Top Gear 2 (SNES)

Usually, i'm not interested in racing game but i remember i'm hooked with Top Gear game on SNES in my cousin's house but i don't remember which one. Nevertheless, let's check on Gremlin Graphic LTD's Top Gear 2 (1993) for a bit! 

That some sparkling title. I quite like the font for the menus. It's bronze color with gradient contrast. What's so strange to me is the first menu from the top is: player mode, where you use d-pad to change between 1 or 2 player mode. Usually there's 2 separate menu for those. Both "Continue Country" and "Continue Game" menus require password that i don't have yet so let's skip them. The "Options" mode only consists of setting for turning on/off music and difficulty setting. The initial difficulty setting and also the lowest: amateur. I'm fine with that as i'm not so good at racing game and i haven't played (maybe) this game for at least 20 years.    

Thus i have no choice but to choose "Start" menu. On next screen, there's menu that i urgently need: control setting! 

Why there's 2 button for brake? I think the most ideal setting for racing game is: 2 button for acceleration instead. Maybe there's that kind of setting on one of those other 4 setting types but i will just leave this controller setting as it is for the sake of real experience.

On "Player" menu, you can set your player name. I think that's the car that i will use to race. Well, maybe it's the clay model of my car because i don't see the wheels and the lamps of it. Upon checking other menus, i find that "Gears" menu is setting to set the gear's car to automatic or manual while "Speed" menu is setting to set the unit of the speed to MPH or KM/H. Sorry, Imperial Unit users! I will stick to Kilometer per Hour because i'm accustomed to International Unit. I hope you don't mind.

But the route's length is still in miles! Spy_negativevocalization03.wav

Our first race take place in Auckland, Australia and it's sunny at 8.30 AM. Overall, good condition for the 1st race. Engineer_battlecry04.wav

Next, we have shop menu but i have $0 because of admission fee. I can't replace this initial engine not until i get some cash from winning races, that is.    

Here i'm, at the most back position. That sounds bit unfair to me, but i think i can tolerate that. It's not like i have any choice, anyway. Moreover, the track's shape seems quite easy to navigate. Perfect for beginner like me.    

That's right. Move out of the way! Your shinny black backside blocks my way, you schmuck!

Okay, that's too much. I'm afraid that the co-driver is Scout from Team Fortress 2 as he says "Eat my dust!", "Loser", or "Eat dirt!" everytime he manages to pass other contestant. You can say that he's cocky and salty.

This is why you don't be smug too early, you sod! I know that the fault is on me that like to crash into decoration on turns quite often but still. If you just be so kindly to have a little bit of healthy sportsmanship, that will be great.

The game punts me back to main menu after that one defeat so i have to go back to square but i barely accomplish anything back then so no problem. This time  i get better starter than before because there's a bunch of car in front of me so i can raise my ranking big time in one swoop if i'm able to do that, that is.  

Well. I manage to get into 10th position (which is the lowest position for qualification). I didn't do it efficiently because i still ram into decoration on turns too often. See the diagram of my car that between gear indicator and fuel bar? There's red line on front and left side indicate i took lots of damage on those part because of the ramming i did.

Here's the racers that qualified to next race. This Tricky person must be really cunning git, hinted by their name. Jon Jon name sounds funny. I'm quite surprised that Mike Matei, Simon Belmont and Mick Jagger are in the racing competition.

For some reason, i'm #7 in Championship Table. Maybe the game tries to encourage me to keep on playing. Heavy_yes03.wav

Our first race take place in Ayers Rock, Australia and it's sunny at 9.15 AM. Overall, good condition for race...unless there will be group of kangaroo block our road. Those foolhardy animals are rougher than cow or moose, you see? 

Turns out, there's more selections in the shop if i use up or down button on d-pad. I'm fairly imbecile. But as i don't have any money at the moment, i can only browse them. I think the least useful is armor upgrade to be more specifically the back ones because as i remember the AI is smart enough to pass the player from safe distance unlike me who like to barge other racers from behind wildly.     

Thus i decide to change my paint color to purple. I like purple color. Don't tell me what to do! Apparently paint color has the same price as air in Top Gear-verse which means it's free for some reason. I like the racing track isn't always flat. There's some slope which can boost car's speed for a bit.

My car here can't  changes gear to 4 normally not even using increase gear button (default "R" button). Maybe if i replace the engine or the gearbox, i can do that. But for now, to get my car's gear to 4 and thus reaching maximum velocity: i have to use the momentum after nitro expires and avoid any obstacles that will slow down my car. Ideally, you want to use nitro when there's long straight track ahead and not when there's lots of sharp turns.

Wow! I got 4th position and also $3000 cash. Demoman_positivevocalization02.wav

With that medium-size victory, i get to #7 on championship table above Jon Jon. Huh! Sucks it, twerp!     

So, we're back to New Zealand but this time we race at 11.00 PM when i normally already sleep or at least try to.

I need tenfold of my current money to buy new engine. I have option to buy the most expensive either dry tires or wet tires, though. But i choose not to because, they're not relevant in my opinion right now.   

*sigh*. Sadly, i'm still accompanied by Scout. I wish i drive alone because he's noisy and salty.

You see those lights on left side of the street? Those are advertisement neon lamps. I wish they're lamp posts instead so we have better lighting here. Moreover i can't see what they advertise because i'm currently busy on speeding here. But i only get 9th position in the end. To be fair, my starting position is on the most back again but at least i do better than in 1st race.

With  that minor lose, my rank downs to #10. Meanwhile Tricky returns to the top. I know that person has something on their sleeves.

Next race takes place in  Australia and this time on more civilized part of it. Trivia: young me always mistake Sydney as capital of Australia and not Canberra. That sure put a dent on his Geography score. Due to rainy weather, i decide to buy new wet tires. But the cheapest ones because i'm cheapskate. You can tell that tires affect how well your car to make in the turn while stay on track or professional racers like to call it "Handling".

 

Some track have logs that can make your car jumps if you go through it and boost its speed a bit. This condition may make the track not pass safety standard however it makes the game more interesting to me than any usual racing game.

No. I don't try to show you some sick stunt with my car. I just accidently crash into turn sign that makes my car spinning around for a while. I'm still bad at this game.

Even with that fairly fatal setback, i manage to qualify the race. Here's the password if you like to continue after that point. But i think there's some "saving" feature inside this password so it will also load my  money and championship points that aren't so much. Unless you think you can  do better than me, feel free to use this password.

I was about to stop my playthrough there but hey! It's the famous Loch Ness. I wish i can see the legendary lake monster but the weather is misty right now.

I don't hesitate to spend my money on new Nitro machine. I have no idea what specific upgrade on it. Does it increase Nitro duration, Nitro capacity, or speed boost when using nitro? I don't know and i don't care! Pyro_laughhappy01.wav  

Well, the mist is no kidding. I barely can see the turn ahead but good thing i can see the group of car there.

Miraculously, i made it to 4th position despite my initial position in 16th! Heavy_award10.wav

 

Moreover, i get into 4th place in championship table. I will stop the playthrough here for real before i'm too absorbed into the game.

Gremlin Graphic LTD's Top Gear 2 (1993) is simple yet interesting racing game. The racing courses are comprehensive which is good because i don't like wearying marathon. If the track is short, the number of lap is 5 at most. If the track is long, the number of lap is 2. That's good, otherwise my interest will shrinks really fast. Sadly the strategy is pretty crude which i mentioned before: use nitro boost and momentum gained from nitro efficiently. Without them, your car isn't fast enough to go after other racers. The setting to change gear system feels uninteresting. For example: i remember in Daytona USA (Arcade), i have choice between auto and manual gear system. Your car has higher maximum speed if you use manual gear. But in this game manual gear system purposes only to add more work for you or if you want to experience on changing gears. Another problem that i encounter is: my car almost running out of fuel (at the end of race thankfully) and i don't think there's a way to refill the gas tank. There's some square-shaped red icon that you can pick up but i'm not sure what's that for because i get it too fast and i can't see the detail of it. I assume it's for extra cash because i'm money grubber. I can be wrong about it, though. With inclusion of nitro and logs for makeshift ramp, you get some high adrenaline-pumping experience in this game. The tight racing limit (small track length/lap numbers ratio) also contributes to that. Like everyone else, i love purchasable upgrades so my interest on this game raises further. There's no saving feature but you get fairly adequate password after finishing a tour. But if i say about the password contain "saving" feature is true, there's a chance that you get soft locked because you didn't get necessary upgrades on later races especially when there's fuel problem that i mentioned. I think it will be much better if you get password after finishing a race instead. The music is nice beat-up tune with medium pace and not loud volume. The setting is good but i have to feel objected about the lack of lighting in night time racing. There's not even light comes from the cars!

  

If i'm not mistaken, Gremlin Graphic LTD's Top Gear 2 (1993) is pretty famous back in the day and i can see why. It has simple and fast pace compare to more realistic racing game. No qualification phase. No number of lap exceed 10. No track that's too long. Pole Position is more to my liking than this game but only slightly. Top Gear 2 is competitive enough to get my personal recommendation. The keyword here is "fast". If a racing game doesn't have fast pace, it's not good enough but i could be wrong as i'm not professional racer. Not even racing gamer.