New Distance video looks harder, better, faster

Distance manages to look better every time we see it.

manages to look better every time we see it. The racing game that looks like TrackMania was sucked into Tron is a spirtual successor to Nitronic Rush, a student project from DigiPen, and went into development after it raised $161,981 on Kickstarter. It's still "coming when it's ready," but this latest trailer shows off some interesting alpha gameplay experiments and more polish overall.

If you haven't seen Distance before you'll notice that the main hook and difference between it and TrackMania aside from the rave party decor is the cars' ability to jump, rotate, and fly. You can use those abilities to preform tricks and score points, but also to dodge obstacles, like those laser traps that slice through your car (which luckily regenerates like a T-1000 Terminator).

Some new additions here are the teleports, which function seamlessly as they do in Portal, the buzz-saws, and a menacing sphere that's teased at the end of the video. And is that a plow we catch a glimpse of? It sure seems that way, and the giant ball it's manipulating make me think there might be more modes to the game than we've heard about so far. If not, it'd be interesting to see how they're implemented into the race, which looks hectic enough already.

It's not immediately apparent, but if you pay close attention you'll also notice that some of the lighting in the game is synced to the music, which throws a little Audiosurfinto the mix as well. We're hoping that "when it's ready" comes sooner rather than later—if you're interested in Distance and the team behind it, be sure to read our interview with the developers.