Inspired by Formula One history, Formula Legends revs its engines in the hopes of a flying start that catapults it into the lead and ahead of similar racing game pretenders. With its playful visual art style and quirky Formula One-inspired driver names, cars and track designs, Formula Legends aims to provide a simplistic, digestible and semi-arcadey take on F1. Does Formula Legends manage to grab a place on the podium, or are its tires too shot to be competitive?
To put it as obscenely as possible, Formula Legends sniffs F1’s exhaust pipe and smothers itself in all its fumes. This is to say that Formula Legends is not only heavily inspired by F1 and its prestigious history, but it does a very sketchy job of modifying the names and likenesses of F1 drivers and tracks to the point of parody.
If you’re a seasoned F1 fan, you’ll absolutely come to notice all the little details, similarities and the dressed up versions of driver names. Drivers like Chuck Morris for Lando Norris, Batteri Voltas for Vaterri Bottas, Sergi Jerez for Sergio Perez and Luis Hammerton are clearly playful and on-the-nose alternative names for the real F1 personalities. Likewise, track names are altered so they don’t infringe on licensing, which is why Suzuka is called Cherry Blossom GP — which sounds more like a shampoo brand than a race track.
It is commendable that developers 3DClouds have provided a cheerful-yet-edgingly close resemblance to F1 with the whimsical name changes, though you can’t help but feel if they’d made something more original they’d stand out a lot more. They can keep their Mike Shoemaker and Bonton racing team, but the tracks nor their names need to be replicas of F1.
There are many recognizable tracks, but it would’ve been nice to see track designs inspired by circuits that are no longer in use. Portimao, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Valencia and many others could be given a Formula Legends-style makeover, but instead there are a host of classic circuits that have been changed slightly, but are still easily identifiable. Riviera Streets GP is very clearly Monaco, and many of the corners and the general layout look very similar to the real deal. Roulette Streets GP is obviously the Las Vegas GP and Golden Dunes GP is Abu Dhabi, though the track features and scenery are pretty much identical to their real-life counterparts. Some imagination would’ve definitely gone a long way in giving pop to these circuits to make them more fictional than merely aping reality, but at least the devs have done a good job designing them.
You can delve into Formula Legends right away by taking on its story mode, which takes you on a tour through the eras of F1 from the early days of the 1960s, right up to the present day. You’ll take one of the playfully named teams and drivers, and compete in a series of races in hopes of becoming the champion…..and that’s about it. There’s not a whole lot here to stoke the fires of enthusiasm, but there are plenty of championships and races to keep you busy, with 16 eras split into decades and sectioned with mid-points like early 00s, mid-00s and late 00s—just to expand the grind of it.
The “story” of this story mode comes in the form of informational text boxes, that will relay key moments in history, while of course adhering to fictional names and nicknames. The text boxes are hard to read at a leisurely pace because the loading speeds are quick, but the insights they provide are appreciable if you care to read them.
In terms of gameplay, Formula Legends is a bit of a strange game to describe to someone. While there is a plucky and cheerful animated look, the racing game mechanics and particulars of Formula Legends give off a hardcore-type experience. Therefore, the identity of Formula Legends is confused and this isn’t helped by the various reminders harkening back to the PlayStation One days.
On track, Formula Legends is pleasing to control due to an impressive handling model. Apparently the handling model has been refined courtesy of an update that came out during the review process, but having experienced it, it feels really nice diving into corners and chicanes with a sense of speed adhering to its arcade leanings.
You’ll need to be weary of brushing the apex of corners too aggressively though, as you can send your car’s equilibrium aflutter, but so long as you’re mindful of how much speed you’re taking into corners you shouldn’t have a problem. The first corner of the Ardennes GP is very sharp, and it’s easy to carry too much speed into it that you’ll find yourself dragging your car out of the sand trap — though thankfully most other corners on these circuits are trouble-free.
Formula Legends makes a big deal out of tire and fuel management, which is somewhat refreshing in racing games if you’re one to coast through them. Tires will wear out gradually lap after lap, and you’ll need to keep a keen eye on the degradation percentage level. If the tyres completely degrade your car will become extremely difficult to drive, necessitating a trip to the pits. Fuel management is of a similar concern, as you’ll want to pit when the red on the bar gets low.
When you enter the pits you don’t need to worry about speed limits, but you will need to play a button-matching sequence, and you gotta hit the left trigger to fuel up your car as well — and click the thumbsticks in to make a swift exit. These pit stops can happen several times per race, but thankfully they are quick and hassle-free, which coincides neatly with Formula Legends’ arcade appeal.
The absence of damage and car retirements are big sore spots in Formula Legends, and they take away some of the zest when it comes to strategy. We all love a good crash, but the best you’ll get is the opportunity to weakly spin an adversary around. AI can make mistakes on corners and scatter waywardly on tricky opening corners at the beginning of races, but without a damage model there’s no drama, and if there’s no drama then Formula Legends threatens to become boring. Sure, you can have close-knit races, but without a damage model the cars just feel like cardboard to bump into. This might be authentic to 90s racing games, but in 2025 there’s no real excuse not to have a damage model of some kind.
Returning to the theme of strategy, weather does play a key role in determining what tires to use, though as long as you change them at the right times there’s not much of an issue. On higher difficulty settings it will be critical to pit at convenient times for the best chances of securing podiums and race wins, but without any radio chatter, you’re on your own to decide the best times to pit for new tires.
The basic designs of the circuits along with the simplistic car models and textures really do a good job of giving off those nostalgic old-school vibes. The framerate really gives you the sense that Formula Legends is the best-running pre-Xbox era racing game you ever played because it’s so silky in terms of its smoothness. The puddle reflections and droplets during wet weather races are really nice details as well, so there’s not much to fault with Formula Legends in terms of presentation.
Conclusion
If you enjoy arcade-style open-wheel racing, Formula Legends has something to offer you thanks to its retro presentation and its accessibility, along with some strategic nuance with regards to tires and fuel. There’s plenty of content to get stuck into, which is quite surprising for an indie title, but Formula Legends is well stocked to keep you racing on and on. The question of whether you’ll want to continue racing on and on is questionable due to the lack of a damage model and fairly non-dramatic races, but the straightforward arcade pleasures and those playful name spins of drivers, teams and tracks do give you reasons to keep your foot on the accelerator. Formula Legends is therefore competent and fine, though it is overlapped by its stern competition and some of its less-endearing archaic design choices.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
