DeathSprint 66 review

In the high octane racing arenas of the future, cars are for losers. Motorcycles, for the weak. Races shall be undertaken on foot, at blistering speeds, by athletes as expendable as chocolate chips in a cake mix and with roughly the same life expectancy. The world of DeathSprint 66 is bonkers and bloody, but that’s exactly how we like it.

It takes place in a violent, red-drenched dystopian world wherein the most popular sports are blood sports. DeathSprint 66 is a tournament televised by the Bachman Media Group, which I can only presume is a nod to Richard Bachman, the pseudonym under which Stephen King wrote The Running Man. It makes sense, given the aesthetic and theme. Oh, and read the scrolling headlines for a few cheeky nods to other franchises and classic movies.

I first assumed the racers were cyborgs until I hit an obstacle and popped like a water balloon full of Ragu. Death drops you back on the track pretty fast but you’ll need to work hard to win back your position. It’s a testament to how fun it is that I never minded.

In recent years developer Sumo Digital are probably best known for Crackdown 3, having also been behind games like LittleBigPlanet 3 and the Outrun remake in their earlier years, and once you know that it’s an easy connection to make. Bounding through the city, leaping buildings to collect Agility Orbs was the perfect training regimen for DeathSprint 66.

Everything is on foot, though not necessarily on the ground. You can drift, boost, grind rails with both your feet and hands, and wall-run for miles. It’s like competitive Ghostrunner with slightly less murder. What’s more, the whole thing has a ridiculously addictive fluidity to it. Except, I should add, when boosting up certain ramps. For some reason, there are few ramps on a few tracks that seem to just teleport you upwards and it’s always jarring.

Whenever you grind or hang, you’ll need to lean left or right to avoid lasers and collect little energy symbols that power your boost. You also need to grab Tribute Coins, which grant you special powers like Mario Kart. There’s one that projects a giant bull’s head and boosts your speed, others that lay mines, or launch homing rockets and enormous sawblades that bounce around the track.

It’s hard to put into words how good DeathSprint 66 feels to play. Online of course is where the meat of the challenge is, but you can also dive into Episodes mode, which features specific challenges like time trials. Or you can switch to Showtime mode, which features the same challenges but against other players Here you can unlock new cosmetics and banners to customise your runner.

For the budget price there’s a decent amount to play here. More tracks and more variety would be welcome, but this is an arcade racer through and through, not bogged down with unnecessary baggage. It’s all about going fast and splattering anyone faster, and knowing when to take the high or low path when the track splits helps.

Grinding, wall-running, swinging, and drifting never slow you down, and with multiple routes through some of the tracks (we’re talking minor divergences, not fully alternate paths) there’s room for tactical play once you know what all the power-ups do. And watching an opponent get mashed as they overtake you is hard to beat.

Despite some glitches here and there, which are likely a by-product of the speed, DeathSprint 66 is a lot of fun. It’s not heaving with things to do and the cosmetics aren’t particularly exciting, but the minute-to-minute gameplay is a blast, especially if you play with people you know and who can hold a decent grudge.