Nitelore review: F-Zero in your pocket
- Nathan Walters
- Aug 15
- 2 min read
Were you a gamer in the time of F-Zero, Wipeout and Virtua Racing? Then Nitelore, a new neon-styled retro mobile racing game developed by Crabware, may tickle your fancy. It landed on iPhone and iPad on August 15th, it’s free to play, and it was built by one solo developer, which is a feat in itself.
Firstly, the racing feels incredibly smooth and enjoyably fast paced. The old school games weren’t actually this polished, of course, but this is how they felt back in the day, and that’s the trick Nitelore pulls off.
Gameplay wise, the game is straightforward, as it should be. There are several modes to work through. The Daily Challenge, per the name, is a daily task that offers extra coins, which can be used to unlock new rides from the Garage and upgrade your current ones. Then there’s Time Attack, where you make attempts to beat the time limits on, at the time of writing, 12 different maps, earning better medals for better times
Then there’s the classic Grand Prix, a series of events back to back with a scoreboard, Formula 1 and Mario Kart style, your positioning across the races adding up to your overall Grand Prix standing.
There’s also my personal favourite, Elimination, which players of F-Zero 99 on the Switch may appreciate. The ship in last place explodes every 20 seconds until only the winner remains.
And then there’s the final mode, Death Race, which personally i didn’t enjoy much. The objective is to destroy your rivals using pick-up weaponry, Mario Kart style. However, first place is in a very unfair position, because the mode doesn’t have laps, so you can’t just win with speed and evasion. Instead you’re relying on random drops, half of which shoot forwards, hoping the oil slicks you leave behind actually hit someone, all while being pelted by bullets and missiles from everyone behind you.
If the game starts to feel too easy, don’t worry, there are difficulty options. You start at F3000, but you can move up to F6000 and F9000, which makes everything progressively faster and demands faster reflexes to win
Is it worth it?
Nitelore is a fun, fast paced, free to play mobile racer for lovers of the retro, and for people who enjoyed the old school games but don’t have the time anymore, the sort of thing you can smash out on the train or the porcelain throne. Just note that while it’s free to play, there are optional in-game purchases.
Reviewed on iPhone 17. ~2 hour played. Free-to-play; no in-app purchases made. Crabware flagged the game’s release to GameReport by email; no payment, code, or incentive was involved.
