Retrowave similar games & best alternatives

Retrowave - Trailer
Retrowave - retrowave_1.avif
Retrowave - retrowave_2.avif
Retrowave - retrowave_3.avif
Retrowave - retrowave_4.avif
Retrowave - retrowave_5.avif
Retrowave - retrowave_6.avif

Retrowave

PC (Microsoft Windows) • 2022

Should you play it?

Neon lights, palm trees, synthwave, '80s supercars speeding down an endless highway... Welcome to the world of Retrowave!

What works

  • Relaxing and therapeutic gameplay
  • Excellent 80s synthwave soundtrack
  • Vivid neon retro aesthetics
  • Simple and accessible controls
  • Affordable price with good value

Things to keep in mind

  • Repetitive and grindy gameplay
  • Limited depth and challenge
  • Some maps have visual or performance issues
  • Minimal multiplayer and social features
  • Ui and menu navigation can be clunky

What to play next

Top picks

Games that feels the closest overall

  • Old School Rally

  • Offroad Mania

  • Driftwood

  • #DRIVE Rally

  • Slipstream

  • Music Racer

Less idle-friendly

Games that feels like Retrowave but with less of an idle filler feel

  • Rush Rally 3

  • art of rally

  • NIGHT-RUNNERS™ PROLOGUE

  • Super Woden: Rally Edge

  • TrackMania² Valley

  • Victory Heat Rally

More violent

Games that feels like Retrowave but with more combat and destruction

  • Carmageddon Max Pack

  • Carmageddon 2: Carpocalypse Now

  • FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage Collector's Edition

  • PAKO 2

  • Crash Wheels

  • Turbo Dismount® 2

More fantastical

Games that feels like Retrowave but with more imaginative fiction

  • Synthwave Burnout

  • Neon Drive

  • Distance

  • Neodash

  • Tanuki Sunset

  • Drift Of The Hill

Choose your own criteria ->

From the same developer

From the same developer, ranked by motivational fit.

  • Drift Of The Hill

  • Retrowave 2

  • Drift86

  • VHS

  • Hammer 2

Similarity map

How to compare these games

Compare nearby games

Each card is a nearby game on the similarity map, compared with Retrowave. Swipe sideways to move between games. Titles already listed in What to play next are left out.

  • Cover and title: open that game’s page.
  • What works / keep in mind: the same highlights as the desktop comparison panel.
  • Bars: the main motivational differences versus this game.
How to use the graph

Similarity map

Each dot is a game placed from its motivation profile relative to this page’s game. Direction shows which motivation differs most; distance along that axis shows how large the gap is.

  • Purple star: this page’s game at the centre — everything is relative to it.
  • Direction: each axis is a main motivational difference vs this game (e.g. more / less competitive).
  • Distance on an axis: how large that difference is (ring scales show +/− points).
  • Coloured chips: click to highlight games that mainly differ on that motivation; click again to reset.
  • Dotted line: link between this page’s game and the one selected for comparison.
  • Hover a dot to preview that game in the panel on the right; click to keep that comparison.
  • Scroll or double-click the chart to zoom.

How to read the map This is a polar difference map: direction = which motivation differs, and distance = how much (same units as the sidebar deltas).

Swipe to compare nearby games with Retrowave. These titles are not in What to play next.

Retrowave: Less representative of its motivational profile, with noticeable differences. Motivations that often define this kind of title include Violence, Fantasy, Thrill, Story. Here, the score leans higher than usual among comparable games on Competition, Idle. It leans lower than usual among comparable games on Strategy.

Last update: 21/08/2026