for plural). If you enjoy time trial racers like Trackmania, you’ll be right at home here as this is a mixture of time trial driving and coin collecting chaos that becomes addictive fast.
A torus is a 3D doughnut shape and each track in ULTRATORO is made up of several torus shapes spinning and looping around each other. Gravity pulls you onto the tube of the doughnut shape and the camera always keeps the player upright so that as you drive around the ring’s outer edge, the world rotates and twists around you. ULTRATORO starts off gently by asking you to drive around the rings, through tunnels, avoid some shiny spikes in the road, and jump over some barriers. Your vehicle auto accelerates but boost pads are on hand to push you forward faster. Each torus shape has one of two warp icons at the end of it. One will take you to another torus but always the same one, whilst another is connected to a specific torus but there may be several choices of where to go next. Think of them like elevators where you need to visit every floor to collect the coins and reach all the checkpoints but there is a flexible order to it. If you miss these warp icons… you’ll need to go around your current torus ring again and this is where the speedrunning element comes into play.
Every level and track in ULTRATORO has a shiny S, S, A and B ranking alongside its online leaderboard. The leaderboard primarily measures time but the amount of coins you collect in a run also changes your overall ranking. In some levels, there will be lots of boost pads placed in a risk vs reward situation – for example, right in front of a barrier you’ll need to jump over immediately – so risk and skill are rewarded on the ranking and leaderboards. Each level allows you three hits with objects before you explode and need to start again but each hit slows you down too. The gold coins you collect often show you the way around the tube to lead you towards your next warp icon but you don’t need to collect anything to unlock the next level. Just finishing is enough. Coins are useful for buying up all the vehicles in the game from the garage though, and the way how levels are unlocked makes this a requirement for completion.
As you progress through ULTRATORO, levels get more complex. Bounce arrows give you air time for a few seconds to hit flying coins or warp icons. Sometimes bounce arrows are needed to fly over obstacles. You’ll quickly start to notice the surface of a torus twists too, so you’ll be constantly slaloming your way through dangerous obstacles. In later levels torus rings are positioned in a way that sharp spikes or rhythmic blocks moving on one torus end up cutting through another, meaning you need to keep your eyes peeled for a leftfield attack too. Lastly, there are boss battles too. These are memorable levels that don’t change any of the gameplay mechanics but each time you reach a warp icon, it shoots lasers at the boss to drain its health. Each boss has unique objects and patterns of objects to avoid and they stand out as a result.
One of the best things about ULTRATORO is how it makes you feel. When games like Trackmania or Thumper combine stylised visuals with fast-paced, fluid flowing level design – the player reaches a flow state. I felt like several times when playing ULTRATORO. The levels fly by in a whizzing modem buzz of early 90’s futuristic wireframe graphic design. As the whole levels are twisting around your movement, everything feels hypnotic and as levels require fluid movement and motion – it just plays beautifully and artfully. It plays faster than it looks in a video too.
Alongside all this, ULTRATORO also has Steam Workshop support for a level editor. The level editor is quite intuitive to get up and running with and there are a few player levels up already. Some are designed to be one shot “sit back and watch” events whilst others offer the player a real challenge to complete. I think they are inspired by the hidden bonus levels in the game after the campaign mode concludes, which is where some of the games most fiendish levels are stashed away.
I have thoroughly enjoyed playing ULTRATORO. Anyone who enjoys time trial arcade racing will find something to enjoy here. I was also surprised I didn’t get motion sickness playing this game either – quite a rarity for twisty games like this. It may not look much in still pictures but it is one of those flow-state visceral gameplay experiences that I urge arcade thrill-seeking gamers to take a look at. Its fantastic.
Review copy provided by the developer. ULTRATORO is out now on Steam.
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