I'm usually terrible at driving games, but I found the uphill/downhill etc switching super intuitive.  I mean, I still absolutely went off the road all the time, but it felt good doing it.  Great job.

Amazing concept and execution on this bad boy!

The driving in this game felt super smooth, had a pretty easy time controlling the car right away. While I understand trying to onboard players at a comfortable pace, I think you may benefit from introducing the core game mechanic earlier in a game jam setting. Also, the "count down" part of the gear shifting felt pretty inconsequential while I was playing. If the count down was quicker, players would be forced to use gears at inopportune times, leading to more strategy regarding when to use certain gears to get the most value out of them. Regardless, I think this game was still a great success! I especially enjoyed seeing the narrative unfold as I completed each race. 

First full five star game for me. This is actually incredible. Such a fun mechanic, and also such an awesome storyline! I honestly love this game!

Using the arrow keys as an arcadey stick shift was a great idea, really made the game feel unique! Graphics and art direction was very well done as well. I think a more complex handling model would be a great addition! 

The stick shift mechanic adds a lot of depth. I don't play a lot of racing games so not sure if this is an innovation for or a staple of the genre, but I liked it a lot. The camera movement could be improved so its not so sudden but I got used to it eventually. Very fun to play that I beat it twice. This would be really fun in multiplayer.

The stick shift system is a simple premise that's super fun to master! I especially loved the tutorial guy spilling his inner feelings towards you for no reason with the rock music in the background, very funny contrast! It does feel like the game doesn't use the jam's theme to it's maximum, but the game feels great to play nontheless!

LOVED the gear system !

I *really* liked this one, you did a very good job on this. I gear system was so unique and engaging, I always had to be interacting with this game. I liked most of the maps, they felt fun and the progression with each track requiring more switching felt very good. I loved the last track, it felt like I truly needed to use every mechanic at my disposal. I like the story, although basic its kinda nice to see someone deal with a "loss" of someone who is still here but different. I think theirs a lot of room for more exploration if you add more levels and flesh out that character more.  Although, I did not like the dessert track(not the final track the first desert yellow track) You liked to use really sharp turns at some places which felt very off. the whole idea of the gears system is to go fast so having levels which require precision with the very large and slow turning radius felt a little bad. Same with the lizards, I was going to fast to really avoid them at times. I also really wish there was more use for the off-road gear, the final track only has one section where you really need it and it would be fun to have other places which require more use of it. Great job overall though I think you made something really special!

Very well polished and satisfying racing game with a surprising story, the car feels comfortable to control and its fun to shift gear!

Aaaaaaand it's all downhill from there!

Which is a good thing. It went really fast sometimes))

Original take on another ways to make racing games challenging.

I played up to the ice mission, the gameplay itself was good, the driving was reasonably responsive and felt satifying. The art style looks great, simplistic but really gets across that race car feeling.

All of the levels at the start seemed quite easy, not sure if thats just to encourage you to replay them for a better rank, or just cause they get harder as they go on? Not sure how many levels total are in this, but a bit more feeling of challenge would be good, maybe more obstacles as well as the winding tracks?
Perhaps adding some kind of minimum pass time show clearly too would help motivate the player to get faster.

The audio was quite repetitive (though I appreciate its not easy to find good music that loops at short notice) and a few of the sounds, like the win sound felt slightly out of place.

My main issue was just that the inclusion of the theme didn't feel particularly significant. In race you're on a timer anyway so counting down wasn't too unique, and while I think the concept of having the different 'gears' have usage timers is interesting, it doesn't really make sense, and I only had that timer run out once, which again, because of the low difficult didn't matter.

All in all a very fun proof of concept, with some great art and great ideas, keep it up!