Hotshot Tales, Part 2: Winning by Less Than a Millisecond

Hotshot Tales, Part 2: Winning by Less Than a Millisecond

Having spent countless hours playing Hotshot Racing, I've never won (or lost) a race by a millisecond or less - until very recently, that is. Now, before I start, I'd like to inform you that although it's theoretically possible for this to occur in both singleplayer and multiplayer, it's actually extremely rare in practice, and fittingly, there are no trophies/achievements for doing so. Yet that's exactly what happened on a 7-lap race in Arcade Mode on Frozen Freeway, the fourth and final track added in the Boss Level DLC. So here's how I did it.

For this particular race, I chose Marcus' Drift-class car, the Mongoose - a machine built to enter, maintain, and exit drifts easily without losing control or speed in the process. On a twisty track such as Frozen Freeway, this is generally a boon, given that the track's layout consists of many tight corners in quick succession. I also opted for the default automatic transmission option due to my lack of experience with the manual setting. So here's how the race went.

I got a boost start at the beginning, as usual, and led the field into the first turn. However, by the time I got to Turn 7 (the first turn after the tunnel), I had lost so much speed through drifting that I lost several places. Nevertheless, I had built up enough boost for more than one charge - enough to recover all the lost ground, and then some.

Above, from top: The early stages of this race were characterized with an intense four-way battle for the lead - and I was in the thick of it.

After the first few laps, it became clear that Xing (who was driving the Fastback in this particular race) was my fiercest rival. From that point on, he and I traded places on several occasions, despite my best efforts to pull away from him.

Above, from top: Xing and I fought tooth and nail for the lead, but with just a few laps to go, Alexa managed to reach the top 3, in the hopes of playing spoiler.

The very last lap turned out to be the most hectic of all. Trailing Xing by mere tenths, I gave it everything I got, and held the lead out of the last turn, only for Xing to accelerate as fast as he could. It wasn't enough, though, and I crossed the finish line feeling somewhat drained, but most of all, relieved and triumphant, after the timing screen showed me as finishing first, ahead of Xing, by less than a millisecond - in fact, the margin of victory was so small, Xing and I were credited with the same total time, with Alexa just 0.030 seconds behind.

Above, from top: The closest possible winning margin in Hotshot Racing is less than one millisecond - too small to show up on the post-race timing screen.

So far, I've only pulled off this feat exactly once - and to finish any race in first or second by less than a millisecond in Hotshot Racing is such a nerve-racking experience, you'll wonder what's going through the minds of each the game's characters if they find themselves in such a situation. Increasing the timing accuracy to tenths of milliseconds, however, is something best left for developers of highly realistic racing simulators, and as such, would be low on the priorities for development of Hotshot Racing 2, if it ever gets made at all.