“Okay. Here we go. Focus. Speed. I am speed. One winner, 42 losers. I eat losers for breakfast:” One of the inherent parts of any racing game is the feeling of speed, the feeling of control, a sense of precision, and the ability to maintain just ahead of the pack by using all the tools available to you. That’s probably why I don’t love the arcade racing genre. You need lots of steering lock to make minor adjustments; the speed doesn’t always feel there, and generally, there is a lack of precision. 3DClouds’ Formula Legends attempts to blend arcade racing with hints of sim-racing, while also showcasing a select history of Formula 1.

With such racing greats as Jake Eggs, and Jimmy Clerks, racing in a rainy and dangerous “Dark Forest GP,” the tone is set almost immediately. A fun care-free time is the intention, with a large smattering of history throughout, albeit with a legally distinct fictionalization. From legally distinct Monaco being called France to Monza running in reverse and without the banking in those early years, there are lots of tight, twisty, high-speed circuits recreating the decades many people missed out on from Formula 1.

However, for as much as there is an idea of speed and precision, the handling of the cars themselves in this “sim-cade” racer can feel bogged down more by the arcade genre than anything else. A simple corner isn’t just slightly adjusting the left stick, but rather throwing it left or right as far as possible, hoping you got the corner correct. There are cars from the 60s and the 2020s, other than overall speed, showing little to no difference in handling. In other words, you have to wonder where the “sim” aspect comes in: Tire degradation, fuel consumption, and damage.

Where I think Formula Legends stalls the car on the starting line is the fact that it tries to blend the beloved (or hated) Mario Kart with the ideas of Formula 1 in roundabout ways. It is like trying to smash the concept of the Mercedes W13 and the V-2 together; both are German, both are disasters to humanity, both are connected to someone named Braun (or Brawn), but only one of them is considered to have destroyed the legacy of someone seen as great. Humorous (and dark) little comparison aside, I wanted to like Formula Legends far more than I have this week while playing it.

I’ve since had to re-write some of this review because half of my main complaint with Formula Legends is about feeling. Though I still want to say that Formula Legends is the Frankenstein’s Monster of Formula 1 and Mario Kart, there are parts where the experience may vary. Chief among the complaints I have with 3DClouds’ latest racer, after more than 15 hours with it, is the handling, which, depending on your choice of controller, varies drastically; though I do have complaints about other things.

With only partial support, I stuck with the PS5 controller that is always plugged in because “eh, what’s the difference?” Apparently, the responsive curve of the left analogue stick making high-speed F1 cars feel like boats. Not little ones, either, cruise liners in a strong headwind. To go around any corner at speed, you need to smack that left stick so far and so quickly in chicanes that you get an imprint on your thumb, which isn’t really fun. Nor does it make you fast and precise, otherwise known as the entire purpose of racing.

Swapping to the Xbox One controller by my side, after a light dusting, made the experience of Formula Legends a little better, improving the handling slightly by making it a bit smoother. Is it better? Kind of, not perfect, but better. Why am I going on about this so much? The in-game control options are simply remapping, the overall options are rather basic, and if you don’t like depth-of-field, you’re going to complain about the fact that it’s lumped in with either “Effects” or “Post Processing.”

So, with the controller differences and lack of options to correct this out of the way, what can I actually say about the gameplay of Formula Legends? Put simply, you have three gameplay options: First up is Story Mode, which goes throughout the decades of Formula 1, recreating some years with a handful of tracks and legally distinct names. Then you have Time Trials and a Custom option. The latter is where you’ll be able to revisit the tutorial, create custom races, or create your own championship to race in with certain cars on certain tracks of your choice. All the basic amenities you expect to see in a racing game.

Each race and championship offering you the option to switch certain rules or assists on or off, with a difficulty option of easy, normal, or hard. Now that’s where I also want to, as the kids say, “crash out” on something for a minute. If you’re faffing about with the PS5 controller or not getting to grips with the curve responsiveness of the analogue stick, you’ll probably go for easy, where you’ll lap the field easily, sometimes twice. If you stick with normal and have difficulty with that responsiveness, you might struggle to stay in the top half of the pack. Hard? Might as well just be called “Lance Stroll Sim” at that point.

With a controller that has smoother curve responsiveness, normal becomes a lot easier. Then again, throwing one of these cars off a mountain and seeing no damage could be easier with some of those chicanes and the lack of response you get with the PS5 controller. Some of you, however, might have noticed I haven’t said anything about the “wheel-to-wheel” fights, and there is a reason for that: They aren’t good. Speaking of Lance Stroll, the AI drives like him at an Optician’s – they can’t see you, and they are going to turn into you.

If you’re going into say ‘S’ Curves, Maggotts, Becketts, and Chapel, or the Senna Esses side-by-side with another car, you might as well drop the controller in your lap and pray to Jesus they don’t hit you. One tiny bump and you’re slowed down so dramatically by someone trying to Hamilton you into Copse that you might as well just restart the race from there. Sure, in 11 laps, the pack won’t be too dispersed like we actually see during races. At the same time, there will be races where the strategy calls will spread out the field somewhat, which makes racing back to the podium not just difficult but near impossible.

Formula Legends has a lot of Frankenstein’s Monster about it that makes it difficult to understand, blending Formula 1 rules and ideas with the feeling of a Mario Kart without the multiplayer aspect feels weird. I somewhat want to ask who this is for? The truth is, I don’t hate Formula Legends – I wanted to every time the AI turned in on a blue-flagged overtake, but I couldn’t for too long. There are bits where I sat here shouting at the AI, bits where I enjoyed the sense of speed and the track interpretations, and some of the feeling.

What sold me most on Formula Legends was, in fact, the gameplay decision to make the pit stops actually a bit of gameplay. Ok, it is a QTE with another step or two, but it is still better than just watching an animation happen. After selecting which tires you want, you come to the stop with R2/RT and L2/LT filling the car and repairing respectively, while a random order of face buttons (A, B, Y, X) shows up for each tire. It isn’t mindblowing, but it doesn’t make it an animation to watch; the mistakes of changing tires are your own for once.

That’s what I keep coming back to when trying to write this: when there is something good or interesting, I could pull up something frustrating. Conversely, I could pull up something good for every third bit of frustration. As I say, it is who the target audience is that confuses me; fans of F1 have a mixed bag of wanting full-blown simulator gameplay and those who passively enjoy what EA put out, while Mario Kart and its ilk are completely separate, yet Formula Legends sits somewhere uncomfortably in the middle. Fans of Mario Kart might get annoyed at time penalties for cutting corners and a lack of multiplayer, while F1 fans bemoan tire modeling and handling.

Ultimately, Formula Legends tries to be like a Hannah Montana hit, but the best of both worlds are separate ideas entirely, making 3DClouds’ latest game a niche within a niche within a further niche. As a racing game, it is frustrating in places, but at the same time, enjoyable enough. If you want a fun, care-free racing game that plays with F1 history, Formula Legends is a solid game that gives you all of that, but might also make you want to throw a controller like a boomerang, which to me sounds like the normal Mario Kart experience.

A PC review copy of Formula Legends was provided by 3DClouds for this review.

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Formula Legends

$19.99

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• The pitstop mini-game.
• Decent interpretations of tracks.

Cons

• Very simple options limit accessibility.
• Something resulting in some textures not loading properly after a while.