A horizontal crop of the background of Re-Volt's main menu.

This at first glance, is but an inconspicuous toy car shop. Look closer - they have a very special purpose, one you're about to discover. It is exciting. But blink and you'll miss it!~

Hello, everyone! Today we are going to look at a racing game from 1999, which has received constant updates from its community, and nowadays is freeware, has a modern OpenGL community version, and an insane wealth of community content to go with it.

That's right, we're diving bumper first into the radio-controlled world of Re-Volt.

Ghost Town 2 level, various RC cars racing

Toys in the Hood 1 level, _Shockwave_ weapon fired by the player approaching the AI car in 1st place

Supermarket 1 level, weapon slot holds 3 _Water Balloons_

Toytanic 1 level, many RC cars climb on the deck ramp

The Gameplay

In this game, all players are radio-controlled car toys, which race laps against each other in various settings similar to real-world locations. Scattered across these places are weapon pick-ups, which you can use to knock off opponents ahead of you, or make life harder for those tailing behind.

This game comes with a physics engine that really rocks for such an arcadey game from 1999, especially if you set the "difficulty" level to Simulation before a race. Behind the veneer of simplicity, lurks rich driving physics, collision handling, spinning in the air, and many hours of unadulterated chaos, lending itself to an awful lot of replayability.

Several Game Modes

There are multiple ways to play this game. Generally, you will be playing Single Races – a set number of laps, on a set track, with a set number of AI opponents (or players alongside those AI opponents, if on multiplayer), all with set cars.

Set?... Well, they can be randomized, if you enable Random Tracks and/or Random Cars, in the Game Settings options submenu. The caveat is that with Random Cars, every player has the same car, which I assume is meant for balancing reasons. Nonetheless, the result can be... interesting.

PetroVolt community level; every car is a Ciagnik.

Oh, and that level and that car are both community-made. More on that later.

Besides the Single-Race mode, there is also a Championship mode, where you compete against AI cars of a certain tier in a ladder of tracks, having to qualify in each race (reaching between 1st and 3rd place); after each race, you earn scores based on which place you finished in, and your goal is to finish the championship racking up more scores than all the other competitors.

There are also Time Trials, where you can race laps on a track over and over against yourself, trying to optimize it and achieve the best possible score. A "ghost car" represents your best lap so far. This mode can be very intense! In the image below you can see I'm toe to toe with the ghost car.

PetroVolt community level; time trial, the player is very close to the 'ghost car'

The Art Direction

The graphics hold up well for a game of this age, with very scenic locations, impressive lighting contrasts, and good level design.

Toytanic 2 level, rain splashes on the floor of the ship's deck

Oh yeah, there's multiple camera modes too. And a lot of very lively props.

Toy World 2 level, from "driver" perspective, dragon prop spews fire

Supermarket 2 level, from "driver" perspective, points of sale in the distance

Museum 2 level, from "driver" perspective, 'solar system tunnel' exhibit

Museum 2 level, from "driver" perspective, lunar landing module exhibit

The Community

A lively community has formed around this fittingly vibrant video game, which lurks, races, chats, and even concocts mods and other such creative productions. Some frequent regularly at various forums such as the RVGL Forums, or the Re-Volt Live on TapaTalk. Of course, most of the activity will also reside in the Discord servers. A handy list thereof is available here.

After RVGL, the next most notable contribution of this community is the sheer tidal gush of cars and tracks made by the community for the game, extending its longevity twentyfold and providing all sorts of new fun and unique experiences. Here are a few random examples from enabling random cars and random tracks.

Image Of Giza Redux community level, every car is a Blaze V8

Helios community level, every car is an Ancile

Aspenside community level, every car is a Fulon X.

Yes, that car in the right corner of the image above, is 2nd place. I'm almost a full lap ahead!

How to Get

Re-Volt is freeware these days, due to a situation behind the community and the current IP holder of Re-Volt, We-Go Interactive. You can get it for free at re-volt.io, under Downloads. I don't think mobile versions exist, but if they do, please let me know in the comments! :)

Conclusion

Re-Volt is a fun, active, turbo-boosted video game, which at first glance hails from a bygone era, and may seem like a silent cadaver to the unwary, but under the veneer hides a very fun and almost addicting game, with a lot of variety, good looks, gameplay that holds well, and of course, a vibrant community, packed to the brim with mods and updates, and responsible for a very impressive refresh on the game's engine, without ever compromising that sweet, unique, iconic 1999 PC arcadey racer soul.

This is an excellent video game, a testament to the dedication of people around the world when they get together for a common cause. And this is why I think you should enjoy with them the unmistakable Joy of Re-Volt!

The Joy of Re-Volt!