Hotshot Tales, Part 9: Out of Bounds!

Hotshot Tales, Part 9: Out of Bounds!

The "out-of-bounds" bug is one of the few in Hotshot Racing that can directly affect the outcome of a race. It's quite rare, but can occur when a car is launched into the air and lands outside the boundaries of the track and falls through the ground (usually after being hit by another car), before respawning on the track shortly afterwards, losing time (and potentially places) in the process. Normally, this is little more than an inconvenience (unless the victim loses too much time to be able to reach the next checkpoint in time), but in Drive or Explode, it may lead to the victim being slowed down to the point that they can be eliminated due to either not being able to reach the current minimum target speed in time, or taking too long to pass the next checkpoint after the leader has done so.

A recent example of the bug in action is shown below:

Above, from top: The out of bounds bug in Hotshot Racing in action during a Drive or Explode race at Alpine Town. Here, I hit Aston (in a Shadow) from the right-hand side hard enough to fling it into the air, and since he landed outside the track entirely, he clipped through the map, lost a lot of speed, and couldn't catch up quickly enough after respawning to avoid elimination.

You could try to exploit this bug in a multiplayer Drive or Explode session (or even in other modes), but I wouldn't recommend doing so, since others consider it to be unsportsmanlike behavior (even for an arcade racer), and this form of unnecessary roughness would be grounds for expulsion (or the host withdrawing voluntarily and handing over duties to someone else). In a single-player race, however, it can be quite hilarious to witness this bug screwing over someone (including you!), even if it does not lead to a player's untimely demise.