Racing
Haters, start your ENGINES!!
1. Gran Turismo IV - PS2 (2.03) – There’s so much… stuff in this game. I’m not a car guy so I didn’t get too much into the tweaking of the cars that I won. I just wanted to race so I pretty much bought whatever easy upgrades there were that didn’t involve much thinking. I loved the huge selection of tracks and cars. Unfortunately, I didn’t play my PS2 online so I never raced other people. But this game is so deep that it’s got ridiculous replay value as a single-player game.
2. Super Mario Kart - SNES (5.13) – Super Mario Kart is by far the funnest game on this list. Despite being cartoony, it is still pretty challenging on the 150cc level. I remember having battle mode tournaments in college with guys crowded around a 19” TV. There’s nothing quite like watching
s talking trash after winning a round with Toad.
3. Need for Speed - PC (5.01) – Used to torch my buddies in NFS (and it’s other spin-offs). I preferred using the keyboard arrow keys while my friends used the MS Sidewinder. The cars looked slick and the tracks were pretty. This was the perfect arcade racer if you just wanted to kill 10 minutes and not have to worry about how your car’s performance would be affected by damage and physics.
4. Pole Position - Arcade (20.08) – I think there’s a lot of value getting Pole Position in round 20. I originally wanted to rank this similarly as Excite Bike, but there are significant differences. For example, just about every racing game that came after Pole Position used the same POV, but I can’t think of any other left-to-right motorcycle games. If you touch another car in PP, you explode; if you crash in EB, you run back to the bike and keep riding. My point being that there are more features still in use from PP than Excite Bike.
5. Forza Motorsport 3 - Xbox 360 (20.05) – I don’t have an Xbox so I never played Forza 3. But most of the reviews compare this to its competitor, Project Gotham Racing (which I have played and really enjoyed), and find it to be a better series than PGR. Based on that, I think a 20th round pick is a steal.
6. Burnout 3: Takedown - PS2 (8.07) – You can call this a racing game or better yet, a crashing game. The crazy over the top crashes and damage you cause is what sets this series apart. There have been destruction derby type games like Carmageddon and Twisted Metal, but Burnout mixes flashy speed effects with giant brain-numbing explosions to keep things fresh. Parents: don’t buy this for your kids.
7. Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road - Arcade (9.04) – I loved this game despite sucking at it. I would always get disoriented as to which way to turn the steering wheel. I’ve lost many a lead by turning the wrong way on the last corner. I got better when I got to practice on the SNES version.
8. Outrun - Arcade (14.06) – I remember sitting in the arcade machine with the red car and blonde chick in the passenger seat, missing a bunch of turns and crashing into a big billboard. I’m not sure what exactly it was that I was “outrunning” but it was still pretty fun.
9. Dirt 2 - Xbox 360 (26.12) – I haven’t played any version of Dirt 2, but I’ve seen the trailer graphics and they are awesome. It looks both realistic yet stylized at the same time. It got significantly better reviews than Motorstorm (which I found pretty fun), hence my ranking.
10. Super Sprint - Arcade (26.11) – I had the same problem with this game as I did with Super OffRoad; couldn’t steer worth a damn. For some reason, the trucks and the bumpy dirt ramps were a lot more fun than Formula1.
11. Star Wars Episode 1 Racer - Arcade (19.06) – I’ve never played this in the arcade and no one I knew had this on the N64 either (which got an average of 4 out of 5 stars in reviews). :IBTL:
12. Excite Bike - NES (9.10) – I’m not sure what to make of this pick. I suppose it should get some kudos for its edit mode and the implementation of overheating, but I didn’t find it very fun. Old doesn’t always equal classic.
13. R. C. Pro-Am - NES (14.02) – I tried this out of my NESticle emulator (the desktop icon was a pair of hairy balls). But I didn’t really keep my attention for long. I might have liked it more in the 80’s, but there are so many more impressive racers now that I wouldn't want to play this over any of the other racers I ranked above it.