Retro Highway: a pixel motorbike and one crash per run

How a run of Retro Highway goes

There is no menu to get through. After loading, the game drops you straight into a run: a motorbike seen from behind, a busy road, ramps and coins. We left the first run untouched and the bike met a car at 109 metres.

A crash brings up the word CONTINUE with a countdown bar and 3 buttons: 100 coins, AD TO REPAIR and SKIP. Next comes a list of 3 challenges, among them "Ride for 500m in a single run" and "Do 5 close calls in a single run". The result screen follows, with MENU and PLAY.

Our runs were short. With nitro held, the second ended at 78 metres, about 5 seconds after the countdown. The third, steering only, ended at 77 metres against a roadside post after about 10 seconds. How long a practised run lasts we cannot say; no source gives a figure.

Keys that worked in our check

Space

Nitro. Held for 1.2 seconds just after the countdown, it took the speed from 23 to 153 km/h and turned the boost dial red.

← →

Steer. Half a second of ← moved the bike left; 0.9 seconds of → moved it right.

A D

Steer as well. Half a second on each moved the bike left and right.

W

Listed by Poki among the steering keys, probably in place of A. Not verified by us.

Poki's line reads: "W, D, Left arrow, and Right arrow to steer. Spacebar to activate nitro boost." The menus need the mouse. The on-screen arrows for touch screens and the pause button were not tried.

Coins, video-advert buttons and the paid editions

Playing is free, and no real-money price appeared on any screen of the Poki copy. Everything in the menus is priced in coins picked up on the road: a bike named FREAK at 1,000 coins under a label of 50% off, and upgrades called Coin 3x, Magnet and Shield at 250 coins each.

The game offers adverts as a shortcut in 3 places. After a crash, AD TO REPAIR continues the run. Beside each challenge, AD TO SKIP ticks it off. On the result screen, WATCH AD FOR COINS and later WATCH AD FOR BOOST add a reward. We pressed none of them, so what the adverts are and how long they last is not verified.

Around the game, the 2 advert slots of the Poki page stayed blank during our visit, and no video played before the game or between our 3 runs. We were connected from Thailand, so this says little about the UK.

Other editions cost money. The iPhone app is free with in-app purchases from £2.99 to £14.99 in the UK App Store, among them Remove Ads at £2.99 and a Premium Pass at £12.99. The Xbox edition was listed at £4.99. Poki links to none of them.

Account, saved progress and age ratings

The game starts as a guest. The best distance stayed on screen between runs in one sitting; whether it survives closing the tab is not verified.

Poki links no store edition. We looked the game up ourselves in 3 UK stores: the App Store rates it 9+, Xbox gives PEGI 3 and Nintendo gives PEGI 3 with the descriptor "Mild Violence". Those ratings belong to the store editions. For its own site Poki's rules, as served to our address outside the UK, name 16 and older, and we did not read the UK version.

What the violence amounts to on screen: in a crash the pixel rider is thrown from the bike and lies on the road, and there is an explosion sprite. We saw no blood, no chat and no other players.

Best distance, coins and challenges

The result screen prints your distance beside the best for that location, in our case "EMERALD HILLS BEST" at 109 metres, with coins collected and stunts performed. 3 challenges are open at a time, and the list says how many remain until the next location. The menu showed 2 locations, Emerald Hills and Great Desert. We saw no online table.

Who made Retro Highway

The App Store history of Retro Highway starts with version 1.0 on 14 April 2018. Console editions followed in 2021: Xbox on 22 October and Nintendo Switch on 11 November. Poki dates its browser copy to November 2023 and the latest update to January 2024.

Poki credits the game to Gearhead Games, though its own description says Gearhead Studios. The store pages carry the company name Gearhead Games ApS. Poki lists 2 more games under the same credit, Royal Card Clash and Scrap Divers.

Poki describes Retro Highway as "a motorcycle stunt game with an old-school pixel art style".