When you think of a racing game nowadays, there's usually one type of format that's followed. Whether you're racing with futuristic craft or traditional wheeled vehicles, you're set up on a grid against others with the goal of making it to the finish line first. Other solo modes do exist, but they're relegated to side modes instead of being the main focus. PolyRace does things differently, as it focuses on those side modes instead. Throw in a few other gimmicks, and the formula works out pretty well.

On the surface, you have a futuristic racing game that feels like it was inspired by the likes of F-Zero or WipeOut. Using one of four hovercraft with their own stats (speed, turn radius and weight), you traverse some pretty open tracks at ridiculously high speeds. There's a bit of a float to the craft due to the fact that they're only going against air friction, but they control rather well once you get used to the feel. Though the ships don't have weapon systems or other power-ups, they have a regenerative shield system that gets dinged anytime they hit an obstacle, like a stray rock or tree. Smacking into a large landmass, however, leads to instant death.

You're using futuristic hovercrafts, but the tracks are the main hook. The levels are fairly open, with natural rock walls being the only border. To prevent yourself from getting lost, the courses feature a guiding line that gives you basic turns and loads of straightaways, and the frequency and difficulty of both elements are dependent on the difficulty level you've chosen. Each track is randomly generated via a six-character seeding system (two numbers, two letters, two numbers in the sequence order), so you won't have a set number that can be instantly called out as favorites, but you'll have thousands of track variations at your disposal.

Alas, there are a few disappointing things about this feature. Though you may have thousands of track layouts at your disposal, you only have three environments. They're all nice to look at, but you'll quickly get bored with the small amount of choices. Also, the focus on cornering and straightaways is good, but there are none of the gimmicks that others may expect from something otherworldly. No loops or jumps or anything else of the sort means that the tracks are pretty Spartan, with the openness of each course being the one thing that keeps the races interesting since there is no penalty for straying from the recommended line.

There are three race types. Endless is exactly what you'd expect, so you see how far you can go without any restraints; the run only ends when you deplete your shields or run headfirst into an indestructible side of rock. Time Trials has you racing along the path until you pass the goal gate at the end of the stage. Finally, Distance has you going as far as you can before your timer runs out. Though you'll start off with a scant amount of seconds, you can replenish these when you snag time icons, which appear periodically at specific parts of the route.

You'll notice that there are no traditional race types available in that list, and that's done on purpose. The focus of the game is on your skill and reaction against the track without adding in other racers to diminish that focus. It's an approach to racing games that's rarely seen nowadays, and that makes it an interesting prospect for genre fans who want something different. For those who still crave some form of competition, there are ghosts you can race against, and the end of race results screen posts how far ahead — or behind — you are in stats like max and average acceleration speed as well as how many objects you hit.

PolyRace has four different modes, and they all feature these three racing types. Training lets you choose parameters like environment, race type and ship type before letting you loose on a randomly generated track. The mode is meant to get you used to the nuances of the race types as well as the handling of the different craft, but without any instructions, you discover all of these things via trial and error — something that hearkens back to the days before tutorials became standard.

Missions place you on the only static courses in the game, with each one alternating between Time Trial and Distance modes. Aside from the track layout, the themes and crafts are set, and your performance is rated on a five-star system. Getting three is enough to unlock the next mission, but hitting certain milestones also allows you to race against the ghost of the developer, a nice challenge since the goals to unlock this are pretty lofty. As you'd expect, this mode is practically mandatory for players, since you unlock several items for use in the next mode.

The Challenge mode ends up being the heart of the game, since this is where the seemingly endless track variations come into play. You can create any track you want via the seed system and race away or rely on the randomization button to do it for you. You can also create specific challenges with the elements you've unlocked, so you can force everyone to start with the same difficulty and craft. Once you decide on the race type, you have 10 minutes to throw in your best run before publishing it for everyone else to play against. Likewise, you can search for other challenges posted by the community and take them on, and your best run in that 10-minute span is the only one that counts. The amount of available challenges is good enough that you'll be busy for quite some time. The running tally of challenges you've run versus what you've completed is a good way to push you to maintain a high winning ratio.

The final mode is the Track of the Day, which sees everyone going after the same track path and race type in a 24-hour period. Like Challenge mode, only your best run counts, and the leaderboards for each track is a good incentive to stay on top. That's actually not a tough feat since the community that partakes in daily challenges is small enough that anyone can reach a top 10 rank without really trying.

Graphically, PolyRace keeps things pretty simple by going for a very low polygon look. Rock and ground faces are made up of very visible triangles, as are some of the particle effects, like the emissions at the back of your craft. The shading has a nice color gradient, which contrasts nicely with the cel-shaded sky and horizon. It's a nice change from other indie titles that rely heavily on sprites or more advanced 3-D engines, and the lo-fi look means that a variety of machines can run the game at a solid 60fps.

Likewise, the sound aims for a retro feel but without going so far back as to produce sounds from the 8- and 16-bit eras. Smacking against the environment produces a decent thud, and the engines of your craft come with the whine of a jet engine. The real highlight of the audio is the soundtrack, which goes for a 1980s synth vibe, throwing things further back when compared to the techno vibe that was the audio signature of WipeOut. The only issue is that the amount of audio track is quite small, with only one per environment; what starts off as an appreciation for the old sci-fi sound quickly turns into indifference as you tune it out due to repetition.

PolyRace goes for a pretty simple concept but one that lends itself to some long playtimes. The missions and featured track of the day are nice, but the near-endless challenges will keep people hooked. While the racing doesn't go into wild territory, it is challenging and fast enough to remain fun. With a basic but solid presentation, it's a good alternative racing title for those who want something other than the direct competition offered by almost every other entry in the genre.

Score: 8.0/10