First, I’ll set the mood.
It’s a hot Saturday afternoon, and the wife and kid have a mother/son photo shoot. No dad’s allowed. We’ve been out all day as a family, doing various odds and ends, so I drop them off and look for a way to kill an hour or so. It’s too late in the day to make it to the card shop with much time to spare. As much as I love spending cash on junk wax boxes, I mostly enjoy the experience of walking around the shop. Spending two minutes and leaving with a box of ’92 Topps kinda defeats the purpose.
So no card shop.
Luckily, the retro game store was closer to the photo shoot location AND open later! Plus, it’s a great ‘consolation location.’ The only question I had to answer is what, exactly, I’d go in looking for.
You see, the trouble with the game store is that I want EVERYTHING. Old systems, old games, newer systems, retro strategy guides… I “remember” and “used to play” nearly everything in the place so it’s easy to become overwhelmed with it all. I decided that this particular trip’s objective would be to find racing games.
Racing games are the easiest retro games to pick up and play because they’re easy to learn, which is a necessity because they usually don’t come with instruction manuals. Not that I would’ve read it in the first place, but still.
Getting more specific with my target, I decided to pick up a few games I never played, but always wanted.
First up, Extreme G:
It’s an incredibly high speed “motorcycle” racer. In addition to the high speeds you pick up weapons to destroy opponents. Or attempt to destroy. I can’t seem to aim AND keep my vehicle off the railings. I remember this game being kind of a big deal, although playing it now I can’t say I understand why. It’s fast, yeah, but there’s no ‘character’.
Next, San Francisco Rush.
This game released close in time to Top Gear Rally, so that when it came time to formulate my Christmas list I had to choose one or the other. I don’t know if I specifically picked one of the two games, or whether I asked for both to put the decision in someone else’s hands, or what. Either way, I got Top Gear Rally, the rally racing simulation with realistic physics (re: HARD!) and crazy good – for the time – graphics. The game filled my need for a ‘realistic’ racing game (as opposed to something like Mario Kart 64 or Diddy Kong Racing), so I never picked up SF Rush, Top Gear’s arcade style racing counterpart and polar opposite. The cars in SF Rush basically fly, completely ignoring the laws of physics, and plowing head on into a wall results in an explosion. Good times.
And finally, Beetle Adventure Racing:
I can only assume this game was released around the time the real life VW Beetles were re-released. The game plays surprisingly well and is quite fun.
I can now cross the “buy racing games I never owned or played but always wanted” off my bucket list.
Filed under: Retro, video games | Tagged: Beetle Adventure Racing, Extreme G, N64, racing games, San Francisco Rush, they're cartridges, why do they need a memory card? | 1 Comment »