Really fun! Reminded me a lot of "Skidmarks" on the Amiga. I couldn't get more than 8 checkpoints, but it felt like a game where you could still improve with practice. (Up to a point; eventually pursuers hitting you out of nowhere at Mach 10 is pretty much just random.)
A few suggestions:
- Second earlier comment about steering, and what I really wanted was braking and manual acceleration. I appreciate that this is a deliberate constraint, but doing the checkpoint-to-checkpoint run in less than 12 standard parsecs is kind of useless if you then have to spend 30 seconds doing donuts before you can stay in the circle.
- It wasn't clear to me what the checkpoint rule was; is it uninterrupted time or total time that counts?
- The damage effect felt constant - you took the same amount whether nudging someone in a slow turn or in a full-speed head-on collision. Maybe misinterpreting though.
- Feels like it would benefit from a visual cue with a bit more oomph when you die.
- "PRESS ACTION TO START"? You don't say what the ACTION key is!