Top Gear (Retro)
User Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): April 3, 1992
- Release Date (EU): November 19, 1992
- Release Date (JP): March 27, 1992
- Publisher: Kemco
- Developer: Gremlin Graphics
- Genres: Racing
Game Features:
Single player
Local Multiplayer
Online Multiplayer
Co-operative
Review Approach:
Top Gear is a Two Player racing game released in 1992 for the Super NIntendo. The game was developed by U.K. video game designer Gremlin Graphics. The game is actually based on their previous game Lotus Turbo Challenge and carries over similarities from that series. Although there are no gremlins in this game, it does have stylish cars and graphics, a decent soundtrack and gameplay that seem familiar, but what did you expect? It's a racing game!
Rad Racer isn't the only racing game, Top Gear is the new kid on the block!
Introduction
Top Gear.... no relation to the TV show, is a unique game. I mean it's a racing game sharing the same name as the TV show but well... it's for professionals only. Trust me, if you want to be good, you have to be so good that you just might end up on the TV show. Well now that I got a lame joke out the way, guess it's time to introduce the game. This is a first game in the series exclusive to Super Nintendo, based on previous games before this Lotus Turbo Challenge, it plays similar to it but instead of playing it on a computer, you get to play it on a console, so let's see what this game has to offer the player as we continue.
Graphics
Just in case you was curious, although the company who made this is called Gremlin Graphics, there are no gremlins in this game! So don't expect to see any. Do expect to see some various scenery in this racing game. This game has a total of 32 tracks to race on, each track is divided across 8 countries, and each one has 4 track for that country. This is pretty ambitious for a early snes game especially one not big in file size like later games on the system. While you do expect to see 32 unique places, disappointing, some places look the same, but is not bad. Something to add, there is a unique day and night system, in night time you get to drive with the headlights on, and some stages change from day to night mid race. There is snow stages (Snow on the ground not snowing effects) Sand, grass, trees, you know the stuff you expect in various places in the world. So is standard stuff.
Presentation
If you thought split screen all the time was the only downside to this game, it's not. The presentation is pretty basic. All of it is on the box and none of it in the game itself. That's pretty boring don't you think? No wait, that's marketing.... well it worked I guess, you got me. Anyway, besides shaming myself, you basically start the game with a menu to setup the game before starting the race with some grey scale backdrop of Detroit GP from 1988. One thing though is at the end of the last race, you get a picture of your racer in a victory pose if you qualify for the next country or failure pose if you don't. Like I said, the presentation is very basic and nothing else to say. I'm quite disappointed.
Sound
Now this is something good to talk about, the music in the game is pretty good. The only problem is that there isn't much of it. You got the menu music, one song for each of the four tracks that make up a country and two jingles for qualifying the next race and completing the game. That is a total of SEVEN MUSIC TRACKS! Going back to other games again, F-Zero released before this game as a launch title for SNES has more music even if some are variations. Besides that, the music is composed by Barry Leitch who also composed music from Lotus Turbo Challenge series and in fact some are remixes. The tracks have some nice tunes for racing to. The first one of the race has some type of rocking trance like music. Next up is some up beat rock tune. Third is the hard rock tune and fourth is probably the most popular of them all to many people. Get used to hear those tracks for a game with not much music.
Gameplay
The game has simple rules, obviously for a racing game, yeah. the goal is to qualify for each country race and progress to the next one and win them all, you do so by a point system, get better rank positions in races to earn the most points. Only by placing in top three will qualify you. You can start by setting yourself up with a name, a selection of manual or auto transmission, and one of four cars to race with each with varying stats. Each stat is top speed, acceleration, turning grip and fuel consumption, that's a first don't you think? Each with strengths and weakness, your challenge comes from mastering the use of these cars on the path to becoming champion of the road.
One unique thing about this game is the use of nitro during races. You start each race with 3 and only three, that's it. It helps you boost speed, but that is the least of your troubles. The other unique thing is the pitstop. Remember how I mentioned fuel? Well if you lose all of it, your car doesn't move, it it stops with no fuel left, you lose the race, automatic disqualification. That's why some courses (And yes I said some) have pit stops. They refuel your car so you can continue. Unlike most racing games that have somewhere between 1-3 laps, this has 3-8 laps! So you are gonna need to stop there to win the race, this is Top Gear after all, professional racing! As much as that sounds basic, is unique for the time this game was released when not many other games had such things. This game also has passwords and is awarded after qualifying for each countries race and they are all car theme passwords like "Moonbath" and umm... "Horizons" Oops... Spoiler!
Difficulty
Oh boy where do I start? As if I didn't just say that this is a professional racing game, not because it's called Top Gear, but because is isn't easy. The game has three difficulty settings. Amateur, professional (wink) and championship! As much as I would like to show you all 32 courses, I probably shouldn't so it doesn't spoil it for you... also cause I can't get far because this game is hard, even on amateur mode. First you are racing against 19 other cars, most tracks have three lanes and very few have five, the night time tracks adds extra challenge to see, there is sometimes hazards on the track, the framerate isn't smooth and as mentioned before, the split screen. Seriously why is there split screen in single player mode?
One thing I find funny is that if the other player in split screen mode goes to a pit stop, the framerate of the other screen is slightly faster. It's funny cause it's just a static detailed image of the car at the pit stop. The thing that is annoying is after playing so long and getting used to the bad framerate, it suddenly speeds up and throws you off for a short time, and then returns when no one is at pit stop. It's just a tidbit, nothing more. The serious problems come from having so many cars on the road, again a game like F-Zero does have about that many as well but the cars can get removed from the race in that game, making it less of a problem. The cars here are all over the place and you are always gonna bump into them causing you to lose speed or just get off course. There is even speech bubbles for it too! The some tracks are very long, the distance the track is plus the number of laps, seems like a marathon taking almost five minutes especially in the later countries.
To sum it all up, the game is difficult. If you ever managed to beat this, I don't care what difficulty you play on, you are better than me. like I said, I wanted to show off all the courses but I just can't get that far before I stop playing. It's a fun challenging game that you can play alone, but why? It's gonna be in split screen anyway, you might as well never play alone. Are you familiar with the concept of "Rubber band AI" it's when the programmers allow the CPU to intentionally cheat their way to a more favorable position to give the sense of challenge to the player. It's why in some games like Mario Kart had the cpu always managed to catch up to you no matter how well you are doing... yeah that's in this game too. I hate it soo much and I can do without most games thank you very much. If you gonna play this game, play with a friend unless you ready for a challenge.
Verdict
The game tried to be a bit modern and realistic with certain things for a racing game at the time while others was more fictional. Those same fictional racing games like Super Mario Kart or F-Zero was fun even if they wasn't realistic. I respect the game for having that direction that focused on deep skill level racing rather than arcade style excitement, but the difficulty in the game is legendary for me since then and even today, I rather play those games instead of this. I don't know anyone who claimed to have beaten this game but if you did, I'd like to know. It's not a bad game, just challenging, too challenging for me. Sure I'll maybe come back and try again, and maybe quit after I get to the third country and lose. Believe me, it's no Rad Racer made popular by being seen in a promotional movie using one of the worst video game accessories in Nintendo history, but it does have a legacy and this started the series of improvements and slowly having more games made over the years for more consoles.
![Top Gear (U) [!]016.png](https://gbatemp.net/data/attachments/119/119018-7992f21ccf1faa38309c2731702a21c7.jpg "Top Gear (U) [!]016.png")
![Top Gear (U) [!]003.png](https://gbatemp.net/data/attachments/119/119019-e993a58e081adeca736abe5b466956c1.jpg "Top Gear (U) [!]003.png")
![Top Gear (U) [!]004.png](https://gbatemp.net/data/attachments/119/119020-bf807a1e344de08da897d9c45ccb7813.jpg "Top Gear (U) [!]004.png")
![Top Gear (U) [!]007.png](https://gbatemp.net/data/attachments/119/119021-172992e5fa3a28fa2775be085251b69f.jpg "Top Gear (U) [!]007.png")
Verdict
What I Liked ...
- Good music
- Nice Scenes
- Professional Racing
What I Didn't Like ...
- Legendary Difficulty
- Framerate
- Split Screen.... all the time
7
Gameplay
It's a pretty straight forward racing game with no wacky stuff like the other ones on the system, this is equal to a game like Sega's Out Run or Daytona USA. The focus is on the player's skill in handling the different cars and overcoming the harsh challenge of the 32 tracks, you need to be in "Top Gear" if you plan to win this.
5
Presentation
This game lacks all of what presentation is, all of it is on the box. Sure there is some quote bubbles of the driver when he racing and some nice scenes based on various parts of the world but it's very basic and nothing too spectacular.
8
Lasting Appeal
While I rather play games like Mario Kart, and many others, I guess the appeal is knowing I may never beat the game even if I keep trying cause of how difficult I find it. But it's probably a good thing cause it's just what a game should be like, you coming back for more. If the game can do that then considered yourself hooked and that is probably how the lasting appeal works.
6.5
out of 10
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