I am not going to lie to you. This looks like my art I like to mess with. Basically 2d, 256-color 16 colors limited.
1. Everybody making games right now is our age group ( or inside our age range ).
2. Everybody in our age group wanted to do 2d art for videogames in this manor.
3. So why not make an racer with bright ( beautiful bright colors ) from the 1980's that we grewed up with. Phuck 3d, phuck shaders, phuck all this CGI uncannon valley bs. Phuck photoshop blurbbed Oil paint bs, and make something we want.
I do not really feel their is a real art direction. I feel they are just doing this way because that is what they grewed up with. Speaking of which like that game "Shovel Knight" where everything is 2d NES but the damn game requires a powerfull computer to run.
Nice nice looking game makes me want to play "Outrun" for my MarkIII/SMS. In fact makes me want to purchase outrun agian.