GAME OVER, YEEEEAH!!!
No this is not the end of the Kapow! KaBlog! so stop panicking, for those in the know, the title is the iconic end screen for the best/maybe/definitely/probably racing game ever. And that of course is Sega Rally. The less said about the future entries the better.
Anyway on to this blogs topic, which incase you haven’t guessed already is... Racing games.
Now last Sunday was the start of the season for my personal favourite sport, the Formula 1. My first introduction to an F1 game on consoles was Formula 1 ‘96 for the original Playstation. And I remember it like it was yesterday. Being overwhelmed by the liveries which were fully licensed, having every race driver to pick from and the live commentary from the thankfully still living legend Murray Walker. It was a Formula 1 fans wet dream, being able to race in all weather conditions, watching the red lights blink through the spray left from other cars on a rainy day in Silverstone or the dark tunnel in sunny Monaco. No matter where you were racing, no matter what conditions you was guaranteed to be left with a smile on your face F1 fan or not thanks to its fine balance between sim and arcade racer.
You may know, or you may not know, but this brilliant entry was produced by PSYGNOSIS. Which also created the brilliant fast but unforgiving sci-fi racer Wip3out. Not only do they have these amazing games in their arsenal. But they also have the gorgeous MSR created for the Sega Dreamcast and showed how great the hardware was in the system. MSR later went onto be the multi-million selling franchise PGR (Project Gotham Racing) released for the original Xbox and Xbox 360.
Yes, the above image is in fact taken from MSR on the Dreamcast!
Despite all these games being great in there own merit. They only cover a part of the different styles of driving/racing games to be played.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a gamer, a non gamer, an old crippled lady or an ADHD riddled 3 year old who’s a little shit to play games with because they don’t shut the fuck up! You will not say no to a kart racer. There’s a few kart racers, but the only ones really worthy of a mention are Diddy Kong Racing, Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing. We could argue all day about which one is better, but we all know Crash Team Racing for the PS1 is the best ;).
Let’s be honest we could be here all day talking about how, why and which racing game is the best of all time. Yet the only opinion that matters, is mine. Jkjkjkjkjkjkjks. But there’s a game out there which involves 4 wheels one way or another which gamers will have in their top 5 games of all time. I can guarantee this next game will be in that top 5.
Well if you’re 18 and over anyway, I’m pretty sure we all remember the first time we fired up this game or watched the promos before it released. Watching the 100′s, 1000′s of cars ‘fully licensed’ race around with a great soundtrack, great physics and great graphics (for the time). This game was a huge game of my childhood, not because I loved playing it, but I loved watching it, to me as a kid it was like watching an actual live race on TV. My Dad, Mum, Uncles and Aunties used to all squeeze into what was a relatively small living room in the ghettttto of Stoneydelph on weekends and play this none stop. ‘Just one more race, I need to get the stage 2 turbo kit’... Famous last words, hours later there’s 500,000cr in the back and a Subaru 555 is now stripped to the bone with the classic Colin Mcrae livery whizzing past Porches and LeMans GT40s though Trial Mountain. ‘How fast was that lap time?’ ‘I’ll do it faster’. Many more hours later, the memory card is being battered with ghost times and saved data. The weekends over and it starts all over again the following Friday. Thanks to me who didn’t know the difference between Load and Save at the time. I don’t even wanna admit how many times I did this. Thankfully by the time Gran Turismo 2 came out, I understood the difference and for me this is where the series became perfect. Adding Rally stages into the mix was like a dream come true. No more poor soap box physics from V-Rally, hello tight, arcadey yet rewarding rally physics in some of the most legendary Rally Cars to date. I took the day off school when this was released (terrible parents I know). And the amount of hours and times I clicked restart attempting to beat my Dads fastest time in a Lancia Delta was ridiculous. I don’t think I ever did beat his time, and this still annoys me as he wasn’t even a huge gamer. Probably got lucky.
Anyway guys, gals and those without a gender. What is your favourite racing game of all time?
Peace out!