13.6 hours played
Written 10 days ago
Tonight, on Top Gear!
I drive through a French Vineyard with sharp turns, James upgrades his car and exceeds the sound barrier, and Hammond drives a futuristic car through a war-torn galaxy!
So... SNES Racing games. They aren't super duper common, but you have some classics, such as F-Zero, Gwimbly's Racing Championships, and Mario Kart. And of those games, only one of those was any good.
BUT, there was a single game that was less popular in everywhere (except for, oddly enough, Brazil) by the name of "Top Gear". A fine work of art, a mastery of the earlier days of the Genre, and a truly classic title that I cherish a lot. Its controls were slick and smooth, the speed was exceptional, the track variety is... Well, it's a SNES game, so a lot of tracks feel similar, but they look great, are destinct enough, and have an interesting feature that most games don't tend to offer: Refueling. You see, much like a car, gas doesn't last forever, so you have to make pit stops depending on your choice of car and timing. If you don't pit now, you could pit later, but will you be able to make it to later? If you pit now, you may be passed by opposing cars, especially the Rival "Computer" car. The Rival car will take up the bottom half of the screen and is just like the other computer controlled cars, but I think (cannot confirm this) is ever so slightly smarter. He exists so that the 2-player mode can exist - similar to Mario Kart SNES. This is all pretty ambitious for the time, as Racing games weren't quite what they would later become - and yet, they are still better than most Racing games released today... AND, to top it all off, it has one of the BEST soundtracks on the entire SNES library, ALMOST on the same tier as SMW, Mega Man X, and several other classics on this system. As far as games on the SNES go, this is absolute CLASS. An almost unbeatable classic on the system that I would love to play any day of the week, with friends or alone.
And the best part? It got 2 sequels, and they were both just as good, if not BETTER than the original!
Top Gear 2 is a game which truly defines "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." And yet... I also feel it broke the balance of the game in the process. Not in a bad way, but in a fun way. You see, you have the ability to retouch and upgrade your car. It's cool, and requires some budgeting management which makes the entire experience more varied! Except... You can just upgrade the Nitro all the way, zip past the other cars, come in first, and upgrade everything else too. It's okay, because the pure speed and excitement you get from these new stages feels so good that I barely even care! And reguardless, it's a mostly singleplayer game, so I don't mind too much. What I do find to be kind of a shame is that they got rid of the pit stops. It's a shame, but whatever, refueling is still a factor, instead being accomplished by running over fuel canisters. I would make a stupid Cinema Sins styled joke of "Oh but you aren't SUPPOSED to do that in a car! ecks dee!" but I could care less. Let's just say that they pick them up using some sort of front compartment and call it a day. Overall, a very good sequel with better graphics, and music that is also excellent!
And then there is Top Gear 3, which ditches the more common and normal vehicle aesthetics and the normal human world for a SCI-FI setting, and it actually kinda slaps. The story is absolutely insane, too. Get this: In the far off future, there is some insane tournament organized by some unknown group of people. In the far future, World War 17 has devastated the galaxy, causing some other power to try and oversee all sentient life! So the goal is to race because, what the hell else are you gonna do, and maybe try and stop the evil overlord or something? Its insane and I kinda love it. Definitely a way to get you to win and get the world on the right path!
Never did I think they would turn "All Tomorrows" into a racing spinoff game. But anyway...
Some tracks have multiple routes, and each course now has regeneration pads like F-Zero. But I honestly prefer this to F-Zero! Except for the music. The music is kinda not great. Some of them are serviceable, but it's a big step down. Other than that, the entire game is on par, if not better than the other two. One part I almost forgot to mention, the framerate is much higher, and much more constant on this game. I don't care much for FPS as long as the game is playable, but the improvement is definitely appreciated.
This game collection also gives you a bonus mode, which has cars from Horizon Chase Turbo, a game very similar to this one. But it's just a bonus mode, and I have no opinions on it really. It's fine... But whatever. I'm not gonna play it much.
Overall, you get 3 great games, with multiplayer, for real cheap. And hey, why wouldn't you want that? These SNES games are among the best, so I recommend it. Much love to the Brazilians for choosing peak.
