I hadn't had this much fun playing a kart game for a good while.

How it plays reminds of old Double Dash, there is this feeling of speed and momentum that got lost on modern kart games. I honestly wasn't expecting it to be this well polished technically.

The Signalis charm is all over the way. I thought the lore side would be lighter but omg it is not, they pull it off. It goes much more visually and capitalizes on big spaces that Signalis did not have. I wanted to read the lore texts but loading screens are short and my friends were anxious to play.

We started with the Vinetan cup. First time I fell of the circuit in drowned New Jomsborg City and got pulled back with the "Remember the Promise" thing my friends and I got wild haha.

I was expecting the city to be just drowned NY but it is not. The tower you circle at the end of the lap resembles a lot the Tower of Taipei, I bet that was the inspiration. My gf said that there was also a bunch of weird London skyscrapers.

It is nice that the first circuit is a proper "real" place, like a tutorail for you to get used to the controls.

But then we start the Imperial Glory circuit. I love this map. Some say that it represents fascism and yada yada but this is some serious damn beautiful thing. The dreamy composition of flawlessly mix and matching of art and archichecture. Took me a moment to realise that I was out of the golden brutalist nazi hall and we had entered the Versailles part, the transition is so good and smooth.

I was skeptical of the medieval circuit but when I saw how they twisted it I was astonished. It follows the narrative we would expect of how the Empress was a sorcerer that took humanity further and out of the dark ages but damn they pull it off so well aesthetically and within lore. Not gonna spoil this one, go buy the game.

Rise of a Nation circuit has cool takes on Signalis gulags and portrays great the japanese-prussian alliance thing. I tried to read the German texts and kanjis around but I didnt wanna lose the four races and focused on not getting headshot again by a damn kolibri.

We didn't have time to play much more but we had to try the Nowhere circuit. This is our rainbow road guys.

This was our most up for debate circuit lore wise. My gf says it develops on the nuclear cemetery theory but I got the feel that it heavily implies that the Nowhere is more of a state of being and that there are more Nowheres apart and or connected to the Elster one. The circuit "Fall" thumbnail looks like a war themed Nowhere.

My mate said there is a huge amount of subtle references to japanese horror, lovecraft and creepy internet culture. I did similar geeking in the imperial circuit.

We are gonna play again this afternoon, there is much more to see. It seems that not eveything is hard lore, there are circuits dedicated to Bocklin paintings, Tchaikovsky pieces and some writings too.

Elster and Ariane personal story is not forgotten, there are circuits dedicated to them and the other gestalts and replikas. We just havent played them yet.

Totally recommend the game, as a fun game (it really does play like Double Dash lol) and as an art piece on Signalis. Can't wait for the videoessays on it.