Metropolis Racing Project (video game)

Metropolis Racing Project is a 2021 motorsport racing game, developed by NC Boss Alien and published by NC. It is a part-simulation racing and part-arcade-style racing game.

Story
The game takes place in a fictionalized version of St Helens, Merseyside.

Cheats
Metropolis Racing Project's demo featured previews of "cheats", mainly hidden easter eggs, which would allow the players to play the "Micro Mode", with the camera angle becoming top-down and the cars becoming smaller, lighter and faster, similar to Micro Machines.

Vehicles
MRP features different types of auto racing, primarily sports car racing, but also formula racing.

Development
Development started during the formation of Krafton Pearl Abyss, which would house Sumo Digital, with newly-reformed companies: publisher NC and developer NC Boss Alien (formerly Boss Alien). The process would start in May 2020, with the start of the acquisition spree, including that of game studios, by Styhon Entertainment.

The development team at NC Boss Alien, with contacts to Lucid Games and Sumo North West, started work on a game that would serve as the new rival to infamous racing game franchises such as  and. Initially, this was to become one of Nintendo's main franchises, as a serious alternative to Mario Kart, but the deal fell through shortly.

For MRP, Boss Alien and Sumo started work on realistic racing physics for their new NC Dragon engine, in collaboration with the core team within NC Studios, and with feedback from experienced Formula 1 and WRC drivers and constructors.

Additional support
The game will support, , , ,  and NCVR headsets, up to 12K resolution and also has ultrawide and triple screen support.

Features
MRP features changing seasons depending on system time, and. MRP's features also include Grand Prix, where people can arrange competitive online racing events, with optional invite codes. The Grand Prix mode has three levels, primarily picked through a combination of matchmaking and general analysis of player experience (e.g. if a player has enough experience in singleplayer, but not in multiplayer, they get placed in the Formula 3 Grand Prix mode if playing with formula cars).

Marketing
The teaser trailer was released in June 6th, 2020, and featured Oliver's "Electrify" as the music. The launch trailer was released around a week before the game's release with Big Data's "Dangerous" (Oliver Remix) as the trailer music.

Trivia

 * During the game's development, NC held two "Virtual Le Mans" competitions, challenging selected streamers and test players to play the game for 24 hours.
 * The game was developed in its entirety within the UK:
 * The development team consisted of staff located in Brighton, Liverpool, Southport, Birmingham and Warrington, and most even worked previously in studios such as Evolution Studios, Bizarre Creations, Codemasters, Juice Games, Psygnosis and Black Rock Studio.
 * Outsourcing partners include Atomhawk in Newcastle, Redshirt in Brighton and London, Sumo's Red Kite Games in Leeds, NaturalMotion and SIDE Audio in London, AudioMotion Studios in Oxford, D3T in Chesire, Keywords Embedded Services in Slough, and Pearl Abyss Fareham.
 * The MacOS port was done by NC Aspyr's London studio, formerly Feral Interactive.
 * As with all NC games published under KPA, the development studios have their special logo combo for the game. The cinematic takes place at one of the race tracks, with the NC Boss Alien, Lucid Games and Sumo Digital symbols seen in the countdown lights, before the last light, which turns the other lights normal as it lights up. We then see the racecars pass by a wall where the logos are plastered, as well as the text "Made in the UK".