At its core, Tear It Up is very strongly reminiscent of old flash games you used to play on the school computers when you had nothing better to do. While not my favorite kind of racing game, I got some enjoyment out of it.

Graphically, it's not got much to offer outside a few pretty stylistic backdrops across the career, and the cars aren't modeled to superb quality, but in today's market I'd rather focus more on gameplay than graphics. It looks good enough to not be repulsive, but frankly not much better than decade old mobile games. For lack of a better word, forgettable.

The gameplay itself is a bit of a repetitive loop, not that it can't be fun but when you have to stop to grind out a few races for a small handful of cash, the variety of quick events is super lackluster and once memorized becomes monotonous. The guns you unlock throughout the career help break up this issue, though outside of it they cannot be used at all. This makes quick event the weakest part of the game, when it should be stronger since once you beat the story, it feels like there's nothing else to do shy of replaying missions even though there is. The simple and easy to learn physics are fun, and once you upgrade your cars to be near invulnerable it becomes way more fun to goof off and do crazy stunts without having to worry about landing wrong. The career itself is varied in events and is definitely the most fun part of the game, with a story as goofy and unserious as everything else. Delivery felt very tedious and annoying at first, but once I started seeing what risky stunts I could get away with I stopped dreading it. The number of cars is lower but varied, and customization is weak compared to other games, but the only complaints I have with it are lack of colors and liveries. Out of everything I think besides not enough track variety, the lack of feedback makes the game feel a bit weak. Cars don't properly rev, they don't spin tires and you don't have to shift gears so the entire race is just holding the accelerator and adjusting to the scenery as it comes. Another major complaint I have is the loading screens. Not only do they take forever, but the mid-boss battle loading times really pull you out of the moment and ruin a lot of intensity they could have. If guns had any use outside of missions I think I would spend more time with it, but otherwise 5-6 unique quick events with the same exact opponents per tier is a major drag, and I don't want to just replay career missions every time I want to play the game.

The sound design is good enough but it's massively held back by one thing and that's the engine sounds. Their constant changing is very choppy and annoying if not being drowned out by music, and while they definitely add to its flash game style I found it ear grating. The music is okay, but much like the game itself isn't so much my thing.

Would I recommend it? Sure. It's simple, enjoyable, but a bit undercooked. Updates are a must.

6.8/10
Impressive for a game I probably wouldn't have taken interest in on my own, but could be way better.