In August of last year, developer Oyatsukai released Final Freeway [99¢], a retro-racer that was lovingly crafted as an homage to the classic arcade game OutRun. We totally enjoyed the game in our review, and were especially impressed with the high framerate and crazy sense of speed in Final Freeway. This past October, the developer announced that a sequel to Final Freeway was in the works, and right now that sequel is going by the working title of Final Freeway 2: Retro.
Oyatsukai released a new gameplay trailer a few weeks back for Final Freeway 2R which shows the slightly new look of the game. While the first Final Freeway seemed like it was going for a more realistic, digitized look, this second entry has more of a cartoonish feel with hand-drawn sprites and bright colors. I think the result is a more accurate take on OutRun, from the video you can see other tiny new touches like your choice of different characters and the ability to actually crash and flip your ride.
Once again, the framerate and sense of speed in this new Final Freeway sequel are just crazy. Despite being so simplistic and a bit short, I still regularly bust out the original Final Freeway for my retro arcade racing fix, so I’m definitely looking forward to a new entry that offers a refined experience. Development seems to be slow but steady, and when the game was announced in October the developer was hopeful that it was about 3 months off from being finished, which would put it at an early 2012 release. Hopefully they are on track for this still, and Oyatsukai has started a campaign at the Kickstarter-like Appbackr in the hopes of crowd funding the cost for the final push towards completion.
We’ll keep tabs on Final Freeway 2R and will hopefully see it in the not too distant future, and until then you can join the discussion of the game taking place in our forums.
