The Kudos mechanic starts super weird, as the first batch of cars are very difficult to do any sliding in, and that’s just about the only way to rack up Kudos, which you need in abundance in order to advance, and initially that feels really difficult! That being said, the persistence is finally paying off as the requirements to unlock a chapter is based on your total accumulation of Kudos, not completion of all the prior races.

The early mix is very heavy on European compact cars, the presence of the MX-5/Miata/Eunos Roadster being the one exception (I do like that you can choose which region’s badge you want, a nice touch!), and most of them aren’t particularly sporty. For a game with international aspirations as it had, I’d have liked to see more variety early on. It looks like there are some Toyota, Nissan, Ford and Mitsubishi badges further up the unlock tree, but they feel pretty far away at this stage!