John's Race Space

Ridge Racer Type 4 Songs Ranked

2024-10-27T23:35:00.000-07:00

Ridge Racer Type 4 had some great music. As a blog all about all elements of racing/driving games, including music, I take an unusual and different route regarding racing/driving games. The music will be rated by me here in this post. Remember that all posts since going from an exclusive Gran Turismo blog to all racing/driving games, ANY topic is fair game. So let me rank RRT4's songs for you all. My opinions, of course.

Ridge Racer Type 4: Song Rating

Ridge Racer Type 4 was the swan song of Ridge Racer on the Sony PlayStation 1. Of all the Ridge Racer titles, this one exhibited the most mature soundtrack of any of the PS1 Ridge Racer titles. Many of the songs can be classified as chill. Some songs have some rocking elements to them for a little edge. A lot of the songs even have a bit of drum 'n bass beats to them. Only thing lovelier than RRT4 is its soundtrack.

While I am showcasing the soundtrack of Ridge Racer Type 4 in this blog post, it is not to say every song is great. What I will do here is offer my thoughts on individual songs that make up Ridge Racer Type 4's great soundtrack.

The Songs.

Here are all of the song names of the ones you can select in the game (excluding the Bonus Tune):

• Pearl Blue Soul
• Naked Glow
• Your Vibe
• Lucid Rhythms
• Thru
• Silhouette Dance
• Burnin' Rubber
• Revlimit Funk
• Quiet Curves
• Motor Species
• The Objective
• Move Me
• The Ride
• Movin' in Circles

The "Bonus Tune" in question is "Eat 'em Up!". It will not be part of this rating post. I will instead focus on the main songs you hear in races.

Now that you know the song names, you can hear them all for yourself here, including the non-racing songs. Have a listen if you have a lot of time on your hands:

^ R4 RIDGE RACER TYPE 4 BGM OST

Thank you to the uploader for allowing embedding. Anyhow, let me now rate the songs of R4!

Ridge Racer Type 4: Songs Rated

I will be ranking the songs in descending order. In other words, I am going from least favorite to most favorite. I will share why I ranked each song in their position. Also, I may share which events I usually play the songs I will make mention to in this blog post.

Let's get it!

14: The Objective.

I just didn't feel this song at all, so this was an easy choice. It was easy to dismiss and place at the bottom of my list of favorite Ridge Racer Type 4 songs.

13: Burnin' Rubber.

"Burnin' Rubber" is near the bottom of my list for most of the same reasons as the previous song I highlighted. While it is rather fun and funky, I don't like it all that much. It is one of the songs that is played back after races at times.

12th: Thru.

"Thru" is a very cool song with kind of a traditional Japanese vibe. A nice set of beats compliment this song. It also features a very nice melody from the instruments. I just don't really use this for any events in RRT4. A time I did remember using this song was with the "Heaven and Hell" event. "Thru" is a good song, but there are much better ones than this.

11th: Lucid Rhythms.

"Lucid Rhythms" is a very chill song with kind of a sensual vibe to it. However, I am not really feeling this song as far as going racing to it or anything. Just because I have this one ranked very low doesn't mean I outright hate it. It just does not hit me enough to say it is one of the best songs to go race with or listen to privately.

10th: Motor Species.

"Motor Species" song has some good beats and instrumentals to it. It is a get-you-going kind of song. It pumps you up and motivates you to go for the race win. You might hear this song during race replays. It is tough to put a song like this at this part of my list despite the praise I've given it. Regardless, there is the song that is 10th in my list of favorite RRT4 songs.

I usually use this song in the Phantomile event. It also would be good for Edge of the Earth or Brightest Nite.

9th: Move Me.

The vibes of "Move Me" start off a bit romantic before transitioning into a rock-style song seasoned by drum 'n bass. This song isn't in my "enjoyable" range of songs for RRT4. I don't even really listen to this one privately. If I were to use this in an event, I'd play this in Wonderhill or Edge of the Earth.

8th: Your Vibe.

"Your Vibe" has a funky style to it along with some great instrumentals and beats. I don't have it as a go-to kind of song for when I am not sure what song I want to play. I do kind of listen to this song privately at times, just not as much. The song to me seems more for evening or sunset tracks, so I'd play this at Wonderhill. I also play this sometimes at Brightest Nite.

The bottom half of RRT4 songs have now been covered. Now for the better half of songs in this game, according to me...

7th: Revlimit Funk.

Despite its name, "Revlimit Funk" is not a song I would classify as "funky." What it does have is some gritty synths and some great beats. The only part of the song I can consider "funky" is the cooldown part of the song. I play this song more privately than in the game. I'd play this song in Helter Skelter.

6th: Quiet Curves.

"Quiet Curves" is a melodic and sweet song. The song is not dominated by fierce beats or any wild guitar riffs. I would kind of liken this song to living in the suburbs or shopping at upscale shops. It is a lovely song with airy and ambient instruments. The overall style of the song is more along the lines of a melodic drum 'n bass, though not your average drum 'n bass. As for what track(s) I would play "Quiet Curves" at, I think this song suits Out of Blue best. I would also play this song at Helter Skelter, Wonderhill, and perhaps even Heaven and Hell.

On to my Top 5 favorites!

5th: Silhouette Dance.

"Silhouette Dance" is as lovely a song as "Quiet Curves," but this one gets you going more. Drum 'n Bass style beats mostly dominate this song. This one is more about the beats than the instrumentals. The instrumental style is sweet and mellow, but it is all about the beats to this song. I listen to this at times privately. I think this song suits Out of Blue best. Though, you could also bump this around Edge of the Earth, Brightest Nite, and Heaven and Hell.

4th: The Ride.

No other song in Ridge Racer Type 4 exudes the kind of emotion "The Ride" offers. A very rocking song, this is the sort of song meant for when you are about to embark on a dangerous and risky journey. The song is bold while also being fairly melodic and full of character. Therefore, the way I described this song means this song can best be played at... Heaven and Hell. That is usually the only track I play this song at.

Now we get to the "podium" for my favorite Ridge Racer Type 4 songs. Which three round out my podium? Find out!

3rd: Pearl Blue Soul.

Simple and melodic, "Pearl Blue Soul" mixes in smooth instrumentals with a jazzy feel complimented by some sweet beats. It also has a get-you-going feel to it, but in a jazzy, lounge way. The hints of brass lend a unique appeal to this song and adds to its sweetness. It is really a fine song to listen to, and you might hear this song in replays. This song suits Helter Skelter best to me. You could even stay to its name and play "Pearl Blue Soul" at Out of Blue. Phantomile also is an event I'd play this song.

2nd: Movin' in Circles.

Let me stress something before I explain my reasoning of ranking this song where I ranked it. Even though "Movin' in Circles" is 2nd in my list, it isn't by much. "Movin' in Circles" is the only song in Ridge Racer Type 4 that has vocals to it. Those vocals I make mention of would be the vocals of Kimara Lovelace. It is the last song you can choose from the available 14 songs. As it is last in the song list, this song can best be played at one track- Shooting Hoops. "Movin' in Circles" has that feel of celebration and high emotion. I feel Shooting Hoops suits this song best and is really the only track I'd play this song at. I hate that I'm listing a great song like this as being second only rather than right at the top. However, you have to make some tough calls at times.

...which leaves one remaining song. My favorite RRT4 song is...

1st: Naked Glow.

"Naked Glow" is the song I listen to and play the most. This is the song I listen to most privately and mostly only use at two tracks. "Naked Glow" just appeals to me the most and has the best flow. It has some jazzy elements, it has a funky feel to it, its late part sounds sweet, and the overall melody is amazing. Don't get me wrong- I love listening to "Movin' in Circles." The reason why I put "Naked Glow" ahead of "Movin' in Circles" is because "Naked Glow" can best suit a number of events. I choose this song especially for Edge of the Earth and also Brightest Nite. One time, though, I did play "Naked Glow" at Shooting Hoops.

Feel free to agree or disagree with my picks. But... now you know, and knowing is half the battle. G.I. Joe! :D

If you thought it was easy putting this list together, think again! The only ones I had no problem choosing are 14th and 13th. Everything else was rather tough. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this post. Maybe I'll do some more song rating posts. This was a blog about the Gran Turismo series but has since been about racing games and driving games in general. Like it here? Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Support me further by connecting with me on social media; and if you are inclined, feel free to donate to me (tips/donations are voluntary but would be appreciated). Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Battle Royale Racing

2024-10-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

The release of "F-Zero 99" continues the retro Battle Royale games by Nintendo. This joins the list of Tetris 99, Super Mario Bros. 35, and Pac-Man 99. More importantly, it opens a discussion of Battle Royale racing. F-Zero 99 is a Battle Royale-type game. It has me wondering... what other racing/driving games would make great Battle Royale games? That is the possibility I am exploring for this blog post on "John's Race Space." Come along and let's chat!

Battle Royale Racing

When most people think of battle royale games, people immediately think of the likes of "PLAYERUNKNOWN Battlegrounds" (PUBG), the wildly-popular and still played "Fortnite," or even the lighthearted goofy play of "Fall Guys," or the Fall Guys clone "Stumble Guys." The concept of a Battle Royale game is in the sense of gathering many players to compete in one space and try to outlast their opposition for as long as possible. Such competitions involve taking on different strategies to help gain the advantage and win. Another element of Battle Royales is in having only one life; and when you are defeated, it's over. Permadeath. No continues (most of the time).

Nintendo has had its way the past few years with now four Battle Royale-type games from the gaming past. It began with "Tetris 99," the game of Tetris where 99 players battle each other until one is left standing. "Super Mario Bros. 35" brought about chaos in the world of Super Mario Bros. 1 with 35 different players. "Pac-Man 99" turns Pac-Man into a chaotic multiplayer experience.

So where does racing/driving come in the realm of a Battle Royale? At least F-Zero 99 tests the waters by adding aggressive racing elements to the classic F-Zero game. Anyone who can imagine a racing/driving game where defeating other opponents on track can be grounds for a competitive Battle Royale game. Even if a game was not meant to encourage aggressive driving, you can still add aggressive elements to a game to compliment a Battle Royale environment. So in other words, you could even encourage aggressive driving in racing games not known for rewarding aggressive driving, such as Gran Turismo, Daytona USA, or even any of the Formula 1 games.

Battle Royale Racing: Analysis

Let's dive deeper into this style.

Considerations.

A Battle Royale environment usually suits the mindset of having one chance to prove yourself. When you are defeated, you are eliminated. You must try to outlast your opposition as long as you can.

Elimination and Elimination Methods.

To make this all happen, you must have a system where people can actually be defeated or considered defeated. This can be done by having a damage system (does not have to be visual or physical). If it is shown a contender has been defeated, he/she/they will be out of a given session. Players would be rewarded for defeating opposing racers.

Here are some methods of elimination I can think of. Follow my lead:

1.) The simplest elimination method is to simply eliminate players who finishes a race in last place or if someone completes a lap in last place. Aggressive driving in this setting is not encouraged but could be a deciding factor as to who gets eliminated.
BASIC ELIMINATION EXAMPLES: (older "Need for Speed" series games, such as "Need for Speed: High Stakes"), Speed Up! (arcade), Test Drive Unlimited 2 (PS3/XBOX360/PC)

2.) Another method is to have a health system. It can be implemented as either a health system or a damage meter. Once the health meter is depleted or damage meter is full, a driver will be retired from the event.
HEALTH/DAMAGE EXAMPLES: Super F1 Circus Gaiden (Super Famicom), SD F-1 Grand Prix (Super Famicom), Death Rally(PC), Whiplash/Fatal Racing (PC), WipEout series, Thunder Truck Rally (PS1), and Enthusia Professional Racing (PS2)

3.) Another way of elimination is with a limit system. During the course of a race or a tournament, there will be a cut limit to which every racer must try to be above to continue racing. If, for example, the Limit is 17th out of 20 cars, those ranked 18th through 20th will be eliminated. Once the initial limit is reached, a new higher limit will be set with eliminations pending for that new number. Those who survive the Limit will qualify.
LIMIT EXAMPLES: Super Monaco GP (arcade, Genesis/Megadrive), Battle Grand Prix (Super Nintendo/Super Famicom)

4.) The final method I will discuss here is a combination of health/damage and a limit. This is like what "F-Zero 99" has. Each player has a certain amount of energy along with certain limits to stay above. It can be stressing to try to keep your energy intact while also being above a certain cut line to avoid elimination.
HEALTH/DAMAGE WITH LIMIT EXAMPLES: F-Zero 99 (Nintendo Switch)

5.) Some racing/driving games have other methods to encourage elimination either playing by the rules or taking out racers. "Wave Race 64," for example, will have you disqualified if you miss too many buoys during the course of one race. Certain racing games that have regulations for races (like in the ToCA Race Driver series) can have you disqualified if you commit too many violations. They are not exactly elimination rules, but they have a feel of elimination due to insubordination.

Now that we know the limits, let us imagine what games could take advantage of some sort of Battle Royale system. Go to the next section, please...

Candidates for Battle Royale Racing/Driving: 2D

None of what you are about to read is met with any scientific research. Many of these are just thoughts of mine that I pose to you. What racing/driving games can benefit from a Battle Royale system? The headers showcase each game and how I think they could have a Battle Royale system to them of some kind. So take a look:

Super Mario Kart.

Some would think this should be the easiest choice. However, it seems too good to some people, even considering F-Zero came before Super Mario Kart. This is even though the Mario Kart series is still raced and loved to this day compared to the mostly dormant (until recently) F-Zero series. During making this blog post, I researched a video on YouTube featuring a race in Super Mario Kart with 101 drivers on track and all of the madness that ensued.

R.C Pro-Am Series.

Those who remember for the Nintendo Entertainment System or later the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive may recall the R.C. Pro-Am series. This game saw two titles on NES and then a "Championship Edition" on Genesis/Megadrive. These games had you control a remote control vehicle around a race track with several hazards along the way. In the sequel to RC Pro-Am on NES, you could upgrade your vehicle and purchase items to gain the edge. The two NES R.C. Pro-Am Games had up to four drivers to a track while the Championship Edition on Genesis/Megadrive had six to a track. You must place third or better to advance and continue the game.

If a system can be implemented where many gamers can compete at once at a number of racing tracks, Battle Royale-type racing would be great for this series. A mini Grand Prix would have to be set up so that a number of drivers can still play for longer.

Excitebike Series.

Excitebike made supercross and motocross fun. While you are not racing for position, you do race to post race times that let you qualify for the next event. You race cleanly for the most part. However, in the mode against other racers, you can clip other racers and force them to fall off of their bikes. A Battle Royale for a game series like this may not have things like exotic items to cause chaos, but it can be a smart way to cause some mayhem in racing.

To show that it COULD be possible to implement a Battle Royale system, I finished one race in Excitebike classic in 48th place. So while I don't think up to 99 racers would be possible to race for position, you could make it to where you host a bunch of races while eliminating the lower-performing riders.

Death Rally (Classic).

3D Realms' Death Rally series has been about combat racing. The original Death Rally in 1996 let you race with vehicles equipped with guns. If you enable weapons in the original Death Rally, you can also shop for more items to deliver more damage.

The safe way is to go with a bunch of 2D racing/driving games. Well now, it's time to look at the 3D racing/driving games that can promote Battle Royale mayhem.

Candidates for Battle Royale Racing/Driving: 3D

Here are some 3D games for Battle Royale consideration...

Destruction Derby Series.

The Destruction Derby series has a lot of hard-fought, wheel-to-wheel racing. The first Destruction Derby had regular races along with a dedicated Demolition Derby mode. The first game basically encouraged you to intentionally spin out and wreck other cars to boost your score. Rounding up a handful of players for multiplayer action would be wild. I am not as educated on any game in the Destruction Derby series after the first game, unfortunately.

Death Rally (2011).

The modern Death Rally in 2011 was not as loved as the classic Death Rally, but a lot of the main combat racing elements still apply. The appeal of a Battle Royale for this game is very much there. However, the idea of a Battle Royale involves having a lot more opposition on hand. Death Rally has up to four racers while the 2011 Death Rally has up to six racers.

Burnout Series.

No single franchise has emphasized and expressed combat racing quite like the Burnout series. Everything from roughing up racers to landing Takedowns make Burnout the most intense racing/driving game series out there. Eliminations would be no problem for a Battle Royale. What I would be curious of, however, is how would you handle the Battle Royale system. Do you eliminate the ones who place last in a race? It would be tough to think about how to implement a Battle Royale-type system in a Burnout. Then again, people still miss the Burnout series after "Burnout Paradise."

WipEout Series.

WipEout basically was made for Battle Royale. Later games in the series had an Elimination event where it is simply you trying to defeat as many opponents in the race while keeping your ship intact. A WipEout Battle Royale is very doable. The most ships on a track at once is 16 in WipEout Fusion. If somehow you could get 16 (or perhaps more) onto a track, this would make for some insane Battle Royale-type racing.

blur.

blur has been described as Mario Kart with real vehicles. Depending on who you ask, blur is either an underrated racing game gem or a very fun and forgotten racing game. It was made by the same people behind the Project Gotham Racing series. I would say if you can develop a game that combines Super Mario Kart with maybe something like Project Gotham Racing, you could have some wild Battle Royale racing with blur.

Grand Theft Auto Series.

The Grand Theft Auto Series has a bunch of races one can take part in. A Battle Royale system could be fairly simple if implemented properly. The biggest title in the series for racing in this ecosystem is with Grand Theft Auto V.

Trackmania Series.

While the Trackmania series never was about wheel-to-wheel racing, it is a racing game where posting the best time for each track is paramount to success. Therefore, a Battle Royale format would eliminate those who do not post fast enough times to stay in a tournament. Since TrackMania games do not involve wheel-to-wheel racing, having a custom/bespoke Battle Royale system would seem pointless. You would have to introduce some wheel-to-wheel racing to make a Battle Royale system possible. Or, you could have a Battle Royale system in the sense of a knockout-style competition. The lower-performing drivers would be eliminated until the higher performing drivers advance.

Of course, these are only ideas to get things started. Maybe you can think of other ideas with your favorite racing games and racing game series.

Battle Royale Racing: Will It Work?

F-Zero 99 at least shown what could be possible with Battle Royale concepts for racing/driving games. I think if certain gamers are into combative racing, it will surely find its niche among the racing/driving game set. Some of the obvious kind of titles I did not include. For example, Wreckfest basically is Battle Royale racing and demo derby. I will leave it up to you to think of how you could make Battle Royale a thing for your favorite racing/driving games.

This is a blog post that has been sitting on my PC for quite some time. It has been until now I decided to complete this post. That is what happens when you have a bunch of topic ideas and do not do anything until later. Anyhow, this is another completed post on "John's Race Space." I hope you enjoyed it! Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Support me further by connecting with me on social media; and if you are inclined, feel free to donate to me (tips/donations are voluntary but would be appreciated). Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Why Play Each Gran Turismo?

2024-06-09T22:46:00.000-07:00

If you never played any Gran Turismo game and want to try some, let me try to sell you on the GTs I have played. This post will be different. Instead of GT in general, it's why you should play each one. So what you will get from me is a look at why you should play (and hopefully enjoy) each of the Gran Turismo games I make mention to. This is all based on GT games I have played. And as a bonus, I'll even include... another Polyphony Digital title towards the end. Consider this my thanks and appreciation to you for taking a look at my blog and even caring to visit. With this said, let's get it!

Why Play Each Gran Turismo

The Gran Turismo series has been the basis of "John's Race Space" as well as for my very first blog. Through my time gaming, I have played most of the major Gran Turismo games. What I decided to do for this blog post is share with you why should play each individual GT that I have played before. That is correct- not why play the series in general, but why play the individual ones. I will share each segment discussing each of the Gran Turismo games I have played and why you should too if you haven't already. The posts will follow reasons based on the following:

• General reasons why to buy/play
• Vehicles, tuning, and customization
• Locations, racing, and license tests
• Summary

With all of this said, let's begin with the O.G.

Why Play: Gran Turismo 1.

The biggest reason why you should play Gran Turismo 1 is to simply enjoy what no racing/driving game has ever done before its inception. This game brought a level of challenge to racing while also introducing a great car culture. Even while the lineup of vehicles is very Japanese-biased, there still were some quality American and British vehicles for some diversity. Modifying and tuning cars you own is also a great experience. You may also be able to turn your street cars into full-on race cars with the Racing Modification. If you do not want to take a street car into racing spec, then do window shopping with the six "Special Model" cars readily available at the Japanese manufacturers for 500K Credits. If anything, get Gran Turismo 1 simply to gauge the potential this game would have towards its future. Remember that this game impacted racing/driving games as a whole; not just for Sony or consoles. It helps you appreciate the humble beginnings of this franchise leading up to the status this franchise enjoys today. All of this... beginning with Gran Turismo 1.

Why Play: Gran Turismo 2.

Gran Turismo 2 should be played because this began the maturation of the Gran Turismo franchise and further establish its identity to gaming and car culture. You can collect a variety of cars across different levels of performance and across different decades. The vehicles also come from many more car companies new to Gran Turismo. It further proves itself as an "encyclopedia of cars." The racing is faster and more intense than what you experienced in Gran Turismo 1. Since Gran Turismo 2 would be the swan song to Gran Turismo on the PlayStation 1, play this game to experience the evolution of the Gran Turismo experience before taking its appeal to the upcoming PlayStation 2.

Why Play: Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec.

Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec offers one of the most exciting and intense racing experiences ever in a Gran Turismo game. What resulted from the "Gran Turismo 2000" project was a game with impressive visuals at a greater frame rate that would elevate the Gran Turismo experience to new heights. While this game has a lot less cars than GT2, Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec has most of its manufacturers return along with some new companies. Have you the money, you could race Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec with the new (at its time) Logitech Driving Force steering wheel for greater precision and realism. This game also debuted racing on wet tarmac. This provided both a new challenge but also some extra focus on the graphical capabilities of Gran Turismo on the PS2. GT3 is both a visual powerhouse and and a mind-blowing racing experience. While Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec may seem like a letdown in some departments compared to GT2 (and even GT1 to an extent), this game still is worth a play to see the evolution from PlayStation 1 to PlayStation 2. I later looked at Gran Turismo 3 as a prettier Gran Turismo 2. This also happens to be a more capable GT title than the others before it despite its faults.

Why Play: Gran Turismo 4.

Get Gran Turismo 4 because it represented the biggest quantum leap in appeal and performance for the Gran Turismo series. Gran Turismo 4 was even becoming intriguing for having online play... until online play was later scrapped. A greater variety of this game's 600 or so vehicles and races means this game will keep you busy. You even can drive some of the very first motorized cars dating back to 1886! Variety in locations let you take on everything from original Gran Turismo tracks to a handful of real-world tracks and real-world locations. If you love your vehicles so much that you want to show them off to the world, try the new Photo Mode. Take pictures while racing or at a number of real-world locations exclusively for photography. While controversial, try B-Spec in most of the races if you are not a good racer or do not have the ability to complete a race on your own. You still have to send commands to your B-Spec racer to properly race. It essentially makes you play the role of race strategist. Races lasting from one lap on a long track to 24 hours on end await you in your quest towards immortality in GT4. The way future Gran Turismo games would shape up, Gran Turismo 4 represents the Gran Turismo experience at its peak. No Gran Turismo before it has delivered on so much hype and anticipation. You may not have online play. You may not have (certain specific auto makers). You still have no real damage. Even without these things, you still have a Gran Turismo experience in GT4 that is as complete and as in-depth as possible. These reasons alone are enough reason to give Gran Turismo 4 a try.

Why Play: Gran Turismo 5.

For its foray into PlayStation 3 power, Gran Turismo 5 delivers on more impressive visuals, greater automotive detail, time and weather variable events and races, the first proper damage model for vehicles, and online play among reasons to play GT5. Influence from NASCAR, the World Rally Championship, and BBC's "Top Gear" play roles in the Gran Turismo 5 experience. The big news with the vehicles in Gran Turismo 5 is the inclusion of three companies finally making their first appearance in a major Gran Turismo- Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Bugatti. Some of the cars come from Gran Turismo PSP, released between the time of GT4 and GT5. For an exclusive experience, this game even features the Red Bull Prototypes offering the most incredible (and sometimes surreal) pure race car experience. You can experience much more docile vehicles like the series debut of go-karts. While your tuning options are deeper, guess what returns (to an extent)? Racing Modifications! Later enhancements to Gran Turismo 5 include collect racing suits and racing helmets to customize your appearance to the Gran Turismo world. Races range from short lengths to 24 hours of racing. A-Spec and B-Spec make a return. The latter now makes you take on the role of a race strategist rather than B-Spec controversially doing races for you. Gran Turismo 5 now let you save during longer races. This is helpful to try to win the long races. I personally think Gran Turismo 5 could have been a much greater game than what we ended up with. However, just to savor the experience of racing and tuning and car collecting, Gran Turismo 5 is definitely worth the purchase and worth wanting to play. The biggest fault is the discrimination of Premium and Standard Cars. It is otherwise still worth your time and money to play.

Why Play: Gran Turismo 6.

Gran Turismo 6 did not do too much to set itself apart from GT5, but it mostly righted some of the many wrongs of GT5. This game delivers what seems to be a more elegant package than Gran Turismo 5. GT5 seemed like too many ideas without great execution. GT6 is not as detailed. I find Gran Turismo 6 to be more inviting to casual racing gamers as opposed to the more adept sim racing set. Now don't get me wrong- the sim-oriented crowd still will get a kick out of this game. It is just that GT6 provides an easier experience for the casual or inexperienced racing gamer. As an extra perk, you even can enjoy playing Gran Turismo 6 with a proper style of astronomical simulation for night races. Gran Turismo 6 is not as fixated on licenses as any other GT. Yet still, you have a bunch of races to choose from across multiple skill levels. You can even take part in events like the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The endurances are now way more condensed than in past GT titles. This may disappoint veteran fans of Gran Turismo but help out new and casual racing gamers. As with GT5, a lot of Gran Turismo 6's racing appeal mostly lies in online racing. If you want to try something unique, take part in the Lunar Missions, whereas you compete in different challenges simulating operating a lunar vehicle on the moon. You also could make your own generated courses like in Gran Turismo 5. Only now, you have just a bit more control than in GT5. Gran Turismo 6 basically is worth the play if you were disappointed with Gran Turismo 5 and wanted something better than what GT5 eventually became. Or if you are not as experienced as a simulation racer, this game is much easier in entry into the franchise than past titles. While this description does not sound too exciting from me, this is still a game that warrants a play and has room for your game collection. It just did not do too much to differentiate itself from the other Gran Turismo games before it. Even still, this provides a marginally better experience than Gran Turismo 5.

Okay. So you made it this far. Congratulations! Let me give you a bonus "Why Play?" to close out this post.

Why Play: Tourist Trophy (BONUS!)

Let me see if I can convince you to add Tourist Trophy to your gaming collection. Check it...

For all intents and purposes, Tourist Trophy is basically Gran Turismo 4 with motorcycles. Despite this, Tourist Trophy operates a lot differently than any Gran Turismo. This game lets you ride and race a handful of motorcycles ranging from scooters to motards to many different sport bikes. Even with a maximum of four motorcycles to a track (including yours), the experience is still a challenging and engaging one. Learn proper riding technique if you intend to win. Remember that riding a motorcycle entails different techniques than in racing a car. You can even intricately set up your rider with elements like height and lean angle. You can also collect gear to outfit your rider. On street bikes, you can have some casual riding clothes to wear. If you're the racing type, collect the different racing suits and helmets. Each bike is featured in great detail from the in-bike view with working gauges and other intricate details. For the ultimate challenge and sense of accomplishment- try to win all five of the Eight Hours of Suzuka motorcycles featured in this game. While most of the tarmac tracks from Gran Turismo 4 return for Tourist Trophy, not all tracks allow for a full field of motorcycles. For the ones that do offer a full field, you still can ride the wheels off of your motorcycle across most of Gran Turismo 4's tarmac tracks. Some of the courses have been modified to include their motorcycle layout. You also get a course exclusive to Tourist Trophy- Valencia (the Ricardo Tormo Circuit). Even if Tourist Trophy is mostly Gran Turismo 4 with motorcycles, it is still a great game to play. This game will let you enjoy the thrill of motorcycle riding and motorcycle racing even if you are not as big a fan of motorcycles.

I tried to include most of the major titles. The ones I have not played or played enough of I didn't review. Those include:

• Gran Turismo PSP
• Gran Turismo SPORT (I may skip this title)
• Gran Turismo 7

Maybe if I get to play them more in depth in the future, I will provide my own thoughts on why you should play these titles.

This blog post is completed for the most part. You may either take part in the next section or skip it entirely if it does not interest you. Your call.

Finding These Games Online

If you enjoyed my post so much as to wanting to find the mentioned games online, use the links to material in this section. Your involvement here is voluntary- meaning it is not required but would be appreciated. Try searching for Gran Turismo games from these services and retailers:

• Amazon and Amazon (video games)
• eBay and eBay (Video Games)
• Walmart (video games)
• Target
• GameStop
• Gamefly

Happy shopping! :)

I hope I have convinced you on why you should play each of the aforementioned games in this blog post. If you liked this post or any of my other work, please Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Support me further by connecting with me on social media; and if you are inclined, feel free to donate to me (donations are voluntary but would be appreciated). Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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"Gran Turismo" Movie Review

2024-05-26T23:39:00.000-07:00

I will review "Gran Turismo" in this blog post. Previously, I had thoughts on this movie. It wasn't until recently I finally found "Gran Turismo" in a store. I can now review it for a blog post. So that is what I'm going to do here for you all. This is different from my previous post, as it is a review. I won't talk about any specific moments and won't spoil anything. However, I will use this space to discuss some specific thoughts on what the movie means overall.

A Note About "Gran Turismo"...

"Gran Turismo" was released in theaters on August 11, 2023 in the United States. I think it was released on August 8, 2023 in some other markets. This movie is rated PG-13 by the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA). It features intense action and some strong language.

"Gran Turismo" Review and Thoughts

Here is where I break down "Gran Turismo" by individual elements. Keep reading to get my thoughts.

^ from: (GRAN TURISMO | Sony Pictures Entertainment) - "Based on the true story of an impossible dream." Welcome to "Gran Turismo!"

"If you miss a line in the game, you reset. You miss it on the track... you could die."

-"Gran Turismo"

"Gran Turismo": Review.

While I will not mention actual content in the movie, "Gran Turismo" is a movie with an engaging storyline. It is based on the true story of Jann Mardenborough, an average Gran Turismo gamer who would go from virtual racing success to world-class professional racer. I think anyone who simply looks at the story like this having knowledge of Gran Turismo, they probably would think this is a silly story. "Gran Turismo" does a good job telling the story of Jann Mardenborough and the British gamer's journey from GT to real-life racer. No part of the movie seems overly dramatized or predictable. I felt connected to Jann, sometimes even to the level of being like a cheerleader for him. At no point of this movie does one would feel Jann makes some serious mistake he can't recover from. Or at least, have one thinking Jann is in over his head and writing checks he can't cash.

Since "Gran Turismo" is based on a someone going from gamer to reality, the movie has a lot of different special effects with a gaming touch. A good amount of 3D and certain other special effects really gives the movie its unique character. Some of the effects, however, seemed a bit cheesy but not unnecessary. The special effects in "Gran Turismo" are not overdone to where you remember this is a movie about a gamer experiencing reality. You even hear Gran Turismo game sounds at moments of the movie also to keep the Gran Turismo vibe going.

As for being any kind of racing movie, a lot of these in decent quality are far and between. It is tough to try to convey and express the full fury of motorsport in a movie like this. "Gran Turismo" does a great job at conveying the full ferocity of motorsports in this movie. Everything from drone camera views to dramatic slowdowns are done in an impressive way. You actually feel connected to the races in this movie.

"Gran Turismo": Impressions.

"Gran Turismo" brings a level of attention to the GT series that speaks to its level of character. Elements of the precision of the Gran Turismo games play into how effective playing Gran Turismo games ties into a lot of the personality of "Gran Turismo." Honestly, it also speaks to the importance and impact of learning of racing through simulation racing as opposed to arcade (or even "simcade"). Before the likes of Jann Mardenborough, I was reminded of NASCAR racer Ty Majeski in regards of going from iRacing to real racing. Jann's story, however (with all due respect to Ty Majeski), is much more exciting and detailed.

"Gran Turismo" gives the impression that anyone could go from virtual racing to actual racing and find a level of success. While we know that is not always true, it does make for an awesome story. Jann just seemed talented enough to hold his own in real racing after many hours playing video game racing.

Here is another thing to consider. "Gran Turismo" could have been some phony story acted and excuted to the quality of most 1990s movies that try to bring video games some movie magic. "Gran Turismo" would have failed epically with a weak fantasy storyline or trying to be like the modern "The Fast and Furious" series. Same as if it had a bunch of cheesy one-liners. However, "Gran Turismo" did not go that route. It would have been a disgraceful way to disrespect what the Gran Turismo game series brings to gaming, car culture, and motorsports culture if "Gran Turismo" went down some cheesy style. In this regard, I actually think it is great "Gran Turismo" chose this based on true story style rather than some completely fantasy story.

Just Some Thoughts...

A story like this probably would be less believable if this was a movie about some casual racing gamer who mostly play arcade racing games and tries to be a professional racer. Same if maybe if the casual gamer was also an illegal street racer that somehow tries to make it big in actual motorsports. yet somehow makes a major impact in real motorsports. This made me think that this story is more authentic and believable that it involves a simulation racing gamer as opposed to an arcade one.

Now let me share with you some final thoughts. Get ready.

"Gran Turismo": Final Thoughts

"Gran Turismo" is a movie that showcases the power of dreams and living your dreams. As long as you are willing to improve your craft and hustle hard, anyone can be a success. "Gran Turismo" is not just a movie based on a highly successful gaming franchise; it is the embodiment of what hard work (and sometimes a little luck) can do. Just another video game player had the opportunity of a lifetime to live out what many other video game players could only dream of. In addition, this gamer put skills learned from a racing game series and applied those practices to reality. Surely there is a difference between virtual and real, but the gamer-turned-professional worked to make a great actual racing career happen.

The crew behind "Gran Turismo" could have made this movie some fantasy deal with a lot of fabricated drama and a lot of poor acting. There was no way, though, that "Gran Turismo" would be any kind of disgrace to what the Gran Turismo series has brought to gaming, car culture, and motorsports. A well-told fantasy or fanfiction storyline would have probably worked better for Gran Turismo, but going this based on a true story approach lends credibility. "Gran Turismo" actually manages to bring together the Gran Turismo gaming experience as well as going from virtual to real racing, all done in an even balance. Anyone who may have never played any Gran Turismo game may probably not realize this movie is based on using experiences from Gran Turismo to try to live a decent motorsports career. "Gran Turismo" not only is about just any racing career, it is instead a racing career competing in top-level racing series and top-level races.

Most of all, "Gran Turismo" is positive and inspirational in the sense that anyone with great potential can achieve great levels of success when given a chance. Jann Mardenborough didn't go through the usual pipeline of doing here-and-there go kart racing or competing in a bunch of grassroots racing series and finally getting scouted by a premier racing team. This individual went through playing Gran Turismo games for hours on end and logging many miles/kilometers playing. Everything else leading to Jann Mardenborough's motorsports success was pure talent and application of skills learned from a game.

This movie also speaks to the level of accuracy and charm of the Gran Turismo game series. No matter how much people complain about any number of issues regarding Gran Turismo games, the fact one gamer played the Gran Turismo games and gained such an education about motorsports most average racers can only dream of only speaks to how special and important the Gran Turismo series is to car culture and motorsports. Equally impressive is how playing a simple game also led to being able to have a great career as a world-class motorsports driver.

A true story, going from gamer to professional athlete, adapting from virtual to reality, the power of dreams and what is possible when given a chance- these are all elements as to why "Gran Turismo" is worth watching. This movie is a solid "A" to me, or at worst, "A-." Watch this movie and/or add it to your movie collection if you love gaming, motorsports, or both. You won't regret it.

Trailers.

I featured these trailers of "Gran Turismo" before in my previous post about it. In case you need a reminder or want to be introduced to it, take a look at these trailers to get an idea of what this movie will be like:

^ GRAN TURISMO - Official Trailer (HD)

And here is another trailer:

^ GRAN TURISMO - Official Trailer 2 (HD)

Remember- "Gran Turismo" is rated PG-13 by the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA). It features intense action and some strong language.

Get "Gran Turismo" Online.

This area is voluntary, so you can skip if uninterested.

If you want to get this movie to add to your movie collection, shop around at these retailers (among others). Remember, this section only is about the movie, not the game series:

• Amazon
• eBay
• Target
• Walmart (video games)

Or for more information about "Gran Turismo," go to GRAN TURISMO | Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Happy shopping!

This has been another blog post on "John's Race Space." I am happy you read my post regarding "Gran Turismo!" Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Support me further by connecting with me on social media; and if you are inclined, feel free to donate to me (donations are voluntary but would be appreciated). Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Figure 8 Strategies

2024-02-29T16:49:00.000-08:00

Some racing games have Figure 8 tracks. Either they are Figure 8 (or some call them "Figure-of-8") tracks where it is not possible to crash at the intersection, or the intersection can lead to crashes if not careful. Games that encourage crashing can make you suspect to getting wrecked if you unfortunately get tagged at the crossover. This is true in games like "Destruction Derby" or "Wreckfest."

Some other figure 8 tracks are simply impossible to have any crash happen at the intersection. This is especially true in the case of maybe the world's most famous figure 8 style track- Suzuka Circuit. Do not worry about the fear of crashing at the intersection on tracks with a bridge or overpass as a crossover.

When faced with a Figure 8 track where crashing happens at the intersection, be mindful of your own speed along with the fact other drivers may be going full speed into the crossover. You may adjust your speed in the crossover if you feel a vehicle may be approaching at a decent rate of speed as you enter the crossover. Be mindful every time you reach the crossover and adjust your driving skills when you can. You will not always avoid getting hit at the crossover, but you can do just enough to prevent from taking serious damage or terminal damage. The one thing to keep in mind is that these tracks are more about survival than actual racing skill. Though, racing skill does help just in case.

I hope you enjoyed this brief, casual blog post! Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Support me further by connecting with me on social media; and if you are inclined, feel free to donate to me (donations are voluntary but would be appreciated). Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Wreckfest

2023-12-13T14:26:00.000-08:00

Great racing involves great car control, mastery of technique, and great fitness. "Next Car Game," later called "Wreckfest" basically says, "man... [expletive] all that [expletive]!". "Drive hard, die last" is its slogan. This 2014 game is all about one thing- wrecking. Bugbear developed the successful Flatout and Flatout 2. This game offers up one of the most enticing experiences of combative racing that anyone can play. It is available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, XBOX One, XBOX Series S|X, Android, and more. This blog post takes a look at Wreckfest.

Wreckfest

^ from: (Wikipedia) - Wreckfest is all about gritty, brutal, and often times hilarious racing action. Drive hard, die last.

Wreckfest is all about full-contact racing. This game is devoid of sophistication and accuracy. All of the machines are junky. All of the tracks likely would be disqualified of any high-grade FIA licenses. The action is more like Saturday night at the short oval rather than a prestigious Grand Prix or endurance racing weekend. What this game lacks in sophistication is made up for with savage and merciless racing.

Career.

Your racing career in Wreckfest takes you through five levels of competition. You begin in the Regional Juniors to try to earn experience. Experience will help you to unlock tuning parts and new vehicles. How well you do in Career events will help you to unlock the next level of competition- the National Amateurs. Keep working your way up through Challengers, Pro Internationals, and to the top level of Career Mode- the World Masters.

Vehicles.

There are four levels of vehicles in this game. The lowest class is the D-Class, and the highest is the A-Class. Vehicles are rated for their performance points (PP). None of the vehicles are licensed. If you know your vehicles, though, many of the vehicles will look similar to any real-world vehicles you may be aware of. The first vehicle you can get your hands on is the Rocket, which is a great all-around race car. You ultimately will need to seek better vehicles to compete in certain other races. Owning any vehicle will allow you to modify its graphics and upgrade its performance. Credits you earn will allow you to modify these vehicles to your liking. Be careful- some enhancements to your vehicle may put your vehicle in a different class, disqualifying you from certain level races. Be mindful of this!

If you do decide to modify your vehicle, you can modify its paint style. It begins with a certain decal package you select. You then can choose the livery style. It ends with you fine tuning the colors for everything. The Painting aspect does not cost any Credits.

Upgrading your vehicle consists of Performance, Armor, and Visual categories. The Performance aspect primarily upgrades all of the horsepower-related aspects of your vehicle. You will be able to outfit your vehicle with better parts as you reach certain levels. The Armor upgrades will help provide strength for your vehicle. This can help your car to last longer in races or in demolition derbies. They can also, however, put your vehicle in a higher or lower class. So if you need certain upgrades to stay within one of the different tuning levels, you may want to choose your Armor upgrades wisely. The Visual upgrades basically give your vehicle a unique appearance. Most, if not all visual upgrades have any impact on your performance. So use this menu to outfit your vehicle to give it a unique touch. Some vehicles can not be upgraded.

If you plan on tuning, you can tune elements of your vehicle. Adjust your Suspension to affect the weight transfer of your vehicle. Tune the Gear Ratio to let your vehicle be tuned for acceleration or top speed. Adjust the Differential to affect the handling character of your vehicle. Finally, modify your Brake Balance to determine what bias your vehicle has, whether with more rear brake bias or more front brake bias.

Locations and Races.

Wreckfest has no shortage of events for you to partake in. Everything from Banger Races to Last Man Standing events are there for you to compete in. As of the time of this blog post, you can choose from 45 different locations. Each of the events have a handful of options for which you to race different configurations or compete in different events. Some tracks may serve only one purpose, such as demolition derby. This game will keep you busy with the various events available. Events can have no opponents or as many as 23 other opponents. Be mindful of performance limitations with events with either lots of drivers or with certain high-polygon vehicles. Same can be said for graphically-intensive and large locations.

You can adjust each of the races to your own specifications. You can choose what vehicles race, the intensity of the damage, AI driver skill, driver aids active, and more. Turning off driver aids and racing on harder levels will yield more experience and Credits earned. Normal-level damage will allow you to deliver as many hits as you like to drivers while also being able to withstand so much damage. Intense damage means you have to be a bit more careful trying to win races. Put the damage to Realistic or Extreme, and even the simplest impacts can seriously damage your vehicle. Be careful at higher damage levels!

While I did not test multiplayer in preparing this blog post, you can also add your own spin to racing types and regulations in multiplayer.

Wreckfest: Playing the Game

Although Wreckfest is an arcade-style game, there is actually some realism to the game. The vehicles actually handle with certain amounts of weight and physics to them. So while this is not exactly Assetto Corsa meets Burnout, Wreckfest has a driving model that is intense with racing and with combat.

When competing in regular races (Banger Races), your strategy may be to do blocking or try to induce opponents into crashes. While the AI drivers may not be thugs, you do have to be mindful that other drivers may try to get you into trouble. Be sure to have strategies for regular racing as well as offense and defense.

Demolition derbies (Last Man Standing) are all about dishing out as much damage to your opposition. Head-on hits can deal the most damage, but you may end up taking more damage yourself rather than what you deal to your opponents. You may want to try to go for T-bone hits or tag fenders so you don't take too much damage to your vehicle dealing damage to others. Any drivers with icons above them are the ones still in the race. Try to take them out as best as you can. The level of damage you set can be a big factor in being able to take damage and deliver damage. So be careful with that setting when doing demolition derbies.

When you do Career Mode, try not to improperly exit races, because you will not win any credits or experience if you quit out of events. Be sure to properly exit to help out your experience and credits winnings. Try to complete all objectives for events. That even includes the bonus ones. Some events require you to win the event to gain points and credit from that event. You may have to spend some time in some events to finally clear them. Bonus objectives are optional and have no impact on your career progression. You do, though, got to get as much experience as you can muster.

One last thing to note is that this game makes it okay to fail. You need not be super serious about trying to win every single event. In all likelihood, you probably will not clear every single event with top honors. Just relax your pace when taking on Wreckfest. Win if you can, but only be focused on winning if certain Career objectives require you to do something to clear the event.

Allow me to express some final thoughts on Wreckfest for you now. Read on...

Wreckfest: Final Thoughts

Whereas sophisticated and detailed racing/driving games rule the roost and set standards for what is considered great racing/driving games, Wreckfest does away with these standards and sets its own standards for what a racing/driving game should be. Nowhere does this game wow people with incredible graphics, laser-precise driving dynamics, or world-class racing facilities; but it does offer racing action just about any racing/driving gamer can enjoy outside of sophisticated titles. Some simulation racers even play Wreckfest for the sheer amount of fun this game provides. Even the first Career event should provide thrills nearly any racing/driving game can provide! This is a racing/driving game you should give a try to play and enjoy. If you prefer sophistication and detail, this is not your title. If you prefer just an intense racing experience while also causing havoc, your needs will be satisfied thanks to Bugbear Entertainment and Wreckfest.

For More Information...

For more information about Wreckfest and where to buy it, visit order.wreckfestgame.com.

That is all for this blog post. I hope you enjoyed this blog post in my racing/driving game blog. Please be sure to Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Support me further by connecting with me on social media; and if you are inclined, feel free to donate to me (donations are voluntary but would be appreciated). Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Flatout 2

2023-12-12T19:42:00.000-08:00

Flatout 2 offers even greater insanity than what the previous title did. While you still race in junky settings, the graphics are cleaner and with more intense action. This 2006 game was released on Windows, PlayStation 2, and XBOX. Allow me to talk about "Flatout 2" for you all in this blog post. Get ready...

Flatout 2

^ from: (Wikipedia) - If you thought Flatout 1 was intense, wait until you try out Flatout 2.

Bugbear Entertainment looked to make Flatout 2 even better than its previous title. Enter "Flatout 2"- a wild combat racing game with fast speeds, brutal wrecks, and intense action. This game is a bit more prettier than the previous game. Actually, a LOT prettier. More cars to choose from along with different environments to race in make "Flatout 2" a game that produces mind-blowing excitement. In a sense, "Flatout 2" delivers action comparable to the Burnout series and with the same sort of lovely graphics.

Career.

The majority of your action will take place in the Career Mode. This is where you can buy vehicles and upgrade them. Earn money through entering races. You will earn money based on your finishing order and from other bonuses.

Vehicles.

Unlike the first game, Flatout 2 features a variety of vehicles and even three different classes of vehicles. Each of these classes offer up different experiences for for the levels of action they provide.

• The base class of vehicle is the Derby class. These cars won't win awards for looking pretty, but they can dish out punishment to each other in some hard-hitting racing action. This will be the class of vehicle you will be able to afford early on.

The Race class is the second class of vehicles and features vehicles tuned for racing. These cars look cleaner than the Derby cars, and they also go faster than the Derby class vehicles.

The third class of competition is the Street class. These are the best-looking vehicles as well as being the fastest ones. They also are the most expensive of the vehicles in Flatout 2.

You can earn more vehicles in each class by progressing through Career Mode. You can also upgrade your vehicles in Career Mode. Each of the vehicles you can own have different drivetrains that affect their performance. When upgrading vehicles, factors such as top speed, acceleration, handling, strength, and more can be adjusted. Take note of what each upgrade does and how they impact your vehicle's performance.

Locations.

Six locations are offered to gamers when playing the circuit races in "Flatout 2." Everything from places under construction to being in a major city are your playgrounds for action in this game.

• Forest - race in environments that include forestry and other natural details.
• Field - race in areas that are in a desert-type setting.
• Desert - race in an arid desert setting.
• Canal - this environment features suburban parts of a city to race in.
• Downtown - race in a downtown setting with highways and skyscrapers.
• Race - compete on race tracks under construction or repair.

Your mastery of these sections will be key to your success racing in Flatout 2.

Events.

You can race in any single race, or you can compete in events like High Jump and Demolition Derbies. For the sole purpose of this segment, though, I will only focus on regular races. You can earn the highest money by winning races.

These are the event types outside of the Career Mode:

• Single Race - enter a single race across any of the regular venues in the game.
• Single Stunt - you can enter special stunt events. There are many to choose from.
• Single Event - compete on special tracks.
• Single Derby - compete in a demolition derby against seven other opponents.

In any of the events in the game against other opponents, you can earn bonus credits for accomplishing certain feats. Among them:

• Best Wrecker - deal the most damage to other drivers.
• Blast Master - deal the biggest hits.
• Fastest Lap - post the fastest lap of the race.
• Bulldozer - score the highest amount of damage to the scenery.

You can actually wreck out opponents in races. Your racing strategy may range between trying to finish 1st to trying to take out your opponents. The main goal is to try to finish as high up the standings as possible in race events.

I'll offer some final thoughts now on Flatout 2 next.

Flatout 2: Final Thoughts

"Flatout 2" takes its sequel and intensifies the action and graphics by leaps and bounds. If you can contain insanity into a racing game, this game embodies insanity. The action is relentless no matter what events you take part in. All of which, occurring with few hitches in performance. Suffice to say, this is an excellent title to play, even if you are not into arcade racers or into demolition-type racing games.

You might have luck finding an old game like "Flatout 2" from secondhand dealers. Try these sites and look for "Flatout 2" if you wish to buy it:

• Amazon (PC games)
• Amazon (video games)
• eBay (PC Games)
• eBay (Video Games)
• Gamefly
• GameStop
• GOG.com
• Steam

Happy shopping! :)

I thank you for reading this blog post! If you enjoy my work, please Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work and want to support me any way you can. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Flatout

2023-12-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

(UPDATED: December 12, 2023)

Just because there is contact in most motorsports doesn't mean it is a contact sport. Well, in the world of Flatout, racing IS a contact sport. Show no mercy to your opposition or prepare to lose. Bugbear Entertainment made this fierce racing game and released it in 2004 to PlayStation 2, XBOX, and PC. I will be sure to provide some insight on this game for you all.

LATEST UPDATE(S)/REVISION(S):

DEC 12 2023 - some simple edits

Flatout

^ from: (Wikipedia) - Flatout is all about full-contact racing and other shenanigans.

Normally, I identify as a simulation racer. I don't get into things like combat-style racing much. However, I felt the desire to climb into the style of combat racing by picking up some racing games on GOG and Steam. One of the games I got is this game I am about to blog about- Flatout.

Flatout takes place with raggedy vehicles racing around on various junky locations. Think about racing in places under construction and with many parts of the track subjective to slam drivers into. Combative racing is encouraged in this game. While you can't wreck your car in races, you can deal some great damage to other vehicles. This game was originally released in 2004 in Europe and 2005 in North America.

Career.

Your racing career consists of a handful of races to take part in. At the Bronze level, you compete in nine different races. You have to finish 3rd or better to unlock more events. Clearing the Bronze class will open entry to the Silver class. Keep going until you reach the final class of races!

Vehicles.

You can race any vehicle in Flatout available to you, but have to choose one to be your primary vehicle for your adventures. Vehicles are judged by horsepower and weight. Each vehicle costs a certain amount of Credits for you to own. Owning a vehicle allows you to upgrade its performance. You can upgrade Engine parts to enhance your vehicle's horsepower. Drivetrain upgrades will enhance your transmission. Suspension upgrades will enhance the handling of your vehicle. Tires will help your handling. Body upgrades will help strengthen your car but also add weight. These are among the different upgrades for your vehicle.

Locations.

Each event goes through tracks with lots of construction and other obstacles. You can use the environment to your advantage to lead other cars into wrecks. Other locations let you compete in non-racing events such as the High Jump. High Jump is where you eject your driver out of the car and try to get that driver to score the highest-possible score after three rounds.

Racing.

Races have a maximum of eight cars to a track. You have Nitro available to you for that speed advantage. You earn Nitro by running over on-track objects like cones and signs. The more you run things over, the more Nitro you earn. You can use the Nitro at any time for whatever length of time you wish to use it. For you to unlock more races, you will need to place 3rd or better in each Career race. Try to win the races for the maximum reward. Wrecking objects on track can also lead to earning bonus money.

If you can spin out cars or lead them into crashes, they can help you to gain the edge. Hit something head-on hard enough, and the driver will be ejected from his/her car. Whatever it takes to win, go for it!

For the non-racing events, like High Jump, be sure to do as the directions tell you in order to complete these events with high marks.

Now that you have some insight on Flatout, let me offer some final thoughts on it.

Flatout: Final Thoughts

Flatout does away with sophistication and hyper-realism and instead goes for full-contact racing. Even if you are the type that prefers precise racing, part of you still wants to go wreck your opposition playing a game like this. This is combative racing that isn't overdone or in some sort of dystopia setting. None of the races seems overly frustrating to win. The bonus events are a nice diversion from having to race all the time. Many of the bonus events are going to be rather brutal. Yet still, this game remains fun for the most part. This game will be worth your time and energy to play. So get out there and enjoy some racing in Flatout!

I tried to find a video to preview this game, but I couldn't find a brief or concise video showcasing this game.

Since Flatout is an older game, you may have luck buying this game from secondhand dealers or from certain online retailers. Try your luck at these sites:

• Amazon (PC games)
• Amazon (video games)
• eBay (PC Games)
• eBay (Video Games)
• Gamefly
• GameStop
• GOG.com
• Steam

Thanks for visiting and reading! Happy shopping! :)

I hope you were able to get your look at "Flatout" and get some insight on it. If you enjoy my work, please Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work and want to support me any way you can. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Maximum Speed

2023-12-05T00:24:00.000-08:00

"Maximum Speed" was made by Sammy (now SEGA Sammy) in 2003 to arcades. This game looks to provide the thrill of traditional American racing to the masses. This game is in arcades and for the Dreamcast. This blog post is NOT a review of this game because I have not played it in any capacity. This is merely a look at the game. But having said that, let's discuss this game!

Maximum Speed

The appeal of "Maximum Speed" is in its attempt to capture the appeal of major American racing. To that end, the game features three types of vehicles racing on six different tracks. The goal of Maximum Speed is to try to win the race. You get the ending if you finish 3rd or better.

Your journey begins by picking a class of car, picking a track, choosing a team, and then automatic or manual/standard. Afterwards, it's time to RACE!

Vehicles.

Three types of vehicles are available to you to race with:

• The STOCK cars allow you to race stock cars around any given course. These cars reach speeds in excess of 210 mph (or ~338 kph). They are seen as the "Technical Race" class.

• The TRUCKS are the least powerful machines in the game, but these trucks are still a handful to race. The "Wild Race" style of competition reach speeds of up to 170 mph (or ~274 kph).

• The OPEN-WHEEL cars provide a "Superspeed Race" and are the most powerful and fastest machines in the game. They will blow your mind at 250 mph (or 402 kph) top speed.

Each type of vehicle will be sure to give you the sort of thrills you want in a game like this. After selecting a track, you will then choose between what team you want to race with. Thunder Racing is the all-around average team, Blaze Motor Sports has cars with great acceleration, and Falcon Racing Team has vehicles with the fastest top speed.

Tracks.

There are six tracks in Maximum Speed. All of which, are fictional and encompass different styles of track. Difficulty in racing each course ranges from one star (easiest) to three stars (hardest). Here is a look at the six tracks:

• Liberty Hall Raceway is an egg-shaped oval similar in layout to the Twin Ring Motegi oval. The first two corners have a fairly large radius, while the last two corners are shorter in radius. It is 1.5 miles (or 2.41 km) in length. It is rated as one-star difficulty.

• Breeze Hill Raceway is a high-speed oval with some elevation changes and tunnels. It is 1.5 miles (or 2.41 km) in length. This track is rated at two difficulty stars. It is the only course raced at sunset or evening.

• Wizard Grove Raceway is a 1.5-mile (or 2.41 km) road course rated at three-star difficulty. The biggest factor in lap times here is in how you handle the series of sweeping right-left-right corners leading to the start/finish line.

• Styled like the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, Mirage Motor Stadium is a quad-oval at 1.5 miles (or 2.41 km) in length and two stars in difficulty. All four corners are identical in length and profile. It is the only course in the game run at night.

• Totempoint Speedway is a tri-oval run in a clockwise direction. It is 1.7 miles (or ~2.74 km) in length and rated at one-star difficulty. Its layout resembles Pocono Raceway. Each of the three turns have different radii and degrees of banking to them.

• Rodeo Peak Speedway is a winding high-speed road course with an interesting layout. After each straight, a medium-length right-left chicane follows. Keeping a consistent line is the biggest challenge with this track. It is 1.5 miles (or 2.41 km) long and rated at three-star difficulty. This track is sure to deliver a storm of excitement... and not just from the cloudy/stormy weather at this track!

You surely will get your fill of action playing this game on these tracks.

Racing.

When it is time to go racing, races usually last about six laps long with no pit stops. Tracks can have anywhere between 20 to 26 vehicles to a track (including yours). The road to pit road is blocked off, so don't worry about trying to do any pit stops during the course of the race.

My Impressions of "Maximum Speed."

To me, "Maximum Speed" seems more like a poor person's combination of "Daytona USA" and "Indy 500" mixed into one, and it fails to be as exciting as either game. It is fairly mediocre despite having some exciting moments from time to time. The AI is a bit brain dead as well. "Maximum Speed" is more like "Maximum Mediocrity."

Video Preview.

To give you an idea of this game, take a look at this video:

^ Sammy Atomiswave MaximumSpeed ...

Now you have an idea about the game I've reviewed for this post.

Those, however, are MY opinions. Feel free to think as you please regarding "Maximum Speed." Remember this was not a review of the game because I haven't played it myself in any such way. If you enjoy my work, please Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work and want to support me any way you can. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Gran Turismo Movie

2023-07-26T18:59:00.000-07:00

Gran Turismo has provided 25 years of awesome in gaming. Now, it takes its appeal to the movie theaters. The Gran Turismo movie will hit theaters on August 11, 2023 in the United States; and it will tell the real story of one person going from Gran Turismo gamer to a real-life racing star. I wanted to blog about this movie before it officially is released in theaters. This topic may be a diversion from what I normally post in "John's Race Space," but everything featured in a post has to have some sort of connection to racing games or driving games. So this post is about a movie inspired by a racing/driving game series. So here goes...

BEFORE I BEGIN...

Please note I am not any kind of movie buff. I rarely watch movies. So do not assume I can tell you anything and everything about movies. Everything provided in this blog post is primarily opinion-based.

If I make reference to the Gran Turismo movie, it will be in quotation marks (""). Okay- let's get it!

A Note About "Gran Turismo"...

"Gran Turismo" will be released in theaters on August 11 in the United States. I think it will be released in August 8 in some other markets. This movie is rated PG-13 by the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA). It features intense action and some strong language.

"Gran Turismo" Movie

^ from: (YouTube) - "Based on the true story of an impossible dream." Welcome to "Gran Turismo!"

"If you miss a line in the game, you reset. You miss it on the track... you could die."

-"Gran Turismo"

Gran Turismo has grown to be a highly successful racing/driving game series since its circa 1997 roots. The racing game not even its creator would think be any kind of immense success basically became one of the greatest racing game series ever. The Gran Turismo series has legions of fans worldwide who have many fond memories of action across the multiple games in the series. Everything from going full speed and taking on some of the most intense races to collecting cars as if they were Pokémon have helped Gran Turismo become what it has become.

For those reasons, some people think the idea of a Gran Turismo movie seems silly. Why would you want to potentially bring down the appeal of the Gran Turismo series by making a movie? Why would you even want to take a chance expressing Gran Turismo's appeal into a movie? Well, let's make one thing clear. "Gran Turismo" is the telling of a true story. It is the true story of Gran Turismo gamers becoming professional racing drivers. So it is not as if the "Gran Turismo" movie is some purely fictional deal put together becoming a hot mess of fail.

Let's get one thing straight- this movie is NOT going to be full of cheesy one-liners and fabricated action like you may see in the "The Fast and the Furious" series. So I doubt this movie is going to be something that could have been some student's project or final for some class about 3D modeling or movie production. Remember that "Gran Turismo" is based on a true story. If you're going to re-enact a true story, it's best to be as real as possible. Throw in your usual thoroughfare of Hollywood effects, of course; but be true to the story.

Many people would think about something like the "Initial D" series as the Gold Standard of automobile/motorsports-based movies or cartoons. Sure, Initial D involves a much different discipline of automobile culture, but it is what a lot of people would think about in terms of racing games (or even manga) turned into movies.

Initial Concerns.

The one thing to be skittish about is if something like the "Gran Turismo" movie would fall in line with a handful of other games-turned-movies. Usually such projects mostly are cheap ways to cash in on a game's success or try to mooch for some extra money. Many people were disgusted with how the "Super Mario Bros." movie of the early-mid 1990s ended up. Even more people did not like the "Street Fighter" movie of about 1994. I don't really know how people felt about the "DOOM" movie featuring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. There was even a "Need for Speed" movie, and I'm not even sure how that movie ended up.

Lately, though, some more modern games-turned-movies have actually become pretty good. The newer "The Super Mario Bros." movie seemed to perform much better than the live-action Super Mario Bros. movie from the 1990s/ The recent "Sonic the Hedgehog" movie series have done pretty well in theaters. So maybe you have some hope that "Gran Turismo" will not flop based on more recent games-turned-movies based on success of recent movies.

Would a More Fictional Storyline be Better?

I actually imagined if I made my own fan fiction about an up-and-coming racer going from grassroots to Gran Turismo World Champion. If you are going to tell a more fan-made story as opposed to what the "Gran Turismo" movie is going to be about, a serious risk is being taken. The wrong sort of execution can make even the most well-devised story become an absolute flop.

If Sony and company wanted to make a more fictional story regarding Gran Turismo, they'd probably make one in the vein of being in the Gran Turismo ecosystem. It could be the story of one or multiple people trying to climb up the ranks of Gran Turismo to go from earning the B-License to becoming Gran Turismo World Champion. Therefore, I do not think it is entirely a bad idea for the "Gran Turismo" movie to take on this true story mindset rather than make something completely fictional. It is this "virtual reality to total reality" that I think will give the "Gran Turismo" movie its appeal.

How Will "Gran Turismo" Fare in Theaters?

I do not think "Gran Turismo" will be one of the all-time greats in raking in millions to billions of US dollars. I don't see it taking on "Top Gun Maverick" or "Barbie" or anything for top grossing movies. While I hate to use this word in regards to Gran Turismo, I do see "Gran Turismo" being a good niche movie for those into the Gran Turismo series. My hope is maybe those not into cars and not into racing can maybe find something to love about "Gran Turismo." I know there are lots of people not into racing/driving games or not into simulation racing games. "Gran Turismo" may possibly intrigue people into playing the Gran Turismo game series. Even if not about racing/driving games, this movie may encourage others to simply follow their dreams, not even knowing where their love and passion will take them. So there is a lot to take away from "Gran Turismo" prior to it hitting theaters.

A lot of things can go right for the "Gran Turismo" movie. Conversely, a lot of things can go wrong for "Gran Turismo." It all depends on what the critics say and how fans view this movie.

Don't even think of "Gran Turismo" as make-or-break for the franchise. It is not as if the Gran Turismo series is struggling to remain relevant that making a movie is a last resort to stay afloat. This is still going to be a gaming franchise loved and admired by adoring fans. I don't think "Gran Turismo" is going to damage the appeal of the Gran Turismo franchise unless the movie goes far off the path of the Gran Turismo series to a lackluster direction.

Could Other Racing/Driving Games Follow Suit With "Gran Turismo?"

Oh, imagine if Grand Theft Auto got its own movie. Imagine if Ridge Racer got its own movie. Imagine if Forza Motorsport and/or Forza Horizon got their own movies. There's even a series on Peacock involving the "Twisted Metal" series. Based on how well (or not so well) "Gran Turismo" does, you know other game franchises may want to take their shot at making a racing/driving game movie to challenge "Gran Turismo." Any other racing/driving games potentially getting a movie will be possibly telling fictional material as opposed to the true story nature of "Gran Turismo." It is still very well possible other directors may be coming up with their own movies based on racing/driving game franchises.

Trailers.

Most of you who have followed my work know that I do not show any sort of media until the end. So at this point, here is where I share some media with you all. Take a look at these trailers to get an idea of what the "Gran Turismo" movie will be like:

^ GRAN TURISMO - Official Trailer (HD)

And here is a more recent trailer:

^ GRAN TURISMO - Official Trailer 2 (HD)

I am not a movie watcher. However, if I was going to see "Gran Turismo" in theaters or at home, I surely would see this movie. I wasn't as intrigued about this movie until I saw the second trailer.

Once "Gran Turismo" is released proper in theaters, we all can make our own critiques about it. What say you, though?

Are you intrigued about "Gran Turismo?" How do you think it will fare in theaters?

This is kind of a departure from discussing racing/driving games in this blog, which is what it is normally about. Though, everything discussed in this blog has some kind of connection to racing/driving games. I hope you enjoy my efforts here. If you enjoy my work, please Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work and want to support me any way you can. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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What If: Gran Turismo Legacy?

2023-06-08T19:05:00.002-07:00

"Legacy" can be a bad word. It is not a good word when something isn't dead. With that said, though, what would a legacy Gran Turismo be like? We think of a legacy collection as a way to remember something as it heads into its sunset. Gran Turismo is far from being "dead." Though, many could argue today's Gran Turismo Sport is not like any classic Gran Turismo title. One has to wonder what would be a proper sendoff or culmination of what all GT has brought to the proverbial table. It should be a collection that brings together elements from all Gran Turismo titles into one incredible package. Question is... how would you compile everything? How would one game compiling all of Gran Turismo be like? I have some ideas that I want to share in this blog post. Anyone who may be reading this and want to comment is (of course) free to do so.

About the Label: "GT Legacy"

This post is a series here on "John's Race Space" which focuses on what a Legacy collection of Gran Turismo would be like. It is based on a number of factors, including vehicles, locations, races, and more. It doesn't mean Gran Turismo is "dead" with no chance of improving upon what it has already improved upon. However, it also is a look at what a proper Legacy collection of Gran Turismo would be like for future generations to remember what all Gran Turismo has done and how far the series has come. This Label may feature a number of different individual posts specifically mapping out how Gran Turismo should be remembered for years to come.

About the Label: "Legacy"

Any discussion of legacies of racing/driving games are discussed under the Legacy category. This can include a basic discussion of a game series or an all-in-one game package compiling the very best of certain racing/driving game series.

Gran Turismo Legacy: Making Of

^ Let's envision what an all-in-one "Gran Turismo Legacy" game would entail with this blog post...

Gran Turismo has been around 1997 and 1998. In its time, there have been a handful of items that made the franchise exciting, fun, and entertaining. Some other elements, sadly... not so much. A legacy package that combines elements of all of the past GT titles into one will have to be something that takes at least something from past GTs and brings it all together in a past-meets-present manner.

GT Legacy: Vehicles.

Gran Turismo has always been an "Encyclopedia of Cars." These cars have ranged from real-life automobiles to tuned/fantasy models based on real cars. Everyone who has played through any and every Gran Turismo has had at least one favorite machine to tune and/or race. They are also aware of the various levels of tuning as well as being aware of all sorts of vehicles.

• I still go insane on the notion that I took a Mitsubishi 3000GT (also called the GTO) and tuned it to be a 240 mph demon that just does nothing but win races in Gran Turismo 1.

• I enjoyed racing both the Honda S2000 GT1 and the Toyota GT-One Road Car in GT2. And of course, I have to recall using that Suzuki Escudo Pikes Peak to dominate certain races.

• I have enjoyed using the Formula GT cars that I unlocked. I also have enjoyed using the Toyota GT-One and the Mazda 787B in my time in GT3. I was even impressed with machines like the Gillet Vertigo and the Tickford V8 Supercar. My only real regret was selling the Toyota GT-One Road Car.

• There were a number of street cars I enjoyed tuning in GT4. On the racing front, the Pescarolo prototypes and the Nissan R92CP are total beasts! I also enjoyed the Honda S800 Race Car, the Suzuki R/4 concept car (when tuned to the max), the Toyota RSC Rally Raid Car, and the Toyota Tacoma X-Runner.

• Seeing the debut of Ferrari was great, as I enjoyed using my Ferrari F430 in GT5. There were some great times using my tuned Lotus Evora also. The Red Bull prototypes were totally unreal and awesome. It was also a joy to try out the different go-karts in GT5, though I would loved a superkart experience as well. As a first for the series, you can use paint colors from your cars to paint over automobiles. So if you want to replace that boring green color on your car to a crimson red color, you can do just that as long as you have the proper paint color in your collection!

• I thought it was amazing in GT6 to take the already fast Pagani Huayra and make it even faster with some power upgrades. 260+ mph never seemed so scary in such an amazing supercar. Also, this is the first Gran Turismo to offer Base Model racing cars for you to race and paint. These Base Model cars can be painted up using various paint colors in your collection. And unlike in GT5, any color you have in your collection could be used for any car that can be re-colored without worrying about buying some car just to have a copy of that same color. This game had all kinds of unique vehicles- even including a Lunar vehicle and the controversial Deltawing race cars.

(REMEMBER: I have NEVER played Gran Turismo SPORT as of the time of this post (March 6, 2019)
• I think Gran Turismo SPORT is a dream game in regards to compiling a series of racing vehicles in its own racing world.

A number of real and fantasy machines in GT games have helped shape each one equally. While it is mind-blowing to imagine all the various vehicles that have graced the Gran Turismo realm, it would be equally interesting to imagine combining as many past and present machines into one package. This even includes wondering modern interpretations of past vehicles. For example, would you ever wonder what the Honda Civic Del Sol LM Race Car be like? What about the Toyota Chaser LM from GT1? Maybe you wonder what the Mazda RX-7 LM Race Car would look like if given a modern makeover? Maybe you'd love nothing more than to race the Renault Espace F1 around the Nürburgring Nordschleife. You also have to take into consideration damage modeling, interior design, and things like that. You could even see modern variations of Racing Modified cars. So instead of seeing certain liveries restricted due to copyright issues, you could see more accurate versions (granted they are not alcohol or tobacco or sports betting companies) of racing liveries.

A Legacy collection would even open the possibility of driving certain cars previously not included in past GT titles that could have been raced for their time. One example could mean you could race a Ferrari convertible or Porsche convertible in the Spider and Roadster races. A more interesting example would be being able to race the old Lamborghini Diablo GT from the Japanese Gran Turismo 3 well before Lamborghini properly entered the Gran Turismo realm starting with Gran Turismo PSP. Perhaps imagine if you were doing Gran Turismo 1's style races, you could race the KTM X-Bow or the Light Car Company Rocket!

GT Legacy: Locations.

No Gran Turismo experience is ever substantiated without quality venues to compete in. Gran Turismo's location appeal became twofold once GT4 introduced Photo Mode. A number of courses evolved in subsequent versions of Gran Turismo. So let's look at Gran Turismo's legacy in regards to locations.

• Since GT1 was a relative unknown, we were first introduced to the world of Gran Turismo through a lot of the different venues. Some of the top-level venues were High Speed Ring, Grand Valley Speedway, Special Stage Route 5, and Special Stage Route 11. Trial Mountain and Deep Forest Raceway shown to be tough tracks as well. Autumn Ring and Autumn Ring Mini also became fan favorites.

• GT2 was the first to feature licensed tracks and actual locations. Rome Circuit and Seattle Circuit offered a nice view of the world. Grindelwald was the first Swiss venue in GT history. Laguna Seca Raceway became the first real-world race track featured in the series. Other favorites of the fictional variety include Red Rock Valley Speedway and Motor Sport Land. Also, GT2 was the debut of rally racing, so that added to the appeal of locations. Great tracks like any of the Tahiti courses and Smokey Mountain North were some of the better off-road venues. Albeit abbreviated, you could also race the iconic Pikes Peak Hill Climb either uphill or downhill.

• GT3 was unique in featuring some tracks on wet tarmac. The game featured the first real-world temporary course when Cote d'Azur was featured. Cote d'Azur is basically GT's version of the streets of Monte Carlo, home to the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. Swiss Alps was a great off-road course that debuted in GT3. This game also featured Tokyo Route 246, even including Polyphony Digital's headquarters before moving from Tokyo to Fukuoka. This game also included a challenging fantasy course called Complex String. It was more a test track than a practical race course.

• Gran Turismo 4 is important location-wise in having a combination of racing venues and non-racing venues. To me, GT4 had more of a "see the world" aspect to it. So this game had a combination of real and fictional courses. El Capitan was one of my favorite courses in GT4. The course based around Yosemite National Park was a great course. MotorLand was a great short course. A handful of city courses made up GT4, ranging from urban locales to Old World style cities. New York was the main attraction in GT4's development. At the same time, Citta di Aria and Costa di Amalfi were both intense challenges on their own. You could even race in Hong Kong and Seoul among others. For the first time in series history, venues on snow and ice were featured. You can race around Ice Arena and Chamonix if you fancy snow and ice locales. Most important to a lot of people location-wise, you could race Circuit de la Sarthe as well as the Nürburgring Nordschleife. These are two historic and long racing venues. On the Photo Mode front, you can take pictures of your cars in any of the different race tracks. However, you can also visit a variety of real-world locations to flash pictures of your vehicles. You can visit locales like Las Vegas, New York City, Boston, and Venice among other places.

• Gran Turismo 5 had a combination of real world and fictional courses, but it also offered certain environments used in the creation of custom race tracks. Sadly, none of the classic off-road locations from GT4 returned in GT5 (I am NOT counting the newer Chamonix). The creation of race tracks with certain environments made for a very interesting rally racing experience in GT5. Race courses could even be raced on in different times of day and/or with weather conditions. This added to the appeal of racing certain locations. A lot of the classic Gran Turismo venues either didn't show up or didn't take advantage of the newer time and variable features. You could still photograph your cars in a variety of settings, but there were significantly less Photo Mode venues in GT5 than in GT4.

• Gran Turismo 6 offered the first-ever Australian venue with the inclusion of Mount Panorama Circuit. Environments return for custom tracks in GT6, but away is the rally aspect of GT6. Later in GT6's development was a fictional course called Circuito de la Sierra, a lovely long course utilizing the Spanish countryside. You can even race around a track in a sports arena with GT Arena. An interesting perk of GT6 was how it had proper star locations from star charts at night. As for real locations, you can actually race on the moon with the Lunar Missions.

(REMEMBER: I have NEVER played Gran Turismo SPORT as of the time of this post (March 6, 2019)
• Gran Turismo Sport offers a great variety of different racing facilities. However, it is disappointing a lot of the classic and original racing locations- such as Grand Valley Speedway and Special Stage Route 5- are missing.

Even different versions of certain locations have evolved and have character different from other variations. Take High Speed Ring, for instance. High-Speed Ring was a very nice circuit in GT1 and GT2. When GT4 came out with this course, High Speed Ring had some newer water sections as well as a little bridge. GT5 made things a bit more beautiful for this course.

GT Legacy: Competition.

Let's look at a GT Legacy in regards to different competitions.

• All of the competitions are pretty much basic circuit racing. You can practice, qualify, and race on just about any course. The Test Course was available to test acceleration and top speed. Spot Races allowed for quick races without needing a license. Races last anywhere from two to five laps. A lot of the races allow you to compete in almost any trim. Some races, however, have certain rules. Some series prohibit the use of Racing Modified cars. You can even race three different Endurances. As long as you can make the time to run the Endurance races, these are great to compete in.

• Gran Turismo 2's race structure had a number of races restricted by horsepower. There were far less championship series in GT2 compared to GT1. You could not simply enter any car you want. You have to make sure you had a car that did not exceed the horsepower requirements for races. Tone down the horsepower as much as you can to compete in certain races. Rally racing is simply a one-lap time trial against a ghost driver. Beat the ghost, and you win! This game also debuted One-Make Series. There are races that require you to have a certain car for which to compete in one race on a random track. Some Race Events require your car have a Racing Modification to compete in another race. You can not use a Racing Modified car in a Normal Car Race. Watch the Demo events to get an idea of what cars you can use for these Race Events.

• Gran Turismo 3 is fairly exclusively circuit racing. You can now save in Championship Series. So maybe you can work to try to win all of the races by being able to Save when you like. GT3 rallying is done in one-on-one, wheel-to-wheel racing. You even can run in a race on wet tarmac for the first ever time. Even the first timed endurances in series history is in this game.

• Gran Turismo 4 has a number of great races to choose from across a number of categories. Different individual halls of racing offer different racing experiences. You can even run one-off races as well as certain photo drives. Controversial to GT4 was that of B-Spec races, which many have said is the game playing itself for you.

• While Gran Turismo 4 was to promise online play, it never had proper online play. Gran Turismo 5 had a level system that allowed you to race certain events and own certain cars. You can race a number of events, even being able to do in-race saves for longer racing events. B-Spec returns, but you now can be like your own team owner to raise B-Spec racers as quality racing talent. For what seems scarce for racing events in GT5, you can do many more styles of racing online. There are a lot of special series and events you can take part in to get into many more styles of racing with many more styles of cars. You are racing machines in Special series ranging from go-karts to the unreal Red Bull prototypes. Besides circuit races, you can compete in Time Trials and Drift Trials. Compete in Seasonals offering a variety of races for a good amount of prizes.

• Gran Turismo 6 is a lot more restrictive in letting Performance Points (PP) limit a lot of the races. So you can't use your Le Mans Prototype to defeat Kei cars or sport compacts. This means that at least the official style races are more competitive. A lot of the different race types and such from GT5 have carried over into GT6. However, GT6's races have seemed more dumbed down than GT5's races.

(REMEMBER: I have NEVER played Gran Turismo SPORT as of the time of this post (March 6, 2019)
• The use of classes for Gran Tuurismo SPORT bunches up the different cars into a nice assortment. How the classes are handled are unique in their own right. These designations allow for interesting races of the original and custom race varieties. You can be rewarded or admonished based on maintaining a certain Safety Rating. Racing foolishly and constantly making driving errors can hurt your Safety Rating. Good driving and practicing proper racing skill will help your Safety Rating. So you are best served to drive professionally and properly to get the best results. GT SPORT has mostly been online-exclusive until providing more offline races.

GT Legacy: Sounds and Music.

I am not making any serious concentration towards things like music. However, the music and sounds of Gran Turismo are as much of the character of Gran Turismo as any other game franchise. Some people consider sounds as the weakest link of the Gran Turismo series. Sounds began to improve ever so much as future iterations of Gran Turismo came about.

With music, there is no denying there is something for everyone. Most people will usually fancy rock music more than any other genre of music for any game, let alone Gran Turismo. A lot of others love some good electronic dance music (myself included). However, Gran Turismo games have offered a lot of classy style music with its jazzy musical offerings. It also excels with wonderful lounge and chill music. While a lot of people may argue racing/driving games shouldn't have jazzy or chill style music, you can at least appreciate their presence in a Gran Turismo game. Most people will immediately hark towards composer Daiki Kasho for a majority of the more memorable Gran Turismo songs. It was Gran Turismo 4 that debuted classical style music. Though mostly, these Classical songs were slightly remixed and modern pieces so they don't seem too much like study music. Gran Turismo 5 was the first Gran Turismo to allow for your own playlist of music to be used in menus and races. So even if you don't like the music provided to you in the game, you can always listen to your own music.

It would be possible to combine some of the most popular songs from Gran Turismo games into a GT Legacy collection. You could even incorporate favorites from "Tourist Trophy." It would be an amazing compilation to have at least some of the most popular songs from Gran Turismo games past into a Legacy collection. So you could be racing the modern Deep Forest Raceway listening to songs from Gran Turismo 1 or Gran Turismo 2. The music could range from get-you-going songs like "Lose Control" by Ash in Gran Turismo 1, all the way to even include the baby-making or night-of-passion song "Farewell" by Satoshi Bandoh.

GT Legacy: Tuning and Features.

Over the course of Gran Turismo's existence, tuning and various features have helped shape the series to what it is today. As the series matured, the level of tuning and the accuracy of featured models became more meticulous. So what tuning options were great for Gran Turismo 1 wasn't going to cut it for realism with Gran Turismo 4. In addition to tuning options, different factors including the environment and certain damage modeling greatly impact how a vehicle performs in a Gran Turismo game. Remember how you could get away with running Super Soft tires in non-endurance races in Gran Turismo 1 and Gran Turismo 2? Well, those tires won't work too well in non-endurance races in GT3 on out. Piling on horsepower will make you go faster, but your vehicle may not be able to perform very well in future GT games. That's why your Mitsubishi GTO/3000GT with a Stage 4 Turbo in GT1 may not be up to snuff against Le Mans Prototypes or even high-end GT racing cars from future GT titles.

Gran Turismo Legacy... What About the Motorcycles?

There was a reason I didn't mention "Tourist Trophy" in regards to Gran Turismo's legacy. The simple reason is because Tourist Trophy is its own game outside of the realm of Gran Turismo. I questioned long ago the future of motorcycles in the Gran Turismo realm. If Gran Turismo wanted to encompass their cars as well as their motorcycles into one collection, then this "Legacy" collection will need to include Tourist Trophy, unless Polyphony Digital may somehow want to revive Tourist Trophy and give it new life. That is why I labeled a section as "Vehicles" and not exclusively cars.

If Polyphony Digital wanted to try adding motorcycles, it will need to include various motorcycle-specific courses. For example, including Suzuka Circuit into this GT Legacy collection would mean including the motorcycle course for which the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race takes place on. Cars could even race a motorcycle configuration if one wants to race on a motorcycle course. Tourist Trophy even had Valencia (Ricardo Tormo Circuit). It has never been featured in a Gran Turismo.

What if "Gran Turismo Legacy" Had Motorcycles?

A few things would need to change to update the formula. For one thing, you could buy motorcycles and tuning parts rather than try to win them in Challenges. You could also purchase rider gear rather than unlock them. While the roster of motorcycles in Tourist Trophy is impressive, it SERIOUSLY would need an update to feature a lot of today's motorcycles. There are a lot of fine motorcycles out now compared to Tourist Trophy's 2006 release. For example, we have newer machines such as the updated Honda Goldwing and the Ducati 1299 Panigale R. There could even be vintage Vespa scooters that could be featured. They may even try to incorporate supercross, motocross, and supermoto with various dirt bikes. If PD wanted to, they could even include tricycles and even UTVs. Heck- even Forza Motorsport 7 has the Polaris RZR Spec!

Having these additions would only improve Gran Turismo's impressive lineup of vehicles.

Gran Turismo Legacy: Final Thoughts

This blog post was mostly meant to be a post to introduce the concept of a Gran Turismo Legacy. To build a proper post and look at this topic, a number of different topics and talking points have to be mentioned. Anyone who has followed this blog knows I try to follow everything as detailed as possible. So to that end, I did all I could to try to post as many different opinions and talking points as possible. If you would like to contribute to a look at what a Gran Turismo Legacy game would be like, then feel free to offer your thoughts here.

I will be working with this topic as much as I can with topics under the "GT Legacy" label. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this blog post. I am grateful for all of the support I get from the greater public-at-large. If you enjoy my work, please Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work and want to support me any way you can. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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My Retrospecive on 30 Years of Ridge Racer

2023-05-10T21:39:00.000-07:00

In October 1993; NAMCO (now Bandai-NAMCO) created Ridge Racer. It has been a franchise characterized by fantastic drifts, sometimes at high speeds. It has withstood the test of time and has delivered many an amazing experience. The year 2023 marks 30 years of the Ridge Racer series. While this blog post was not intended to be a cumulative look at the Ridge Racer franchise, I do want to pay some respect to this franchise and what it has brought to racing/driving games.

Ridge Racer at a Glance

Thirty years of Ridge Racer, and it all began with this:

^ from: (Glitchwave) - As of 2023, 30 years of awesome from the Ridge Racer series.

The Ridge Racer series has always been about fantastic drifts. Earlier games in the series have had soundtracks that were mostly quirky. The cars were mostly fictional. The majority of games in the Ridge Racer series were on the Sony PlayStation consoles. However, games in the series did find their way onto the Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS, XBOX 360, and mobile devices. This game also features a handful of past NAMCO titles on the cars, so the Ridge Racer series even stands as a commemoration of past NAMCO titles such as Pac-Man, Mappy, and more.

Why Should You Care?

The Ridge Racer series has its own charm as an arcade racer. You are not going to be playing these games for accurate driving dynamics or amazing engine sounds. No. You want to want to slide around corners like a maniac. That's what these games provide. Whereas some later arcade games would be gritty, offer up illegal street racing action, or allow you to destroy the world around you to try to win; Ridge Racer is all about enjoying speed and just overall good times. Ridge Racer games are simply about enjoying high-speed racing with not much frills or fluff.

Besides the provided action, Ridge Racer was one of the first games to take advantage of fully-textured polygons. The action ran smoothly, but not as smooth as Daytona USA or even Virtua Racing.

My Retrospective on 30 Years of Ridge Racer

I'd like to offer my own thoughts on various Ridge Racer titles, even including those I don't consider as true Ridge Racer games. Again- this post is NOT meant to be a proper tribute to the Ridge Racer series. This is mostly a commentary piece. (NOTE: I will only provide comments on Ridge Racer games I've played or seen before. I will NOT feature every Ridge Racer title, which means I will not be covering the PSP and PSVITA Ridge Racer games.)

Ridge Racer.

From the flashy action to the eccentric announcer, "Ridge Racer" holds a place in many peoples' hearts. Its quirkiness just made it so fun to play again and again. The Ridge Racer action was fun whether at arcades or at home. If you were fortunate enough, you may even see a theater arcade game version of Ridge Racer held in a Mazda Miata. The first Ridge Racer offered a handful of different features. For one, you could notice day become night and night become day. Besides trying to win all of the races, the ultimate form of gratification was to defeat the black No. 13 car in the Time Trials. If a driver is able to acquire the feared 13th Racing car, the player will have the most powerful and fastest car in the game.

The PS1 version of Ridge Racer was unique in that you could play a quick game of Galaga as the game loads. (Something happens) if you manage to clear that quick game of Galaga in the PS1 version of Ridge Racer.

Ridge Racer 2 (Arcade).

Ridge Racer 2 is an arcade game that doesn't seem too much different from its previous title. You still had the same tracks to race on, just with some different songs and graphics.

Ridge Racer Revolution.

I have no experience with Ridge Racer Revolution. What I do know, though, is that you can now battle against this white car that is super powerful. You also race in a new locale that mixes downtown with some beachfront and some country roads. You can enjoy a more tropical setting here. This new locale will challenge you for sure.

Rave Racer (Arcade).

"Rave Racer" was a rather gritty title. Enhanced graphics and some faster cars made up this title. You could also race in a number of different environments ranging from a more industrialized city to some rural areas. The game also featured some more stylish cars to choose from with enhanced graphics details. You can also enjoy some cool music while getting your racing on. It also had an edgy rock girl featured with a skull necklace, a black top, jean short shorts, black tights, and combat boots.

Rage Racer.

Ridge Racer was about to get a bit more serious with the advent of "Rage Racer." The game series that was so colorful and quirky now just got serious. This 1996 racing game exclusive to PlayStation 1 delivered some wicked racing on a very challenging locale. You could race on four different courses. It also was the first game where you could spend credits to buy cars and enhance their performance. You start off in a more-than-capable Gnade Esperanza but work your way up to the Grade 4 (Manual only) cars and even the unique Assoluto Ghepardo.

"Rage Racer" even had something never before seen in a Ridge Racer game- actually licensed sponsors. The game featured sponsorship from Yokohama and ADVAN. You could also paint up your cars and adjust their driving characteristics. Each of the game's four tracks take place in a locale that combines a lot of urban setting along with some challenging country roads. You will see tall hills, cascading waterfalls, Greek island style buildings, and a lot more. It was also the first Ridge Racer title to feature an oval among the racing venues. While most road racing fans may not be attracted to ovals, this at least provides an interesting challenge.

If there was one thing that this game surely brought, it was the game's mascot- Reiko Nagase. This was an early form of Reiko Nagase as she would forever be tied into Ridge Racer lore in future titles.

This is actually one of my favorite racing games on PS1. I was glad to play and enjoy it for the time I played it. I recommend it to any PS1 gamer or PS1 game collector.

Ridge Racer Type 4.

"Ridge Racer Type 4" could best be described as the ultimate swan song for Ridge Racer on the PS1. RRT4 (or R4) was released in 1998 with the best graphics of any Ridge Racer title on PS1. R4 was all about Real Racing Roots '99- an eight-race season taking place in Japan and the United States in 1999.

The game featured 80 cars for you to unlock across four different teams. If you manage to get them all, you can unlock one more car. So in total, you could unlock 321 cars in R4. Unlocking all of those cars, however, will require you to race the RRR championship in different ways... including finishing in certain positions for certain races. Dare I say it- this game's awesomeness even rivals Gran Turismo 1 and Gran Turismo 2!

Whereas past Ridge Racer games had mostly quirky dance music, Ridge Racer Type 4 had a great array of dance songs. A lot of them had jazzy or lounge style flow to them. A few songs even had a rocking edge to them. This game was beginning to mature a bit more with this title, at least, on this front. The game has amazing music. This game even got me to appreciate the singing of Kimara Lovelace. However, there were two songs I didn't like in the game- and "The Objective."

I spent lots of time playing and enjoying this game. Each time I play it, I just get so enamored and immersed in the fabulous racing experience this game provides. It doesn't get old or frustrating in the least sense. Even for fun, I pretend Real Racing Roots is still a thing and pretend certain races of the year are coming up. So for example, when it's New Year's Eve, I pretend it is, "Real Racing Roots (the current year) in... Shooting Hoops!" The thing I loved most about this game is that it has the best drifting dynamics of any Ridge Racer game. Even the Grip cars from Terrazi and Age Solo were excellent driving machines.

RRT4 had an interesting bonus to it, which sets things up for the next section...

Ridge Racer Turbo.

Exclusive to PS1 and included with Ridge Racer Type 4 is "Ridge Racer Turbo." Think of this more like "Gran Turismo Hi-Fi" for Ridge Racer. "Ridge Racer Turbo" is basically an enhanced version of Ridge Racer 1 but runs at 60 frames per second. As cool as this sounds, a lot of sacrifices were made to make this game run on PS1 hardware. For one, there are no day-to-night cycles or a full field of cars. This is no true Ridge Racer; it is more a tech demo.

Ridge Racer 64 and Ridge Racer DS.

I am putting together RR64 and RRDS because they are basically the same game on different hardware. Ridge Racer 64 was the first non-Sony, non-arcade Ridge Racer title. RR64 had a look and feel of the classic Ridge Racer. You could race on tracks from the original Ridge Racer and from Ridge Racer Revolution. However, you could also race a brand new locale that takes place in a desert setting. There is also a new Ridge Racer Extreme course you could unlock that takes place at night on a completely new track.

Since Ridge Racer 64 was on a Nintendo 64, one of the perks of playing it was local multiplayer for up to four players. You also didn't have to worry about long loading times since everything is accessible on a cartridge. The graphics were not as impressive on the Nintendo 64 as on the PlayStation 1, but the action was still pretty intense.

You could compete in Duels to win new cars. All you have to do is defeat certain cars in a one-on-one race to add that car to your garage. Can you acquire them all?

I mostly rented Ridge Racer 64. For the times I played it, it was a great game to play. I always considered the RT Ryukyu to be my "Old Reliable" in racing. I enjoyed listening to "Manual Overdrive" and "Speed Nation" in this game. This game had a lot of influence from Digipen, a school where aspiring game developers honed their skills. There is even a Digipen car you can unlock in this game.

The later "Ridge Racer DS" had most of the features and cars of Ridge Racer 64 but optimized for the Nintendo DS hardware. Some different cars are in the game apart from the ones offered in RR64. The game also has a different lady featured besides Reiko Nagase; it instead featured the antagonist of a future Ridge Racer game (explained later in this blog post).

Ridge Racer V.

A PlayStation 2 launch title, Ridge Racer V blew the minds of many a Ridge Racer fan with beautiful graphics and intense racing. Ridge City is your race track, and you have many different locales for which to compete in the city's events. Everything you love about classic Ridge Racer is enhanced completely. It even features an incredible soundtrack with a lot of hard-hitting beats and instrumentals. You have much fewer cars to choose from, but this game delivers the goods. While Reiko Nagase may not be in this game, Ai Fukami is in. What some people may not know is that there was an arcade version of this game made by Konami.

Ridge Racer V can be played on three different difficulties. You can choose to race in Easy, Normal, or Hard modes. There is even a bonus championship if you clear all the Hard races. You had to finish in a certain position to advance through the races. Try to win them all if you can. Perhaps to rival Gran Turismo, there is a race you can unlock called the 99 Trial- a 99-lap race around Sunny Beach. Make time for that one!

This game had you unlock new cars but also new engines. You had Standard engines, Extra engines, and Oval engines. You had some Duel cars to unlock. You take on Duels the same way in Ridge Racer 64 or even RRT4. If you got all of the Duel cars, there is a special race you can compete in only consisting of Duel cars.

I think Ridge Racer V is one of the loveliest games on PlayStation 2. Even with jagged textures, it still is one of the most beautiful games on PS2. Yes- this game I put among the most beautiful PS2 games even with the likes of Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, Gran Turismo 4, Final Fantasy X, and a bunch of other PS2 titles. And this game was a LAUNCH TITLE!

I enjoyed a lot of the music in this game. The beat style of these songs was great to listen to along with the instruments. The soundtrack was becoming a bit more intense and not as chill as RRT4's music. I found the most fun racing the Kamata Fortune. I also enjoyed the Rivelta Mercurio. Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game and still do.

R: Racing Evolution.

Once at an E3 convention, I thought "R: Racing Evolution" was Enthusia Professional Racing or something. This game may not be a true Ridge Racer game, but it was an interesting diversion. "R: Racing Evolution" is a simulation-oriented racing game.

Unlike other Ridge Racer titles, this one has a storyline to it. You play as an ambulance driver-turned professional racing driver named Rena Hayami. Rena's primary rival is Gina Cavalli. You race real cars and even race on some licensed courses like Twin Ring Motegi. A big part of this game's racing appeal was in pressuring other drivers. The more you try to slipstream or trail racers ahead of you, you rattle their minds into having them make mistakes. Pressure them enough, and you can pull a sick overtake on them.

I wish I played more of this game. If you ask me, this game seems very underrated. It even has a very nice soundtrack. My favorite song in this game is "Liquid Soul." Even if this game doesn't have the appeal of a classic Ridge Racer game, it has a very good racing focus that makes it intriguing.

Ridge Racer 6.

Exclusive to XBOX 360, Ridge Racer 6 gave Ridge Racer fans on XBOX 360 a dosage of awesome. Much more beautiful graphics and more intense game play were what this title provided. I played a little of it on my cousin's XBOX 360 for a bit. You could enjoy classic and newer songs in this package. In addition to the lovely graphics, RR6 provided a more futuristic touch with the tracks and the cars. It still maintained the classic Ridge Racer look and feel. That is... wait- is that a Nitrous system? YES! You could race with some nitrous by charging them up with drifts. This made for some intense drifting while also adding an element of strategy for races. You could enjoy XBOX Live racing with Ridge Racer 6 if you fancy some multiplayer racing action in the Ridge Racer realm.

Ridge Racer 7.

Among the PlayStation 3 launch titles was Ridge Racer 7. RR7 picked up where RR6 left off. This Ridge Racer allowed you to purchase vehicles and customize their appearance. A more serious style soundtrack with many more artists made up the music for this game. This game also featured an even more futuristic appeal to it.

You will be speedfreaking all around Ridge State and compete in the UFRA. Upon completion of the main game mode, you can try some more intense races that are very challenging to win. The many tracks to this game will test your racing abilities. You can compete in a handful of different race events to earn money and unlock more content. It will keep you busy for sure!

The amount of depth this game has is incredible. It is the deepest Ridge Racer you will ever play. I enjoyed the experience. It felt like a true Ridge Racer game while not being overly foreign or exotic- even including the nitrous system. I'd enjoy the game more if I had more luck in the more extreme races. However, I been so trash at those races that I have not given much thought to trying most of the other races.

Ridge Racer 3D.

Released in 2011 for the Nintendo 3DS, this is perhaps the last true Ridge Racer game. Beautiful graphics, cool cars, and intense racing make up this beautiful racing game. I have no experience with RR3D, except that I wanted to include this as being the last true Ridge Racer title.

Ridge Racer Unbounded.

Easily the most gritty, extreme Ridge Racer game ever conceived is "Ridge Racer Unbounded." Never have I been intrigued to play it. You could think of "Ridge Racer Unbounded" as NAMCO's and Ridge Racer's answer to Burnout or Split/Second. This is NOT a traditional Ridge Racer game. It was not even developed by the classic Ridge Racer team. In addition, this was the first(?) Ridge Racer you can play on PC. Since I am not into the Burnout scene much, I can't say I would play this. If you want the appeal of destroying the environment and even destroying your car, "Ridge Racer Unbounded" will serve you well.

I guess if you wanted a gritty racing experience in the realm of Ridge Racer, this is the game you should play. Since I have no experience with this game (and since I usually think of this game when I hear of "Need for Speed: Unbounded") I can't offer any comments on this title.

Ridge Racer Slipstream.

"Ridge Racer Draw and Drift" is a Ridge Racer title for mobile devices. The way you compete in this game is to draw a drift line and then execute drifts in said sections. I never played this game. I have, though, seen some videos about it. It has some annoying voice acting that was a turn off for it. Then again, this is not a proper Ridge Racer title.

Whew! That was a lot of retrospective! So with 30 years of Ridge Racer, will we ever see a true Ridge Racer title again? How should Bandai-NAMCO commemorate 30 years of Ridge Racer?

How Should Ridge Racer's 30th Anniversary be Commemorated?

Fans of the Ridge Racer series would hate to see one of the most successful racing/driving game franchises not be celebrated in any such way. So what I want to do here is talk about what could be done to maybe honor or recognize 30 years of this franchise. These are not what Bandai-NAMCO SHOULD do, but more like what I think could happen.

OPTION 1: Offer Special Merchandise or Memorabilia.

This may be what Bandai-NAMCO could do. This could range from special mixes of past Ridge Racer songs, maybe launch a line of collectible model cars of the most famous vehicles in Ridge Racer history, or even have some clothing. This would seem quite likely.

OPTION 2: Offer Ridge Racer-Related Downloadable Content.

Maybe for the most popular Bandai-NAMCO games, you could have stuff like giving your avatar Ridge Racer-themed material. Maybe you could have a special version of Pac-Man where instead of Pac-Man, you control the Pac Racing Team against with the ghosts being other teams. This would seem likely while also being kind of a cheesy way to remember 30 years of Ridge Racer.

Do these sound boring so far? Well, check these next ideas out:

OPTION 3: Create a "Legacy" Collection of Ridge Racer Games.

Imagine being able to race some of the most famous (and infamous) vehicles and tracks in Ridge Racer history. I think the collection would come with some fancy and updated graphics, but imagine if you could race the Crinale around the very first Ridge Racer track. Maybe imagine if you could race RR1's RT Ryukyu around Bayside Line from RRV. Maybe you want to race a fully upgraded Danver Hijack from RR7 around Rage Racer's tracks. Imagine if Real Racing Roots took on the tracks and atmosphere of Ridge Racer 7. One of the great things about the Ridge Racer series is that all or most of the vehicles and tracks are fictional, so you won't need to worry much about licensing issues. This would be a challenge to try to rework a lot of past Ridge Racer games to make a modern legacy collection where you could race almost any Ridge Race vehicle around almost any Ridge Racer track- even including arcade and portable Ridge Racer titles! This seems like a great idea, but I have great doubts it will ever happen. If this did materialize, I'd say it starts small but then gets bigger and better with updates and downloadable content (DLC)

OPTION 4: Create a Ridge Racer-Inspired Game.

Rather than make a totally new Ridge Racer game, come up with a successor or a game that pays homage to Ridge Racers past. This would seem likely by an independent developer rather than the Ridge Racer team. This COULD happen, but I think more people would want to see a true Ridge Racer game with all the furnishings that only a true Ridge Racer game can provide.

And finally...

OPTION 5: Make a Brand-New Ridge Racer Game.

Let's give this the hypothetical title of "Ridge Racer 8." Fans been waiting since Ridge Racer 7 or Ridge Racer 3D for a true Ridge Racer title. Let's say the Ridge Racer team (or some other developer) wanted to make an authentic racing experience worthy of being called a Ridge Racer. Either this new Ridge Racer would follow the futuristic style of RR7, or it maybe goes with cues from the PlayStation 1 Ridge Racer games. Maybe we get a Real Racing Roots for the 21 Century and with many more cars and with many more teams. Or maybe... Ridge Racer goes back to its roots from 1993 and not be so overly fancy. You know- like how MegaMan/RockMan 9 and MegaMan/Rockman 10 went back to a classic 8-bit style as opposed to the beautiful work of art that was MegaMan/RockMan 8. Maybe we see challenges in a "Ridge Racer 8" similar to "R: Racing Evolution" like rally, drag racing, or maybe even drifting. We could see many of the past cars and manufacturers return alongside some new ones. And what about the likes of Reiko Nagase? The feared RT Solvalou? Could the 13th Racing car return? Where will all the racing happen? What music will fuel the "Ridge Racer 8" experience?

This would be the ultimate dream for any Ridge Racer fan to see a true successor to Ridge Racer 7 and continue the franchise. However, these ideas are too good for us, and I'm sure Bandai-NAMCO doesn't care too much to even entertain the thought of "Ridge Racer 8." This is VERY unlikely to happen. The best chance of this happening is if some other dedicated developer makes a Ridge Racer title as authentic and as complete as any true Ridge Racer game.

I hate to wish this to my fellow Ridge Racer fans, but dream on if OPTION 5" is what you are hoping for.

Special Offer

If you want to search for Ridge Racer series games online, please be search around on these sites for "Ridge Racer" listed below. Your involvement is voluntary, but it would be appreciated:

• Gamespot
• Amazon
• eBay

Happy shopping! :)

Retrospective, speculation, and memories... thank you for checking out my blog post regarding celebrating 30 years of Ridge Racer. Here's a question if you care to discuss:

How do you think Bandai-NAMCO should celebrate 30 years of Ridge Racer?

If you enjoy my work, please Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work and want to support me any way you can. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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All-Star Racing 2

2023-01-07T16:46:00.001-08:00

A year after "All-Star Racing" was released, along comes "All-Star Racing 2." The same tandem of Kung Fu Games and Mud Duck Productions give you another round of racing goodness only they can provide. HOW good, though? You're going to have to find out by reading this blog post. So let's go!

All-Star Racing 2

"All-Star Racing 1" showcased four different disciplines of racing. "All-Star Racing 2" features different styles of vehicles in a variety of different racing challenges. It was released in 2003 for PlayStation 1 by Kung Fu Games (developer) and Mud Duck Productions (publisher). This game was released towards the sunset of the PlayStation 1.

Get ready for four different styles of racing featuring five tracks in each of those styles.

The Modes.

You can choose between Start and Options. Options will allow you to adjust difficulty and lap distance. You can input your name after choosing a Game Mode.

Bikes - prove your racing mettle on two wheels.
Karts - race with agile go-karts on competitive kart tracks.
GP - race the high-speed, highly-fragile formula-type racing cars.
Trucks - go road racing in over five-ton semi-trucks with over 1000 horsepower!

Once you select a mode, you input your name. You then go to the next menu.

The Tracks and Vehicles.

Like how each mode in "All-Star Racing" has its own set of tracks, the same applies to "All-Star Racing 2." However, unlike the previous game, each mode have five tracks to them. After picking a track, you then select which vehicle you want to use. You go racing afterwards.

The Racing.

You will be competing in however many laps you set the lap counter to (3 to 15 laps). There will be six vehicles to a track, yours included. Try to win using whatever vehicle you are using. Each of the vehicles have different handling characteristics. For you to win, learn the ways of your machine and try to win on the tracks for that discipline of racing. Go for the win!

Let me provide some final thoughts for you all on "All-Star Racing 2." Please read the next section.

"All-Star Racing 2" - Final Thoughts

"All-Star Racing 2" improves upon "All-Star Racing 1," but it is still not an overall good game. At least the different vehicles feel different from one another. Each discipline feels like a different game. Despite this, more can be done to make "All-Star Racing 2" a better game. It is serviceable at best.

While this game still feels like it could be at least decent, at least not every vehicle feels the same but in a different aesthetic. The more dedicated racing gamer will not be impressed in the sense of no qualifying, race weekends, tuning, or championships. This is simply a racing game to enjoy racing but with no real incentive or replay value. Once you complete everything, that's it. The Memory Card is actually used in this "All-Star Racing 2" unlike "All-Star Racing 1."

The vehicles all feel different. The Bikes are tough to control, and it really feels like you are trying to move your weight properly to handle better. These races can be tough. The karts are quick, and you'll need to be attentive and active to try to win with these karts and on kart tracks. The GP machines is basically Formula 1. They are the purest racing and most capable racing machines in this game. The Trucks, while unrealistic to real semi-truck racing, offer a decent challenge trying to drive these monsters on the track. They will keep you busy for sure. No matter which vehicles you race with, they are all met with the same shaky driving/riding model and fidgety AI.

You can still do better than "All-Star Racing 2," but you can't really do too much worse. At least this is better and more of a game than "All-Star Racing 1." "All-Star Racing 2," though, still falls short overall as a quality racing game.

Video Preview.

Get your video insight of "All-Star Racing 2" here:

All-Star Racing 2 ... (PS1) Gameplay

Hopefully this blog post has given you some insight on this game.

That's all for this one. If you enjoy my work, please Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work and want to support me any way you can. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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All-Star Racing

2023-01-06T20:40:00.001-08:00

All-Star Racing challenges you to prove your racing mettle across four different disciplines of circuit racing. This game came towards the sunset of the PlayStation 1. If most people moved onto the PS2, then did people care for this game? All-Star Racing gets the attention of me and this blog for this blog post. So come along with me and get my thoughts on "All-Star Racing."

BEFORE I BEGIN...

HAPPY NEW YEAR (2023)!!!

All-Star Racing

Most people moved on from the PlayStation 1 to the PlayStation 2 when "All-Star Racing" was released in 2002. "All-Star Racing" was developed by Kung Fu Games and published by Mud Duck Productions. The game challenges you to take on four styles of circuit racing. Pick a discipline, pick a car, pick a track, and go race. It is dirt simple.

The Modes.

There are four disciplines to choose from when you start the game. Take a look:

Supercar Challenge - race with some sports cars.
Classic Cars - race with some classic automobiles.
Stockcar Frenzy- take on the intense realm of stock car racing.
GT Racer - race in full anger with high-powered GT race cars.

Once you select one of the game modes, you will be greeted to a screen that lets you choose between starting the game, game options, or going back to the main menu. They all operate the same, only with different fonts and graphics. So don't expect any purely unique experiences among the modes.

The Cars.

You have a choice of three cars to use through your racing adventure. Pick one and go racing.

The Tracks.

Each of the four disciplines of racing feature three tracks each unique to each style of racing. With no reverse or mirror options, you have a total of 12 tracks in this game. You can go into the Main Menu to adjust difficulty and lap count (from 3 to 15). It is a fairly straightforward process.

The Racing.

Six cars can be on the track at a time, including yours. Your job is to [obviously] win the race. Try to outlast your opposition as best as you can.

Now that you have an idea about this game, allow me to review it for you.

All-Star Racing: Final Thoughts

If you were reading this blog post being unimpressed with how I am discussing "All-Star Racing," there's a reason for that. That is because this game is absolute trash. No replay value, no incentive, completely boring experience, and lackluster game play. This "all-star" effort is more like an all-star effort on making a PlayStation 1 game as a class project rather than a complete game people would enjoy for years to come.

Qualities that makes most racing games fun is tough to find in this game. This is an arcade-style racing game that tries to surpass "Gran Turismo" and "Gran Turismo 2"... and fails miserably. If this is an all-star collection, what is this an all-star collection of- the same game with four different aesthetics? That's all this game is. Don't even think about trying to set up your car or go for the best lap times because this game doesn't even utilize your Memory Card. You don't even get to choose between Automatic or Manual/Standard- all cars are automatic transmission. The tracks themselves will take up about 50-70 seconds of your time for each lap. There are not even pit stops or damage to this game. As for the cars themselves, it's a matter of personal preference which is better. Even if you beat the Lap Record for each track, you don't get recognition or anything exciting for it.

The racing is not much better either. The game has a shoddy driving model and a twitchy collision system. On Easy difficulty, do not be surprised if you win the race by at least five seconds if you are a semi-decent racing gamer. You don't even get any fancy graphics or honors for winning a race.

The only things "All-Star Racing" gets right is that it works and is playable. Other than that, you don't need this game unless you're trying to add this to some collection. There are much better racing/driving games you can play on PlayStation 1 than this one. "All-Star Racing" is all-fail racing. You COULD use this game to simply learn how to make a simple racing game... then try to make something much better.

Video Preview.

If you would like a video look at "All-Star Racing" to see if your thoughts differ from mine, take a look at the following video:

^ All-Star Racing ... (PS1) Gameplay

I hope I swayed your interest on this game in case you were curious.

I hope you enjoyed my post. If you enjoy my work, please Subscribe/Follow my blog(s) in any capacity if you love my work and want to support me any way you can. Share my blog post(s) with others if you enjoy my work. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Half-Life Rally

2022-02-08T06:59:00.001-08:00

Half-Life is one of the greatest games ever. The Half-Life series itself is one of the best gaming franchises ever. Half-Life couldn't possibly make for a racing game, right? Well, modders thought otherwise. Meet Half-Life Rally. Half-Life Rally utilizes the GoldSource (or GoldSrc) engine and built a racing game mod around it. This blog post takes a look at this mod for Half-Life.

Half-Life Rally

Although Half-Life is an excellent first-person shooter and first-person shooter series, there isn't much to making a racing mod for it. However, the GoldSrc Engine for Half-Life is told to be entirely versatile. Versatile enough... to be the base of a racing/driving game mod. Now before you go thinking this game mod will replace any of your favorite racing games of its time, think again.

Half-Life Rally lets you take on a series of tracks consisting of open circuits and closed circuits. All of the cars you can choose from are real-world rally cars. Many of them, though, may be fictional to avoid copyright issues. You can race any number of the included venues offline or online. Funny enough, this game even has some maps where a bomb is attached to your car, and you have only a certain amount of time to drive around with that bomb. Other than that, get ready for a cracking good time racing!

If you intend to download the Half-Life Rally mod, you must use the original "Half-Life," NOT the "Half-Life: Source" version.

Half-Life Rally: Experience.

To begin "Half-Life Rally," you must set up a server, either online or offline. You then select what map you want to use. One thing you may want to note is the prefix of each map name. Seeing "ab" means a point-to-point. "RC" is a closed-circuit rally course. "HC" notes a location with your car having a bomb attached to it. You then go ahead and set lap distance, time between races, and other options. Once you have everything set, it's time to race!

When you begin a race, you then select what car you want to use. Each car is rated for Acceleration, Handling, and Top Speed. Acceleration concerns how quickly the car gets up to speed. Handling affects how well the car can take on turns. Top Speed relates to the maximum speed the car is capable of. You start off with $600 to customize cars. That is not much, but once you complete a race, you will earn credits to use to buy performance parts. You can buy tires, exhausts, intercoolers, and turbo systems to improve the performance of your car.

When actually racing, you are trying to clear checkpoints. Your co-driver will tell you when you clear a Checkpoint. Keep track of the checkpoints you clear. If you miss a checkpoint, you will need to go back and clear it. The best way to ensure you clear a checkpoint is to drive through the center of the checkpoint gates or markers. If you are doing races with time extensions, you need to clear checkpoints in time. You can change car views at any time during the event. You may even add bots to race against when offline.

Half-Life Rally: Final Thoughts.

Half-Life Rally is a great mod utilizing the GoldSrc Engine. The graphics look great, and the driving model is actually quite good. It is sometimes a bit of a bug to think you cleared a checkpoint but really didn't. It happens in Half-Life Rally. At times, the game crashes as I raced; however, those crashes were not frequent and consistent. Some people talk about the game crashing upon loading. I didn't have such loading problems. It is a solid mod no matter how you look at it. This game will not replace "Colin McRae Rally," but it is a very good rally experience using the engine from the award-winning "Half-Life."

For More Information...

Learn more about "Half-Life Rally" by visiting www.hlrally.net. If you bought Half-Life on Steam, you need to use the original Half-Life to play this mod, NOT the "Half Life: Source" version.

Video Preview.

Here is a sampling of what "Half-Life Rally" has to offer:

^ Half-Life Rally (2004) - Every PC Rally Game

I tried to find some real trailer for "Half-Life Rally," but this was as best as I could find and share.

Proton Rally (Bonus Section!)

Developed with the GoldSrc engine and developed in the same vein as "Half-Life Rally" was an unreleased game called "Proton Rally." This game utilized models from Proton, a Malaysian automobile company [that even once made a motorcycle competing in MotoGP]. This game is nowhere to be found online for what I know. However, I will provide you this video as kind of inspiration for modding ability with Half-Life Rally:

* Proton Rally - Half-Life 1 Rally Mod

Again- no further information on this game/mod is known. To read an article about "Proton Rally," visit the following: Proton Rally game based on Half Life engine.

That is all for this blog post! I hope to see you again when I make another post, whenever that will be. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Quake 3 Rally

2022-02-07T18:48:00.002-08:00

(UPDATED: February 8, 2022)

Quake 3 Arena is a fairly decent first-person arena shooter. However, it couldn't possibly make a decent racing game, right? Well, since 2002, the team of Quake Rally has worked to make racing happen for the Quake series. There have been Quake Rally titles for the first Quake and for Quake 3 Arena. For this blog post, however, I only will focus in on Quake 3 Rally. Welcome to "John's Race Space!"

NOTE: This blog post only concerns "Quake 3 Rally," not the very first "Quake Rally."

CREDENTIALS: I am using the Mod version of Quake 3 Rally, not the standalone versions.

About the Label: Modding

Topics listed under "Modding" relate to mods for games. Relevant to this blog's subject matter, these mods include racing games and driving games to any number of game engines. Even game engines and games that are not racing/driving games may be featured in blog posts under this Label.

Quake 3 Rally

Quake 3 Rally brings a racing environment to the Quake 3 ecosystem. You will be able to race a variety of vehicles on a handful of tracks. You can race tracks in the Quake 3 Arena realm exclusively for racing. Races happen either offline or online. You may elect to run races, deathmatches, or capture the flag.

Quake 3 Rally: Experience.

I only used the offline action. These allow you to race locally by yourself or against bots. Each track allows you to race for a certain number of laps, choose time limits, choose the track length; and if offered, you can choose to race certain tracks normally or in reverse.

If you go to the Options menu, you can configure a number of elements to get into the action. You can set up whatever vehicle you will use. You have options for the vehicle that you can select. You can go further by picking a skin for your vehicle along with the wheel choices and whom you use as your driver. From what I can tell, there is no difference in performance regardless of what vehicle you choose. So your choice comes down to personal preference. It is recommended you save your favorite combination of vehicle, its skin, and the wheels by marking it as a Favorite. You can save up to four Favorites.

You can download more vehicles and maps and just drop them into the Quake 3 Rally folder if you are using the Q3 Rally mod (like I am for this review). Quake 3 Rally's website features some more material you can download.

Once the track loads, you must press "Fire" or "Use" to start the race. A wait follows along with the race starting proper. You must try to find as many different resources as possible to help your cause and finish the race. If you are defeated, you can press "Fire" to respawn at the last checkpoint you cleared. You will take damage upon each elevation change and hitting walls. Considering the frantic nature of certain race tracks, do NOT expect a perfect, damage-free race. You WILL take damage in some form as you race. Some tracks don't even have health pickups of any kind, so do not be surprised if you are defeated on a track that doesn't have any health pickups.

The race is over when the lap distance has been met. Most tracks have a defined or suggested number of laps you can run. However, you can always set the lap distance to whatever you want. Your personal best lap times will be noted during your runs.

Quake 3 Rally: Final Thoughts.

I hate that I could not get the Quake 3 Rally standalone version to work without excessive lag. Therefore, I was glad to find the mod version of this mod. This mod plays wonderfully within the Quake 3 environment. Honestly, part of the reason why I bought "Quake 3 Arena" [on GOG] was to play "Quake 3 Rally." If I can learn to make maps for Q3 Rally, I would make my own sort of maps for it. Same goes for if I can model vehicles for the game also. The fact this mod has been around for over 20 years shows its longevity and importance to modders. So I would go get this mod if you love racing and want a more-than-decent mod for a first-person shooter.

For More Information...

To learn more about "Quake 3 Rally," please visit: Q3Rally.com.

NOTE: Apparently if you have OpenArena, you can install this into your OpenArena folder. I don't know how to do this, so you're on your own there.

Video Preview.

Consider this your "hype video" of "Quake 3 Rally." Get psyched:

^ Quake 3 Rally

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

Visit my official website at johnbmarine.com, subscribe to My Blog(s), and/or Follow on Bloglovin!
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Rush Rally 2

2021-03-24T19:28:00.001-07:00

Rush Rally 2 is one rally racing game sure to challenge you. If you want to take on the intense realm of rally racing, Brownmonster Limited has your rally racing game for either Android or iOS. So get ready to get dirty taking on some of the toughest roads in the world across a handful of countries! I'm here to review "Rush Rally 2" for your pleasure.

Before I Begin...

For full disclosure, I am basing my review based on my Android TV experience with "Rush Rally 2." My device used is a Xiaomi MI Box S.

Rush Rally 2 at a Glance

Here is a look at "Rush Rally 2."

^ from: (Amazon) - "Rush Rally 2" gives you that rush of excitement rally racing provides.

"Rush Rally 2" is a rally racing game developed by Brownmonster Limited, a solo developer from England. This game presents the challenge of off-road racing through both rallycross and traditional rallying. This game was first released in 2016. The player is met with the challenge of off road racing on rally stages and rallycross races. It is run on an in-house game engine. There also is no licensing in this game. There are fake sponsors on the cars and on the various billboards. The individual drivers are also fake. For example, there are drivers named after real-life drivers. Names include Bichard Rurns, Carlos Saint, Ben Klock, and others. Oh, well... a game like this doesn't need proper sponsorship to be attractive.

If you are wondering why I am reviewing "Rush Rally 2" and not the first one, that is because I could not find the very first Rush Rally game. The first game was taken off of the Android and iOS markets leaving only "Rush Rally 2" and "Rush Rally 3" available. So there is a "Rush Rally 1"... it just isn't available anymore.

Rush Rally 2 is available through Google Play, the Apple Store, and TouchArcade. It costs $0.99 USD on Google Play.

Tracks: Rally.

Rally racing takes you on a world tour featuring a handful of different rallies. You start in Finland and then work your way around the world unlocking more rallies. A total of eight rallies are in this game. Each rally features six stages except one.

• Finland - high speeds and romps through forests on gravel await you in this classic rally.
• Argentina - deal with these dirt roads while also contending with tall rocks and canyons.
• Sweden - race on ice and snow.
• Spain - asphalt and gravel stages await you here.
• Germany - a rally dominated by mixed surfaces with very deceptive mountainous and hilly roads.
• Australia - a host of {country roads and mixed terrain define this rally.
• USA - a paved roads rally that is essentially the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. Only one stage, and it is the longest in the game at over 12 miles.
• Canada - this rally features grueling uphill stages with decisive turns. Roads are a mix of tarmac and snowy roads.

To advance to the next rally, you must finish 3rd or better in the final rally classifications.

Skills Games.

Test your driving skills with a handful of challenges. Your goal is to try to complete each challenge within the Target time. If you fail to complete the course in the Target time or have multiple penalties outstanding, you will fail the challenge and must try again.

There are three Cups for Skill Games: Crabman Cup, GPS Championship, and Parsons Trophy. You unlock the other two after clearing the first set of challenges. Here are the challenges in general:

• Air Missile - Indicators will tell you where missiles will strike. Avoid being in the indicator to avoid the missile strike. Penalty time will be added for each time you are hit.
• Roadworks - avoid the various hazards on the road. Avoid EVERYTHING- cones, signs, barriers, and more. Penalty time will be added if you fail to completely avoid each hazard section.
• Coin Rush - collect coins scattered about in a line. Each missed coin results in penalty time added to your run.
• Trailer - a trailer full of soccer balls will be attached to your car. Try to keep all the balls in the trailer to clear the challenge. This means not accelerating or braking too hard along with taking note of various elevation changes. Penalty time will be added for each ball that leaves the trailer.
• Skill Gates - You will be racing a stage while also trying to clear each gate. You must properly clear each gate to receive credit for each clear. You will not be rewarded a cleared gate if you either miss it entirely or knock over the barrels. Each missed gate will result in penalty time added to your run. Clear the stage within the Target time to pass.
• Turbo Rush - Pick up turbo bottles across the track. Use those turbos to try to clear the stage in time. Each collected turbo makes your car run at faster speeds. It is recommended you try not to rev the engine on the start. Otherwise, you will suffer engine damage and go VERY slow.

Rally: Rallycross

Rallycross brings wheel-to-wheel racing in frenzied circuit battles. You will deal with a mix of tarmac and non-tarmac surfaces trying to finish stop the standings. You must finish within the Target position to advance to the next stage. Clear all of the stages to win the Cup in each class. You will not be penalized for leaving the track or dangerous driving. You do, however, need to be mindful that damage will affect your car no matter what you do on the race track.

You must place third or better in the first set of races, 2nd or better in the second set of races, and you must win all stages of the third set of races.

That covers the racing, but what about those vehicles?

Vehicles.

There are ten cars to choose from in "Rush Rally 2." While there is no official licensing, you can make out what most of the cars are as well as the associated liveries to each. You can actually set up each car to meet the given rally or race you are taking part in. Not all vehicles are available right away. The game tells you what you have to unlock certain vehicles. The game insists the races will be harder if you go with faster vehicles. So if you feel you keep losing, try stepping down to lower-class cars to get the advantage.

Racing.

This section features advice for rallycross and rally.

A rallycross race pits you against five other cars. Your job is to finish in a target position to unlock the next race. Once all races of a certain cup are complete, you can unlock a new Cup. There are no penalties for leaving the course or rough driving. So if you feel you have to cheat, do so. However, be mindful that damage will impact your car.

Take part in any of the game's rally events. You will begin in Finland before you can unlock the seven other rallies. Finish in a target position to advance to the next rally. All of the rallies has six stages, except one. You can make repairs to your car after the 2nd and 4th stages of each rally. Once you are in the service areas, you have only a certain amount of time to make needed repairs. Adjust the slider to each element to lower the amount of damage to certain components. If you do not have enough time to repair damage, you will not be able to fully repair certain things. The elements that usually endure the most damage are your engine and your wheels. So take note of these most.

Good luck becoming a champion! :)

Rush Rally 2: Final Thoughts

For work done mostly by a solo developer, and considering this is a paid app, what you get is a very good rally game. Maybe "Rush Rally 2" is not a Triple-A type game; it is still a game that has a very nice rally racing mechanic. The driving model is a great one. This is a more-than-decent rally racing game that you will enjoy playing. Some of the different skill races are unique diversions from the usual rally racing. There is only a small price to pay for this app, but many of the racing memories this game has to provide are priceless. Surely recommended by me, but not strongly recommended.

For More Information...

Here are ways for you to learn more about "Rush Rally 2":

• Brownmonster Games - the developer's site
• Rush Rally 2 on Google Play
• Rush Rally 2 on Apple Store

I am hopeful you enjoyed this blog post and review.

That's all, folks! Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Daytona USA

2021-03-09T07:54:00.000-08:00

SEGA's Daytona USA is one of the most iconic racing games for a number of reasons. It was the first non-licensed game to make stock car racing cool. Hornet High-Class Racing has been the team to beat. With so much going on and so much to gauge, "Daytona USA" will gladly take you for a ride through the wild world of stock car racing. This blog post focuses on the main Daytona USA. You'll see why this is one of the best racing games of all time and remains so even today.

Daytona USA

^ from: (YouTube) - The original "Daytona USA" was groundbreaking and exciting for its time. It remains one of the greatest racing games of all time even today.

Daytona USA has been one of the most iconic racing games of the past. It picks up where "Virtua Racing" left off by offering textured polygons. The action even ran consistently well at a decent frame rate. Of course, Daytona USA also delivered in providing an unreal racing experience. The Daytona USA series has found its way into homes through console and PC. The earlier home versions of Daytona USA were trimmed-down versions. Later versions around the mid-2000s and 2010s feature arcade-perfect renditions of "Daytona USA" for home. Everyone is part of the ultimate underdog team- Hornet High-Class Racing. Even though the game is named after Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA; this game does not feature the actual Daytona International Speedway.

Here is a look at some of the finer points of Daytona USA...

The Cars.

Unless you are playing the PC/Saturn version of this game, you really have two cars to choose from- an Automatic car or a 4-speed Manual car. The Manual/Standard car offers a higher top speed. In the home versions of the first Daytona USA, you could unlock different-colored cars with different levels of performance. You could even unlock something that... is not a car. Each vehicle you can control is rated by Grip and Acceleration. Grip determines the level of traction you get on each course. Acceleration determines how quickly you get up to speed. Some vehicles may actually be better at certain courses than certain others. So be sure to experiment around with the home version of Daytona USA. In the arcade version of Daytona USA, up to eight racers can compete if four dual cabinets of Daytona USA are linked. Each car is color coded in the arcade version and have no real performance advantage over another.

In all versions, you are racing the number 41 Hornet High-Class Racing car. If you are adept enough, it is possible to get a rocket boost off of the starting line to get a wild head start.

The Tracks.

No racing game is ever a quality racing game without tracks, so get to know the three available tracks. Each track features lap lengths for Normal, Grand Prix, and Endurance:

• Three-Seven Speedway (Beginner) - 8 Laps Normal, 20 Laps Grand Prix, and 80 laps Endurance
Three-Seven Speedway is the bread and butter of stock car racing- an oval. This oval, however, is more properly defined ss a tri-oval. So it is more akin to the likes of Pocono Raceway. One of its unique traits is that it has a slot machine you can actually stop and play as you drive. The real problem area each lap will be the sharp final corner. Victory should not be hard to achieve at this track.

This is the only track in the game that begins on a rolling start. A total of 40 cars can race on this track, including your car.

• Dinosaur Canyon (Advanced) - 4 Laps Normal, 16 Laps Grand Prix, and 40 laps Endurance
This natural terrain road course features a good variety of challenging corners and elevation changes. You will be weaving through a location with tall rock walls and hills as well as go through a tunnel. You may also have to do some drifting to aggressively clear some of the corners. So in other words, you're going to be pretty busy here. But don't worry- it isn't an impossible course to win at.

This track begins on a standing start, and as many as 20 cars (including yours) can race this track at a time.

• Seaside Street Galaxy (Expert) - 2 Laps Normal, 8 Laps Grand Prix, and 20 laps Endurance
If you want the ultimate challenge of Daytona USA, take on this city street course. This race begins on a long bridge followed by weaving into an airport. The roads twist and snake into some park land followed by a small village and some extra highways. It later goes into a space shuttle section and a pier. All the while is a challenging and punishing race course. The track is challenging, but perhaps more challenging is trying not to get caught up in the lovely song that accompanies this track. This is the toughest track in the game for a reason.

There are 30 care that race on this track with the event beginning on a standing start.

Suffice to say, you will be quite busy no matter which of the three tracks you race on. Now for some Final Thoughts...

Daytona USA: Final Thoughts

The original "Daytona USA" is forever intertwined in the history of racing/driving games. Released in 1994, it has left a mark that no other racing/driving game can replicate- even including most other SEGA racing games before "Daytona USA." If you want to experience the classic Daytona USA today, you can do so with the arcade-perfect versions of Daytona USA for systems like the PlayStation 3 and the XBOX 360. Or you might be able to find Daytona USA cabinets at arcade rooms and at some other places that have arcade units. That is... in places where arcades are still a thing to most places.

"Daytona USA" was not meant to be any proper simulation of stock car racing. It is not meant to fully and properly replicate the insanity that stock car racing provides. Even with its licensing of Daytona International Speedway, it does not actually feature the actual Daytona course. What it DOES excel in, however, is great fun. That is what Daytona USA delivers more than almost any other racing/driving game of its time. Also consider "Daytona USA" was a pioneering title in the sense of what it provided for most games in general with textured polygons and all running at a wonderful frame rate. So there are many reasons to play Daytona USA if you haven't already.

Hopefully this blog post has spurred your interest in regards to Daytona USA.

This concludes my latest post on "John's Race Space." I hope you found it enjoyable. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Hornet High-Class is an Inspiration!

2021-01-30T09:16:00.000-08:00

When thinking of the greatest racing teams of all time, not many give Hornet High-Class any love. For whatever reason, Hornet High-Class Racing seems to qualify the worst, yet they manage to win. The frenzied world of stock car racing lends itself to all kinds of insanity. Hornet High-Class Racing, though, somehow manages to find ways to win amid the chaos any given day of stock car racing. The team is easy to root against since the team doesn't qualify well. However, when it is race day and race weekend, they prove the world wrong each time with their capable driver. This team proves the old adage, "it isn't how you start, it is how you finish." Hornet High-Class still manages to find ways to win despite poor qualifying. Hornet High-Class even estalished itself as a fighter in a fighting game ("Fighters Megamix")! How many race cars and race teams can say that?

So remember that when you are handed tough circumstances, you can always prevail as long as you believe in yourself and your abilities. Give yourself a chance every and in each situation. Make the most of what you are given and rely on your skill to make the most of even the toughest circumstances.

Also, if you are constantly not given a chance, this fuels the fire for you to prove people wrong, just as Hornet High-Class Racing always does. Go ahead- change peoples' minds. Reverse others' thinking.

Long story short...

^ from: (PNGKey (best I could find))

Hornet High-Class is an inspiration!

I hope you enjoyed this casual post on "John's Race Space!" Thank you for being a part of this blog for as long as I've established it. So you all have a great day/night. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Diddy Kong Racing

2020-12-15T19:48:00.000-08:00

While Mario Kart 64 was king in Nintendo 64 racing, there was another challenger in kart racing. Enter Diddy Kong Racing- the kart racer for the Donkey Kong realm. However, this was more than just karting. It had hovercrafts, planes, and even... wait for it- a storyline! This blog post is my own look at Diddy Kong Racing.

Before I Begin...

I was preparing this blog post first before I realized I didn't blog about "Mario Kart 64." Since I make a lot of references to "Mario Kart 64" in this blog post, I had to mention "Mario Kart 64" before making this one. So still enjoy this blog post!

Diddy Kong Racing

Let's talk about Diddy Kong Racing!

Diddy Kong Racing hit the market in 1997, a year after "Mario Kart 64." This game allowed you to play in the realm of Donkey Kong. You could race as any of eight different characters. There was even a hidden ninth character you could unlock. There were a total of 16 tracks. While this was mostly an arcade kart racing game, you could do much more than race karts. You could find yourself racing in hovercrafts and planes. So this game had a great array of replay value to try the game with different vehicles. In addition to the madness of racing in this game, you also had a storyline. Your ultimate goal is to defeat the evil Wizpig, who has been terrorizing the land.

Unlike the aforementioned "Mario Kart 64," the characters in this game are all 3D models, unlike the pre-rendered models of "Mario Kart 64." This means you got to see the characters in proper 3D trim. Though, the tires on the cars are sprites.

"Diddy Kong Racing" was ported to the Nintendo DS years later.

Diddy Kong Racing: Play.

When you first start the game, you select one of the different characters in the game. You then can choose Adventure or Tracks. Adventure takes you through the game's main story mode. Tracks let you race on any of the given tracks in this game "Diddy Kong Racing" features 16 race tracks. Many of them can be run with the karts, but some tracks can also have courses for hovercraft and planes. Running into balloons on track will grant you powerups. If you run into balloons of the same color, you will receive stronger powerups. Up to three upgrades can be acquired at one time. So if you ran into three straight red balloons, you will get the highest upgrade- going from a single missile to 10 homing missiles.

To progress through "Diddy Kong Racing," you must win various challenges and collect Gold Balloons. More Gold Balloons allow you to enter more challenges.

Each of the vehicles were good for a number of things. The Car is your basic ground-based vehicle to race with. Most of your racing will be done in the Cars. Avoid going into the water when driving the Car. The Hovercraft allows you to race on water or any other liquid courses. They are faster on water than on land. The Plane is where you can enjoy flight across various tracks. These light planes obviously can't be on land or water, and you also need to fly them properly to navigate around the different courses.

There are are four main worlds to explore. You begin with Dino Domain. Try to win all of the individual races there and clear the different challenges. You then must take on the other worlds- Snowflake Mountain, Sherbet Island, and Dragon Forest.

Once you have made enough progress in the Adventure mode, you may find yourself taking on boss battles. In these Boss battles, you are in a race against some sort of opponent who will use any number of tactics to prevent you from winning. Your [obvious] goal is to win the race against the Boss.

I will now come along with some thoughts on "Diddy Kong Racing" now. So take a look at the next section.

Diddy Kong Racing: Final Thoughts

Here is a fact about me- my least favorite Nintendo character is Donkey Kong. Because of this, I don't usually get into the Donkey Kong realm easily. Having said that, "Diddy Kong Racing" is a game that offers lots more replay value and offers more variety than "Mario Kart 64." However, I find "Mario Kart 64" more fun than "Diddy Kong Racing." Most people I've chatted with tend to regard DKR more than MK64. DKR lacks the real engagement that MK64 offers even though it offers more races and offers greater replay value. Not many of the courses are particularly challenging either.

Video Preview.

I tried to find a brief video of this game, but all I could find are long videos. So here's your video preview:

^ Nintendo 64 Longplay - Diddy Kong Racing Part 1

I'm glad you were able to get my thoughts on this game and maybe have some memories of it!

That's it for this one. Subscribe/Follow if you love my work and want more of it. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Mario Kart 64

2020-12-15T16:55:00.001-08:00

Mario Kart 64 brought the budding Mario Kart franchise into the 3D realm. There was no doubt "Super Mario Kart" began what remains as one of the greatest gaming (let alone racing/driving) game franchises ever. Mario Kart 64 did a lot to try to build up and continue where "Super Mario Kart" left off. So let me discuss "Mario Kart 64" in this blog post on "John's Race Space."

Mario Kart 64

It was 1996 when "Mario Kart 64" first hit store shelves. This was the second game of the Mario Kart series apart from the iconic "Super Mario Kart" in 1992. It was the first 3D Mario Kart game offering fast speeds and intense action. I have logged many laps and hours playing this game, as well as having a rivalry with my cousin playing this game back in the day.

This game basically brought the cartoon kart racing genre to the 3D realm. Even though most of the levels were 3D, the characters are pre-rendered, as is many of the pseudo-3D sprites like trees. The same insanity of Mario Kart games is present in this new installment. In addition to being the first 3D Mario Kart, this was also the first Mario Kart allowing up to four players locally. So you can enjoy racing against up to four players or being in Battle mode against up to four players.

Characters.

"Mario Kart 64" features eight drivers you can choose from. Gone is the Koopa Troopa, and welcome the Mario Kart debut of Wario. Each character is rated for their size. Lighter characters go faster and can corner better, but they can be knocked around by larger-type characters. Conversely, a heavier character is slower and don't handle as well, but they can knock around lighter characters. The most balanced characters you can choose from are Mario and Luigi.

Racing.

A lot of things in "Mario Kart 64" remain unchanged apart from "Super Mario Kart." Choosing Grand Prix will let you choose between 50cc engine displacement, 100cc engine displacement, or 150cc engine displacement. Choosing between the different displacement makes for tougher races. Select a character and choose a map. Each map features four races to choose from. If doing Grand Prix, you will run in all four of the races. Every race is three laps long. You must finish 4th or better to advance to the next round.

The races themselves are frenzied. It helps to get a good head start off the line if you can. Don't overrev the engine at the start. Run through the item boxes to access all sorts of items. If you can find shortcuts, take advantage of them to get the edge. Do whatever it takes to win each race and each championship.

Time Trial lets you race any of the 16 tracks in the game on your own. You get three Mushrooms to use at any time. You can save Ghost Laps of your best times around each course. A word of caution is that two tracks are very long, and unless you find shortcuts to reduce time of about the four-minute mark, you can not record Ghost Laps. You also can not record Ghost Laps if you crash hard or fall off the race track. So try to complete the Time Trial without crashing or getting into much trouble.

If you prefer Battle, just try to go around the map collecting items to use against your opponent(s). Once all three balloons have been popped on a character, the character is eliminated. Make sure that eliminated character isn't you!

I will now look towards providing a review for you all, so get ready.

Mario Kart 64: Final Thoughts

"Mario Kart 64" is an all-time classic for a number of reasons. It provided incredible graphics and fun game play. To me, "Mario Kart 64" is the last great Mario Kart before future titles seem to have hardcore rubber banding. Future Mario Kart titles after MK64 seem to punish you for actually being so good. This is a racing game to enjoy even if you are not good at racing games. Absolutely add this game to your Nintendo 64 collection.

Video Preview.

Mario Kart 64 in action. Enjoy!

^ Mario Kart - Nintendo 64

That's all for this blog post!

I hope you enjoyed this look at Mario Kart 64. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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SEGA Touring Car Championship

2020-10-27T22:11:00.000-07:00

SEGA's 1996 game, SEGA Touring Car Championship, features four cars and is powered by a set of high-energy songs. The high-powered realm of circuit racing is embodied in SEGA Touring Car Championship. Are you ready to take on the intense action that SEGA Touring Car Championship has to offer? I will share with you my thoughts on SEGA Touring Car Championship. And really, they will be just that- thoughts, because I never personally played "SEGA Touring Car Championship" to properly share my views. Welcome to "John's Race Space!"

SEGA Touring Car Championship

Time to talk about another 3D SEGA Racing game! Let's do this!

^ from: (YouTube) - SEGA TOuring Car Championship is something a bit different from the usual SEGA racing goodness you may be accustomed to.

Among SEGA's many different racing games of the 1990s, "SEGA Touring Car Championship" is a racing game with fictional courses and four great racing machines from their time. The game follows a model like "SEGA Rally Championship" in which you run laps around a closed circuit while trying to pass all of the cars on the track. While you probably are not going to win all three races, you at least need to complete all of the races as best as you can. There is a bonus fourth race if you manage to win the final race. All of this racing madness is fueled by a high-energy soundtrack from one of Japan's hottest music labels- Avex. While this game did have a focus on realism, it was nowhere near the attempt of simulation-type racing as when SEGA released SEGA GT in 2000.

This game was available for arcades, the SEGA Saturn, and even PC. The PC/Saturn version of "SEGA Touring Car Championship" has a handful of differences from the arcade version. The home versions include a few extra tracks and cars to unlock as well as some extra race types. But again- I have not played ANY of these games to personally make any claims or opinions.

Now that you know a bit about SEGA Touring Car Championship, let's go through some of the details of this game.

SEGA Touring Car Championship at a Glance

You have four cars to choose from and three tracks for which to do battle on. SEGA Touring Car Championship is similar in architecture to SEGA Rally Championship, only that you are racing courses for more than one lap.

The Cars.

You can choose between four machines. Three of them are DTM-spec machines, and one is a high-powered GT car. As I'm told, that GT car isn't as capable as the other cars featured in this game. Anyhow... let's meet the four cars:

• Opel Calibra V6
This model resembles the Team Joest Opel Calibra V6 DTM touring car.

• Toyota Supra GT
This is the only Japanese car in the game. It is also the only GT-spec machine in the game.

• Alfa Romeo 155 V6 TI
The only Italian car you can race in this game is the potent Alfa Romeo 155 V6 Ti. Besides this, there is another Alfa Romeo in SEGA Touring Car Championship that serves as the Pace/Safety Car. The 155 V6 TI is a more-than-capable DTM racing machine.

• AMG Mercedes C-Class
The sporty and luxurious AMG Mercedes-Benz C-Class DTM racer from the mid-1990s is the potent and capable track weapon from Mercedes-Benz.

That covers the cars. Now for those tracks you will be racing on.

The Tracks.

Three tracks are on offer for you to race on. Here is a look at all three (NOTE: all Imperial measurement conversions are rounded to the nearest thousandth):

• Country Circuit - 2.045 km (or 1.271 miles)
This simple circuit is raced on early to determine qualifying. You then race it again in a three-lap feature race.

• Grunwald Circuit - 2.605 km (or 1.619 miles)
Grunwald Circuit is a more technical racing facility where there is no margin for error. There are many tricky depths to this course to make it a real challenge for all who take on this course.

• Brickwall Town - 2.277 km (or 1.415 miles)
This urban circuit features some decisive and difficult corners. A lot of the course is fairly narrow with either grass or gravel on either side of the road. Trying to keep your car on the streets can be a real hassle here.

If you manage to place 1st after going through the three races, here is your final challenge:

• Urban Circuit - 2.105 km (or 1.308 miles)
This course is run at night on city highways and through various tunnels. The roads are very narrow- more so than around most parts of Brickwall Town. You really need to concentrate if you want to run clean laps around this course.

You know the cars, and now you know the tracks. Final Thoughts coming up...

--- SEGA Touring Car Championship: Final Thoughts ---

"SEGA Touring Car Championship" was not as well received as most other classic SEGA racing games of its time, but it is far from being anything purely bad. The rather twitchy handling of the cars and focus on realism mostly lead to its downfall. Forget about the usual thrills a 3D SEGA racing game can provide, because this does not have the kind of character Daytona USA or SEGA Rally Championship had. "SEGA Touring Car Championship," though, still remains a huge part of SEGA's incredible lineup of racing games from the 1990s.

If I ever got to play "SEGA Touring Car Championship" at an arcade or someplace, I'd like to give this game a try.

Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Zippy Race

2020-10-27T21:47:00.001-07:00

So you're a motorcyclist who thinks cars are overrated? Well, do I have a game for you! Zippy Race! Get ready to travel across the United States in an intense cross-country race in this game. I will use my time here to share some thoughts on this old racing game. Welcome to "John's Race Space!"

Zippy Race

Let's talk Zippy Race!

^ from: (YouTube) - Zippy Race- one motorcyclist vs. 89 cars.

Zippy Race is a game from 1983 and 1985 from Irem, a developer most people know of for the legendary R-Type shoot 'em ups (SHMUPS). The premise of "Zippy Race" is to compete in a cross-country race around the United States on your motorcycle. Along the way are cars willing to impede your progress. You start off in Los Angeles and try to ride your way into New York City. You will arrive in a few different cities as checkpoints (including my hometown of Houston!). This is an actual race you are competing in. When you pass a car, you move up in position. Can you go from 90th Place to 1st Place?

For you to complete your task, you jump onto your motorcycle passing all the cars in your way. You have a limited amount of fuel for your motorcycle to complete each stage. You will lose fuel if you fail to pick up fuel items or if you crash out too many times. Therefore, it is of great importance to try to stay on your motorcycle and not make as many mistakes. You are not going to go from last to first in just one stage. Instead, this is the proverbial "marathon, not a sprint." Kind of think of Zippy Race as a racing event like "SEGA Rally Championship" or "SEGA Touring Car Championship" in the sense that you aren't going to be the race winner after just one event. This is all about climbing your way through the pack.

Not to spoil the game, but once the game is completed, you run in loops. So you're back to Los Angeles once you clear the run from Los Angeles to New York. Most games back in the day were about having the highest score rather than complete some kind of story. Though, there were games about beating the high score and not having to do loops.

What If There Was a Modern "Zippy Race?

A concept like "Zippy Race" sounds like something some independent (or indie) developer would come up with. Could you see a modern interpretation of this game somewhere? Here's a little extra section to discuss that possibility.

If there hasn't been a modern interpretation of Zippy Race attempted by some developer(s), it is very much possible to see a concept like this resurface or be revisited. This could easily be made by any sort of independent devloper to have a motorcycle compete against cars in a cross-country race. Someone would probably try to add actual manufacturers just to add some extra appeal. Since the game has on-road and off-road sections, it probably wouldn't be smart having a sport bike be used in this setting. The motorcycle would probably have to be some sort of sport tourer to be realistic and to follow logic.

Final Thoughts are next!

Zippy Race: Final Thoughts

While not entirely obscure, "Zippy Race" is a racing game with a pretty fun concept. It is very cool for the most part. Anyone playing this game will need to learn to pass without crashing. Navigating the scenery is also a critical consideration for this game. Put it all together, and you got yourself a fairly cool classic racing game in "Zippy Race."

I hope you enjoyed this blog post. I couldn't find a brief video to show this game in action, so I had to rely mostly on a picture to show you what this game is all about. Still, I'm glad you could be here. Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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Super Mario Kart

2020-10-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

The Mario Kart series is one of the most successful racing game franchises in gaming history, and it all began with Super Mario Kart in 1992. This game helped pave the way for not only this franchise, but also other Mode 7 racing titles. This blog post will be my look at the game that began the rise of one of the most successful racing game franchises of all time- Super Mario Kart.

The following blog post is NOT a review of Super Mario Kart.

Super Mario Kart

^ from: (Mobygames - best I could find) - Super Mario Kart is an iconic racing game for a lot of reasons.

"Super Mario Kart" was not the first Mode 7 racing game, but it surely is more popular than its godfather, "F-Zero." "Super Mario Kart" was released two years after F-Zero and delivers a much more different experience than what F-Zero had to offer. The game takes place in the colorful world of Super Mario World. The goal is simple- get out there and win races! The tracks along with the action that takes place on these tracks made Super Mario Kart a very fun racing game. The venues range from proper racing circuits to tracks in totally unreal and dangerous locations. There may be some shortcuts to some tracks should you have a keen eye to find them. You won't be penalized for taking shortcuts or cheating, so you may want to look for any means to win!

You may choose to either run the Grand Prix or compete in Time Trials. The former is the main area of the game, and the latter will take you for solo hot lapping sessions around a track. More powerful engine displacement mean the karts will be faster. Choose any of the game's eight characters for which to race around the game's courses with. Be mindful that each character is of a specific class. Mario and Luigi are the most balanced characters. Light characters, like Toad, can run faster than most other characters, but they can easily be knocked around by heavier characters. Heavy characters, like Bowser/Koopa, are slower than everyone else, but they can not be phased by lighter racers.

You can then select any of the game's three Cups in Grand Prix mode. You have a number of chances to clear each round of each Cup. Be sure not to overrev your engine at the start of the race. Drive over coins for slight boosts in speed, and drive over the question mark boxes to access various items to help you or harm others. You must finish 4th or better to advance. If you fail to finish 4th or better, you can use any of your chances. If you run out of chances and fail to advance, you must retire from the Cup. Try to go for the Gold! If you manage to clear all three Cups, you will get to race the Special Cup with the game's toughest races awaiting you- including the infamous Rainbow Road.

The Importance of Super Mario Kart.

Super Mario Kart is a very fun and engaging racing game. While it does deliver its fair share of amazing racing action, this game basically defined a sub-genre of racing games. It defined the cartoonish kart racing genre. A game like this is completely arcade and fast-paced. Such games do not pride themselves on precision driving or advanced driving dynamics. The tracks were also not as difficult or as detailed. For many people, these are racing games most people can enjoy without being true "racing game fans." Simply put, this is foolish fun.

The fact "Super Mario Kart" features such unrealistic racing means almost any developer can make a racing game offering the same kind of action "Super Mario Kart" provides. In fact, many future racing games in the vein of "Super Mario Kart" were born to try to offer arcade-style kart racing. Lots of other racing games in the future would take advantage of cartoon-style atmospheres in addition to wild and wacky characters and locales.

As for the Mario series itself, "Super Mario Kart" only enhances and expands the appeal of the Mario series by offering a unique category within the Mario series. The Mario series is already known for great platforming. All "Super Mario Kart" does is expand its appeal with a new genre. It does so while also offering a category of racing game that appeals even to those not into racing in general. Future Mario Kart games only enhance what "Super Mario Kart" was capable of and takes things to new levels. Many more tracks and characters would come about along with a handful of new items to increase the frenzied racing action. Some would argue that with future iterations of the Mario Kart series, the future titles would be marred for having rubber band AI that makes playing the game less fun and makes you seem punished for actually being good. The Mario Kart series, however, still remains fun and enjoyable. Even recently (as of October 7, 2020), there was the announcement of "Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit," which basically brings the insanity of Mario Kart to your home or building! This series is still going strong and very much alive and well.

IN CASE YOU'RE INTERESTED: You can learn more about "Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit" here: Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit - Official Size.

Much like how Gran Turismo became the standard for racing games of a simulation nature, the Mario Kart series would be the standard of the kart racing genre. Future series and games in the vein of Super Mario Kart are very varied. There would be future titles such as (but not limited to) Wacky Wheels (PC), Skunny Kart (PC), Motor Toon Grand Prix, Diddy Kong Racing, Crash Team Racing, ModNation Racers, Sonic Racing All-Stars, SuperTuxKart, and more.

With this perspective offered, allow me to offer you some final thoughts on Super Mario Kart.

Super Mario Kart - Final Thoughts

"Super Mario Kart" is a genre-defining racing game that took the Mario series into a new light and provided a new experience in its time. Even today, it remains one of the best-ever racing games along with being part of one of the best racing game franchises in gaming history. Its unique and fun racing action makes it a can't-miss racing game to play. Its appeal would spark its own sub-genre of racing games that still makes it as amazing to play while also giving casual racing game fans something to be a part of the racing game genre without being totally committed to it. "Super Mario Kart" also helped expand the Mario series of games to include a new way to get engaged to the Mario series. Later in its time, it would be one of the many Super Nintendo titles to carry the "Greatest Hits" gold badging as one of the greatest Super Nintendo titles of all time. So this is a once-in-a-generation, genre-defining game. All future Mario Kart titles would only expand and enhance the series to its current highly-successful level.

I tried to find a brief video to showcase "Super Mario Kart," but I couldn't find anything. So I'm afraid I will leave you only with thoughts on Super Mario Kart.

Keep racing on, racing game fans! :) Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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F-Zero

2020-10-05T14:33:00.002-07:00

Ask what most gamers consider the best futuristic racing game series is, and F-Zero could be most peoples' answer. The F-Zero series was basically the godfather of Super Mario Kart, which would come in 1992. F-Zero dates back to 1991. This is a blog post in which I want to focus on the very first F-Zero on the SNES from 1990-1991.

Before I Begin...

Often times when I mention games, I avoid trying to sound like I am doing a review if I never played or seen the game. That's why I don't make too many posts about certain racing games. I feel actually playing games before blogging about them gives me credibility. I may just still blog about certain games based on impressions and thoughts rather than try to review them.

Just so you know... this blog post is NOT a review of this game.

F-Zero

F-Zero was a racing game that offered impressive high-speed action on very realistic-style courses with 3D-style depth. This wasn't the method used in games like Pole Position or OutRun. An actual map is laid out in a 3D style. With the Super Nintendo making use of Mode 7 technology,

F-Zero has you racing futuristic cars across a handful of racing environments. Your job is to climb through the field while trying to stay above the position limit. You must also make sure not to take too much damage. Your craft will be flying at speeds of anywhere between 400 kph to 450 kph. There are 15 events in F-Zero spread across three leagues. You can choose between four cars each with their own performance characteristics. There are on-track obstacles to deal with including turbo boosts, jumps, mines, and more. If you want to win, you better be ready for fight for victory! If you fail to finish the race, you can use one of your extra lives. If you fail to finish and have no chances remaining, the game is over.

The Importance of F-Zero.

I think F-Zero bears importance in its use of the SNES Mode 7 technology. And as I mentioned in the introduction, it is essentially the godfather of the later and vastly successful Mario Kart series. F-Zero became a highly successful series in its own right after the very first F-Zero. You even could play as Captain Falcon in the Super Smash Bros. games and even fight on F-Zero locales in Super Smash Bros. games. There was even F-Zero anime I came across once.

Now that I have provided perspective, allow me to give some final thoughts.

F-Zero: Final Thoughts

F-Zero is a game I have not had much experience with, but it is surely a racing game and racing game series that bears some importance and significance. This was the first taste of Mode 7 racing that would later be used in some other future racing games- even including the iconic Mario Kart series. You owe it to yourself to play this game any way you can get your hands on it.

Video Preview.

Let me give you a brief video showcasing this classic racing game. Check it:

^ FZero Super Nintendo Gameplay - SNES F-Zero Game Video (Thank you to the author for allowing this video to be embedded)

I hope you were able to enjoy this look I've provided at F-Zero.

Racing/Driving games. That's what this blog is all about. If you enjoyed your time here, make sure you are Subscribed/Followed in some capacity so you keep up with my latest material. Until next time, thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

Visit my official website at johnbmarine.com, subscribe to My Blog(s), and/or Follow on Bloglovin!
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