Nitronic Rush - Hardcore Gold

Nitronic Rush is the product of some very talented students from DigiPen. They published it online for free in 2011. The final update rolled out late 2012 just in time for the "end of the world." The game is a super fun experience, and it has a spiritual successor called Distance that’s available to purchase on Steam.

In the video above; I played through the Hardcore Gold level and scored well considering that I stayed on track. Many players had learned to exploit the mechanics of the game to take direct routes to the finish line. They did this using a difficult-to-master-technique that allows the car to fly upside down at great distances with a series of rocking and twisting motions.

This oversight screwed up the scoring system a bit and caused the online leaderboard to get chock-full of fake news. I think the developers can still fix it by purging the existing numbers and then programming in a requirement to cross all checkpoints for the final score to register.

When playing this fast-paced, eye candy, gem of a game—it is only natural to compete against your previous scores and push it to the limit. That said, regardless of the leaderboard annoyance which is hopefully resolved in their new title Distance, I’m inclined to give Nitronic Rush a 12 out of 10!