So how is the new Miami Street racing game? Well...

By now you’ve probably heard of Miami Street if you pay close attention to Xbox news. If not, here’s the rundown: Miami Street is a new racing game that launched unexpectedly on the Microsoft Store in certain territories. Developed by Electric Square, it is capable of running on any Windows 10 device, and apparently even targets Andromeda OS according to the app’s metadata package. Even if you did hear about this, you might not know how it plays, and, well… your mileage may vary.

By switching my store region to the Netherlands, I was able to try out the game myself. You can view several screenshots I took in the gallery below.

When the game touts “easy pick-up-and-play controls,” it isn’t kidding. This may be one of the most simple games I’ve ever played. This accessibility certainly opens it up to wider audience, but there are some who will find it so easy that Miami Street isn’t a game they’d even bother with for more than a couple of races. The car’s movement is controlled for you, so the steering is automatic. What you’ll control is your acceleration, and to do so you’ll just need to hold down the left mouse button. Letting go of it when prompted to near corners will allow your car to slow down and take the corner more easily. Your turning is still once again controlled by the computer. Should you not even bother to slow down, you’ll just bump into the wall and swerve back onto the road. And if you fall behind, you can click the right mouse button to give yourself a quick boost similar to that in the Burnout series.

Winning races grants you money and items to upgrade your cars. I haven’t gone in-depth with this system yet, but it appears to be about what you’d expect for a racing game. Better upgrades essentially equals a faster car and a better chance at winning. Should you want a real challenge, you can choose to go up against more difficult opponents measured by the car’s PR score. As seen in one of the images below, a lower PR car will be easier to beat.

Judging by its gameplay, Miami Street looks to be a game perfectly suited for a mobile device. The graphics aren’t all that impressive and you’re really only pressing one button throughout a quick 1-minute race. Even the camera angles are controlled for you, with the camera constantly switching up the view for a more cinematic experience like you’d see in theaters.

When people heard that Electric Square was working on a new game for Microsoft, this probably wasn’t what they had in mind. The end result will disappoint some in the community for sure, but if you’re just looking for a quick and easy game to pick up, especially for younger players, Miami Street can be appealing to the right crowd.

Even though Miami Street may not be everyone’s cup of tea, achievement hunters should definitely give it a shot. I haven’t played through the entire game yet but unlocking achievements seems to be easy as well. Just by logging into the game for the second time I unlocked the 50G achievement “Back to the Streets.” A couple of minutes later, I unlocked another 50G achievement by obtaining a 2 star car. Viewing its total achievement list on my Xbox app, it appears to only have 12 achievements for 1000G. Many of these are worth 100G or more, and you can obtain them by collecting a certain amount of cars, reaching a certain level, and beating the game, which doesn’t seem difficult based on what I’ve played so far.

If you’ve tried out the game, let us know what you think of it in the comments.