Burnout Dev Wants to Give Arcade Racing New Life With 'Wreckreation 2'

2026 is shaping up to be an excellent one for arcade racing games: aside from Screamer and Star Wars: Galactic Racer, it’s Wreckreation 2 time to help put the genre back in the spotlight. Recently announced, the game is the debut title from When Tides Turn, a studio led by industry veteran Fiona Sperry.

Sperry has been working on games of this kind since the very first Burnout, and during a closed presentation for the press, she made it clear that she still believes there is a passionate audience for the unique spirit that franchise had. Wreckreation 2 comes across as a refinement of what was tested in the first game, and we got behind the wheel to get a sense of what the game will be like.

For those who remember Burnout, the foundations are very similar. The races aren’t exactly realistic, and braking points or ideal racing lines don’t matter all that much. Flooring it without a care in the world tends to work very well, and of course the big highlight is the destruction.

Driving through civilian traffic, there are plenty of opportunities to flip rival cars by shoving them into walls or into a truck coming the other way. At the same time, you also need to be careful not to become the victim of a catastrophic crash yourself. After a slow-motion sequence that glorifies both your wrecks and your opponents’, the game automatically drops the player back onto the track — with the subtle touch of always placing them in a favorable position, without forcing them to immediately return to tight corners and razor-thin dodges.

This format works both for standard races and for 1v1 duels, which may lose a bit of the destruction-heavy pace and focus more on skill through each turn, as well as for time trials, which push the player to take a few more risks in pursuit of speed. The standout is a third option that doesn’t define a set route to follow: you just need to cross the finish line in first place, with complete freedom to hunt for shortcuts around the environment.

All of these events, by the way, take place within an open city. Some virtual barriers are put up to make the circuits work, but it’s common to finish a race and already find yourself out on the streets, driving toward the next activity with no major transition. This system is already quite common in titles like Forza Horizon, and it gives Wreckreation 2 a lot of flow.

Overall, Fiona Sperry’s new game is, indeed, a lot of fun. Rewarding the player with boosts after every “takedown,” the game does a great job of conveying the feeling of moving at extremely high speeds. The controls are much simpler than what we’ve grown used to in contemporary racing games, even among arcade racers, but they’re still competent enough to reward more technical players. All of this comes with a great soundtrack that draws heavily on 2000s nostalgia.

Still without a release date, Wreckreation 2 will have to face an industry that has already grown used to rewarding both megalomaniacal projects and indie titles made on shoestring budgets. The middle ground — which is exactly where this game sits — is still fighting for its place, and we’re rooting for this to be one of the names that helps pave that road.