Horizon Chase Turbo is a great game that has been adding new things to it over the last few years but its Senna Forever DLC is its jewel in the crown. As a kid, I spent far too many hours playing Ayrton Senna’s Super Monaco GP 1 and 2. Like most games of that era, you drove down a weird turning road that looked like a grey motorway, avoiding traffic and sharp turning – holding on for dear life. Senna Forever brings all of this into 2021 with modern day quality of life features and graphical gloss.
There are two modes in Senna Forever. The first is a scenario mode chopped into 5 chapters, each representing an era of Senna’s F1 career. Starting off as rookie, coming of age, then his championship runs. With this comes unlicensed versions of Senna’s Toleman, Lotus and McLaren’s and 9 other teams and 19 drivers from each era. The driver names are a giggle for F1 fans and the cars look very similar to their real life counterparts. The same can be extended to the various tracks too. With 34 cars and 15 tracks that have been modelled on the more famous circuits of the late 80’s and early 90’s, its a nostalgia trip. Old Hockenheimring, Spa, Estoril… plenty to enjoy. Add in weather effects too and you have plenty to enjoy. It is also very faithful to the original games handling. You steer hard and heavy and hang on around each corner just like almost every Outrun-esque racing of the early 90’s. That feel is replicated here perfectly.
Each chapter has around 7-10 races in it where you have to finish 5th or 1st to proceed. There’s also three additional challenges, called ‘Senna Marks’, to pick off too. Often these are tricky to combine with winning so you can tackle them separately. The odd splash screen tells you what happened to Senna in real life too between some of the races. There’s a good 3-4 hours of content here. There is also a tiny element of strategy too in choosing one of three set ups for your race car. One favours grip, another top speed and another gives an extra nitro boost and fuel efficiency. Running out of fuel is the only way to truly fail at the game so you’ll need to pick up the tokens each lap to survive.
The other mode is set up to be a bit of a grind but its a randomised championship mode. The teams are all split into three eras and you can play them as three separate championships. The tracks and weather are chosen at random too and then its a race for the most points across the races. Finishing in the top three in the championship unlocks cars for a higher class of car in the next championship. It is a little grindy to get everything but since every race is over in 3-4 minutes, a championship win is done in under an hour.
My niggles for Senna Forever are extensions of the original games’ flaws. On the PS4 version at least, there is a small game stutter every 45 seconds or so. It’s tiny but noticeable and when it happens next to another car, you’ll hit it. I also thought it was odd that you couldn’t do a custom championship either. On the plus side, the new first person view works an absolute treat and is a great arcade throwback.
Frankly, the Senna Forever DLC is everything I wanted as a Super Monaco GP fan. Beautiful, bold, fast, frantic arcade action. If you’ve never played Horizon Chase Turbo before, this is the perfect time to dive in.
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