racing games' The Bouncer, and i mean that as the highest praise possible. cannot really bring anything more to the table that the excellent reviews by squigglydot, kingbancho, and letshugbro have not already discussed but god damn i completely adored this game. aesthetics, vibes...all of it is off the god damn charts and hits my aesthetic sensibilities dead-on.

this simple but deceptively taxing game of knowing when to push your machine and when to let go to handle unforgiving corners on your way to the front of the pack has a mood and vibe that leaves modern multi-million dollar productions hopelessly in the dust. y2k optimism in it's purest form, trusting the machine to take you where you need to go but never letting it control you.

few games have better endings than this. on a track where the assumptions you have built up will fail you time and time again, in the closing minutes of the 20th century, how do you survive? by slamming your foot down on the accelerator and never letting go, never looking back, until the years become blurred around you, until 1999 is nothing but a distant speck in the rear view mirror, and you reach the future before it arrives.

a masterpiece.