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When you think “racing game,” you tend to think of blinding speed and screeching tires. Few people, if any, would think of loop-de-loops and… cows? Yes, the latter can only bring one racer to mind – that of Atari’s Hard Drivin’, which received a Genesis port by Tengen. Was the game too much for the stock console to handle, or was the old black box capable of reproducing a true driving simulator?
Sega’s OutRun series has been tearing up the roads for almost three decades. Though gamers received a true sequel only a few years ago with the incredible OutRun 2, there were many titles released in the series during the interval. One arcade sequel that was brought home to Europe and Japan was Turbo OutRun, and while it is faithful to its source material in spirit, the actual execution leaves much to be desired.
Virtua Racing Deluxe was way better than the Genesis version and was very close to the arcade Virtua Racing minus just a few features. Some new stuff has been added to make this a better overall game though, and while racing fans might not get all the features they expect from a racing sim, there are some things here that will keep them interested.
Before a certain hedgehog took the world by storm, Sega was still relying on its arcade ports. Gamers weren’t taken by the advertising as well as the company would have liked, but the quality of the games was there. Like e Golden Axe, Sega produced a home version of Super Monaco GP that improved on the original with added modes and features. The World Championship mode is enough to keep players occupied for weeks, and there’s some solid arcade racing in there to boot!
Rocking and racing are two things that seem to go together well. Think about it: rock music blended with fast paced racing action; how could it go wrong? Well, what if the hardware wasn’t really able to produce the rocking part as it should? Is the solid gameplay of a faithful port enough to make up for it?