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"High speed racing, spectacular crashes, and endless traffic!"
Ever wanted to play Spy Hunter and Burnout at the same time?— Official Trailer
Speed Demons is a physics driven top-down arcade racing game by Radiangames released on iOS through Apple Arcade in February 2019.
The player is tasked with weaving through busy, randomly generated highways to accomplish a variety of goals ranging from reaching their destination as fast as possible, passing other racers, or just destroying absolutely every car in sight. Races frequently take place in rush-hour level traffic jams and full contact with both fellow racers and traffic vehicles ranges from highly encouraged to outright necessary to win. The campaign is structured through a semi-linear series of Chapters; completing events earns stars, which are used to unlock further Chapters and increasingly strange Demons and armed Enforcers; starting with a typical selection of sports cars and sedans, but quickly escalating to monster trucks, buses, racing prototypes, armored trucks, and almost any other kind of vehicle under the sun.
Unfortunately, the game was removed from Apple arcade in February 2024 with no word on a release on other platforms, meaning that it is currently no longer available.
Speed Demons contains examples of:
- Car Fu: Every Demon and Enforcer can get in on this; swerving into rivals is your main form of attack, with several Enforcers using weapons that can spin out other cars and thus make this even more practical.
- Cool Car: Take your pick. Even from the outset there are a variety of exotic sports cars and trucks, not to mention the numerous larger vehicles and outlandish racing vehicles all decorated with bright neon. Enforcers take this even further being armed to the teeth.
- Cool Plane: A prototype jet and a helicopter are both available and they're just as flashy as their earth-bound wheeled counterparts.
- Damage-Proof Vehicle: Unless otherwise specified, the player's car is typically invincible. Later events frequently limit the amount of damage the player's vehicle can take. Other Demons and Enforcers have no such luck.
- Deliberately Monochrome: Most maps have incredibly washed out colors bordering on (if not entirely) shades of gray, with traffic cars being almost entirely gray. Demons are bright red, orange and black while Enforcers are electric blue, making them stand out among other cars and chaos.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: Any sufficiently damaged Demon, Enforcer or traffic car will explode into a burning wreck, losing all its wheels in the process.
- Flash of Pain: Demons and Enforcers will flash when struck, indicating they've taken damage alongside the particle effects.
- Joke Character: There are several vehicles that you have absolutely no business attempting to race in that are also flimsily built, including a driving instructor's car, and an Expy of the SMART For Two; a tiny electric compact car.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Two of the vehicles in the Epilogue are planes and prototype jets that do not need to respect the road but must watch out for structures and lamp posts; in addition, one of the vehicles is a boulder, which is nearly invincible and can roll into any vehicle to near-instantly destroy it.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: A player-bent example; while the player's car is typically invincible unless otherwise specified, enemy Demons and Enforcers never have such a luxury and can be pummeled to a smoldering wreck as usual.
- Optional Traffic Laws: While traffic cars are beholden to freeway driving laws, Demons and Enforcers are free to interpret or ignore these rules as much as they like. However, respecting the flow of traffic can frequently make driving easier, as it's much more convenient to try and dodge around traffic jams rather than attempting to plow your way through them.
- Rubber-Band A.I.: Races will have Demons you pass rubber-band to give chase. This can result in extremely messy collisions if you happen to rear-end a traffic car only to be lost in a tide of fast-approaching metal - especially if damage is enabled.
- Stuff Blowing Up: All sorts of things can violently explode and be flung by these explosions to show off the particle effects and physics engine. Almost every Enforcer is equipped with some form of explosive on top of this just for the sake of even more explosive chaos.
- A Taste of Power: The Prologue chapter gives you temporary access to a handful of Demons and an Enforcer that won't be available for a while on easier events - most notably putting you in an APC equipped with a grenade launcher for the final event.
- Timed Mission: Checkpoint races require you to pass through checkpoints for time extensions before time runs out. If time expires, you have until your car comes to a stop to make it across the line.
- Unconventional Vehicle Chase: Bound to happen at some point given the wide variety of Demons to choose from. You may be attempting to make an escape in a formula one race car, a garbage truck, a motorhome, or even one of the many pathetic Joke Cars.
- Wacky Racing: The game starts relatively sane with its vehicle selection but readily begins exploring more unconventional vehicle archetypes, with other Demons and Enforcers driving similar vehicles to the player. Sure, you might expect to see a sports sedan or a standard issue police cruiser, but have you ever tried racing armored trucks, buses, garbage trucks and APCs on a highway? All at once?
- Wave-Motion Gun: One of the later Enforcers is equipped with one of these, which can instantly wreck entire crowds of traffic cars and Demons, casting them aside.
- Weaponized Car: Enforcers are armed with a wide variety of weapons including grenade launchers, laser guns, mines, and even a Wave-Motion Gun.
- Wreaking Havok: The game prides itself on its physics, with many events dedicated to letting you go on a rampage as an Enforcer or particularly heavy Demon blowing up or crashing through every other car on the road on your way. Encouraged in Road Rage events where more violent collisions will award you with more points.
