best retro racing games

da gamer · 05-10-2010 7:07pm #1

having just played f1 2010 (its quite good actually) i thought id pose the question - what are the best racing games ever. i have fond memories of games such as road rash, nigel mansell racing, f1 95, gran turismo, super mario kart, micro machines, toca touring cars, v rally and colin mc crae to mention a few. what games do you guys remeber fondly?

Retr0gamer · 05-10-2010 7:23pm

This is a toughie. Suppose Super Mario Kart is the obvious one. Mario Kart 64 was a disappointment but the 4 player still got a lot of play especially wario stadium. The micro machines games are still great especially in multiplayer as is super skidmarks.

There's some great super scaler racers like Outrun, Outrunners (wish I had found an 8 player linked up version) and Power Drift.

The Sega racers were always exceptional with the best being Virtua Racing, Sega Rally, Scud Racer and Daytona USA.

Ridge Racer is damn good as well despite having only one track. Taking a corner totally sideways while in first person never gets old.

Always like the F-zero games. F-zero X was the best until F-zero GX on the GC came along and even then it's arguable which is better.

Some of the Rush games were excellent as well with San Fransisco Rush 2049 being my favourite and the spiritual entry in the series Hydro Thunder.

Also loved Beetle Adventure Racing which was a spiritual successor to the first Need for Speed which I'm sure Ciderman will mention.

And then the is the amazing Hard Drivin'.... ok maybe not.

Myrddin · 05-10-2010 7:36pm

If Atavan comes along & says Race Driver GRID...I'll give up

da gamer · 05-10-2010 7:52pm

wipeout is another game which i played alot in the past. i was never a fan of ridge racer. sure the mechanics were good, but i thought it was highly over rated. and ya, sega knew how to make a good racer retrogamer

deathrider · 05-10-2010 8:03pm

Loved the original F-Zero game on the sense. It'll alway hold a place in my heart. Also, it have a fantastic soundtrack.
Wipeout 2097 on Ps1 was a classic too.

djimi · 05-10-2010 8:31pm

Grand Prix 2, 3 and 4 would be the best for me. GP3 especially as it was the first time I really got into the whole sim racing scene and modding games.

Gran Turismo (GT2 in my case as I played for 11 straight months until I finished it), TOCA Touring Cars and Colin McRae Rally also. The original Formula 1 game was incredible fun when it came out. Now I just play it to hear Murray Walker

Micro machines on the Megadrive. Virtua Racing also, if only for the sheer jaw droppingness of it compared to other racing games of the time. Even tho I never liked the old style racing games from the 16 bit days Aytron Sennas Super Monaco Grand Prix II will always hold a place in my heart. The music is still in my head!

Also one I used to love and play for hours called Big Red Racing. It was a bit pants but man it was so much fun to play! Good times

justbrian · 05-10-2010 8:42pm

All the obvious ones already mentioned, so how about some love for demolotion derby for saturn (and ps but I played saturn). It's underrated in my opinion.

ebbsy · 05-10-2010 8:47pm

How about Buggy Boy and Powerdrift on the CBM 64 ?

Two very clever conversions.

LoGiE · 06-10-2010 12:55am

Lotus turbo challenge II, Vroom and Stunt car racer on the Amiga. I also have a soft spot for games like super cars and Badlands. I also just got a flash of playing 'Days of Thunder' on the c64...get..outa...my head!!

CiDeRmAn · 06-10-2010 8:33am

Beetle Adventure Racing was great alright but maybe a proper need for speed would have been better.
Certainly the original of the species on the 3DO was awesome.
Rage Racer on the PS was superb, as was Wipeout but the the case if the latter it was easily outpaced by its own sequel Wipeout2097.
As they are on the PS though I would not really call them retro.
Stunt Car Racer was brilliant on most 8 and 16 bit computer formats, Lotus Turbo Esprit on speccy was brilliant.
Road Rash and Road Rash 2 were great, but ultimately limited, given that motorcycle riding was reduced to vague left and right movements while the road scrolled beneath.
Lotus was better.
Test Drive 2 was probably the most impressive on those 16bit formats, setting up the Need for Speed (same dev) with the experience of driving, not just racing.
Another often forgotten racer is the frankly fab Star Wars Pod Racer on the not great for racers N64, I have a feeling, in years to come, it will be seen as the best Star Wars game, at least on consoles.

Not really retro but pooping all over Wipeout is F-Zero GX, my series fave Burnout 2 and Test Drive Unlimited, a return to the series original purpose to let you drive exotic cars fast.

Roar · 06-10-2010 10:34am

I spent DAYS of my childhood playing Burnin Rubber on the Amstrad 464+... the game never ended.. it just went on and on and on...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MixXYnw58KA

simpler times.. now that theme music is going to be in my head all day

o1s1n · 06-10-2010 12:02pm

Neo Drift Out! Great Neo Geo game. Doesn't get enough love.

pasta-solo · 06-10-2010 1:10pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9NVwCkn2Lw

Rollcage was excellent!

*Mod Note: Edited to fix Youtube video*

Atavan-Halen · 06-10-2010 1:34pm

EnterNow wrote: »

If Atavan comes along & says Race Driver GRID...I'll give up

Ew no! Some retro forza 2 is where it's at :P

The Gran turismo series is one of my all-time favourites with 2 being my personal favourite. Countless hours spent on that game. Ridge racer was the first game I ever ever played (maybe) so it holds a special place in my heart and is a brilliant game to boot. Need for speed: hot pursuit 3 on the PC is another of my favourites. Probably the only PC game I've played properly and really really enjoyed as I'm not a PC gamer at all. Toca touring cars on the PS1 is good fun, but I just liked the damage factor when I was younger

The Mario kart games are good fun but never really got into the series. Played them every now and again but they don't really hold my attention. The micro machines series is brilliant fun, especially with a few people. I like V-Rally but not too find on the way the cars handle. Colin McRae on the PS1 was great too. F-Zero GX looks and plays brilliant and is a must for any 'cube collection.

Ah there's just too many good racing games for me! 'Tis probably my favourite genre of game

Dr Bob · 06-10-2010 1:55pm

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidge Racer!
I've also a soft spot for Fatal Racing/Whiplash on the PC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_racing
Its sort of ridge racer crossed with stunt car racer and well worth a punt if you can find it.

Atavan-Halen · 06-10-2010 2:04pm

Daytona USA had some funky music too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh5LfAu1EMI

Retr0gamer · 06-10-2010 2:39pm

I must apologise for trying to sing the Daytona music in cidermans house

CiDeRmAn · 06-10-2010 2:58pm

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I must apologise for trying to sing the Daytona music in cidermans house

And so you should, not as bad as the Dino Rex impressions though!

SuperInfinity · 06-10-2010 6:24pm

I would say Mario Kart 64. It wasn't a "disappointment" to most people, the only thing that lets it down is the AI in the single player game. It's a very hard skill to powerslide really well multiple times in a corner, but when you can do that it gets very interesting in time trials, vs time trials (you vs a friend in time trials with two or three attempts... it's a lot of fun), or multiplayer (which can admittedly get a little cheap if you allow items but the best players still come out on top anyway). The powersliding in the new games is a dumbed-down version of the original very technical way of doing it, it's okay but not as good as the original. Having said that, I think it might be arguable that Double Dash is better again than MK64 for other reasons such as speed, but I don't think you could call that retro. I find Super Mario Kart to be a very good game, but can be a bit boring. No powersliding.

The next best for me would be F-Zero X. Absolutely brilliant for the first couple of hours you play it. Maybe not a game you'd come back to for all time, but for a long time it's incredible.

landsleaving · 07-10-2010 2:56pm

I still play Total Drivin' on the PS1, it was the first playstation game I got, and I love it. I've no idea what anyone else thinks of it though, never come across anyone else who's played it :P

Nigel Mansell's on the SNES was great at the time. Godawful now though.

F-Zero X though probably gets my vote for best racing game ever, just ahead of Micro Machines, Mario Kart, Gran Turismo and Diddy Kong Racing.

CiDeRmAn · 07-10-2010 5:15pm

Re: Rollcage,
Yup, it was great alright, but Rollcage 2, the cunningly named sequel to Rollcage, is far far better, better perhaps then even Wipeout 2097!
Shock,
Shock,
Horror
Horror!

The only thing it had against it were slightly murky visuals, but the weapons were outstanding.

As for Total Driving, have it somewhere, it's ok, the driving model takes some getting used to, I guess it's like Vanishing Point in that respect, there are those that like it and many that don't, same with the V Rally series on the PS1.

Total Driving, along with most other racing series on the PS aside from Need For Speed III and Hot Pursuit, were totally drowned out by the dawn of Gran Turismo and GT2, in fact the only game series to truly prosper post GT were the TOCA games, as they offered something really different, and of course the same studios Colin McCrea titles.
F1 and F1 97 were brilliant as well, but Sony did a big poo in the custard (perhaps cus-turd?) with the awful F198 and never made a decent F1 game again.

Jordan 199 · 08-10-2010 1:05am

I really enjoyed F-Zero. Didn't play it in years, but I might fire it up over the weekend.

The first racing game for the PC I bought was Microprose GP1. Came on 3.5" floppies and you could also use it on an Amiga. You had to enter all the 1991 team and driver names manually.

I then got GP2, F1RS, GPL, F1RC, F1-2002, GP4 and the Eidos F1 game based on the 1999 championship. I also have Toca Race Driver 3 plus a few other racing games.

My fav's are GP1, GP2, GP4, F1RS and Grand Prix Legends.

I suck at GPL, but it's well worth it for the engine sounds and the amazing cars and circuits.

djimi · 08-10-2010 10:37am

Grand prix legends is an incredible game. Unbelievably tough to play!

Jordan 199 · 08-10-2010 12:51pm

djimi wrote: »

Grand prix legends is an incredible game. Unbelievably tough to play!

It sure is. A steering wheel is a must for playing it, and even with one, i'm hopeless lol.

KungPao · 08-10-2010 1:15pm

Roar wrote: »

I spent DAYS of my childhood playing Burnin Rubber on the Amstrad 464+... the game never ended.. it just went on and on and on...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MixXYnw58KA

simpler times.. now that theme music is going to be in my head all day

I had this game on my Amstrad 6128+ in cartridge form, very hi-tech indeed

You are right about it going on and on....and the controls were TERRIBLE!

:mad:

Loved the game though.

bop1977 · 09-10-2010 11:38am

how about these:

the great american cross country road race
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK1117xxH0g
this one had cop cars, fuel guage and break downs, also you had to release the accelarator and push the joystick forward to change gear and be careful not to blow the engine

or the daddy of all F1 games Pole Position:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUU_F9TvXco

pdbhp · 09-10-2010 11:41am

One game and one game only is the daddy of retro racing games its called Ivan "Iron man" Stewarts Super off Road Racer.
This top down stress fest was an arcade classic and spawned many ports on nearly every system at the time.

Myrddin · 09-10-2010 11:48am

Rock n Roll racing is also an absolute gem :cool: I had the snes version years ago, great fun on two player.

Roar · 09-10-2010 1:13pm

forgotten about stunt car racer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Dubv-BxXBk

spent countless hours on this!

djimi · 09-10-2010 1:28pm

pdbhp wrote: »

One game and one game only is the daddy of retro racing games its called Ivan "Iron man" Stewarts Super off Road Racer.
This top down stress fest was an arcade classic and spawned many ports on nearly every system at the time.

I have this on the SNES. Its a great game but it gets a bit repetative after a while. Lots of fun to play tho.

pdbhp · 09-10-2010 5:18pm

djimi wrote: »

I have this on the SNES. Its a great game but it gets a bit repetative after a while. Lots of fun to play tho.

Correct and get a second player to have even more mayhem!

bbability · 09-10-2010 5:39pm

Super Sprint for the atari st. It was cracked of course. Best racing game for me was ridge racer 2.

pdbhp · 11-10-2010 12:23pm

Just having a look at old racing games and came across this forgotten jem, it's a game I played the sh1t out of back in the day and it had the track editor in which you could make cool tracks (or not).:D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP4yJDGHZBc

paperwork · 11-10-2010 3:03pm

The first game i ever played was F1 Pole Position on the Atari 2600, i know the arcade version was already mentioned, but the 2600 version was class in its own right!

I remember the disputes in my house over whether the orange things on the first track were other cars or road blocks... tore my family apart that did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJJF_0fD5BM

Cows Go µ · 11-10-2010 5:20pm

My favourite racing game when I was younger was a game called Supersonic Racers. It belonged to a friend of mine and when I moved away I obviously couldn't play it anymore. I only recently found out what it was called again and got it (an awesome present from my boyfriend). Its even better than I remember it, no one else has heard of it but it will always be a favourite of mine.

For those of you who have never heard of it, here's a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E32j3DcWjkI

I was the Micromachines champion in my neighbourhood when I was small, such a brilliant game. Was introduced to Mariokart a year or two ago, it immediately went into my top racing games list

CiDeRmAn · 11-10-2010 9:23pm

Heard of it but didn't like it, sorry, it was trounced by the mighty Micro Machines V3 unfortunately!
Great user name though! Very original!
But wouldn't Cats Go µ have been a better fit?

chopperbyrne · 12-10-2010 6:05pm

Super Cars on the A500.

Unirally on SNES was awesome too.

CiDeRmAn · 12-10-2010 10:11pm

Preferred Stunt Race FX, even if it was terribly screwed by the PAL conversion.
It had so much character, lovely.

CathalDublin · 13-10-2010 1:54am

Arcade World rally championship without a doubt

Hank Scorpio · 13-10-2010 1:59am

stunt race fx was a solid racer on the snes

it used the same chip like starwing to give out 3d gfx

Agricola · 13-10-2010 7:49pm

Pole Position on Atari!

The racing game that gave me the greatest pleasure growing up was Colin McRae Rally.
I got the PS1 in '97 and had been stuck on 16 bit games up til then. CMR was probly the first real 3d racing game I owned. Absolutely blew me away. Got the dualshock around the same time and the graphics with the analogue steering was a heady mix.

Had some laughs playing VRally on a friends PS too.

Mike Litoris · 18-10-2010 10:17pm

djimi wrote: »

Grand prix legends is an incredible game. Unbelievably tough to play!

Thank god GPL was mentioned in this thread. For me, this sim still hasn't been surpassed. I had so many seat of the pants online races throughout the years.

Indeed, it had an almost impossible learning curve but once it clicked with you, that was it. I've never felt so rewarded by a game. Winning your first online race is probably as good as doing it in real life.:D

Augmerson · 19-10-2010 1:30am

Hmmm.

Road Rash 2 definitely....Need for Speed 3: Hot Pursuit is another. WipEout 2097, V-Rally, Hard Drivin' (seriously, I love that game, it's like marmite you either love it or hate it) Enduro (think that was on the Spectrum?) Toca Touring Cars. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

CiDeRmAn · 19-10-2010 8:24am

Toca Touring 2 surely better?
GPL was sensational, never actually got around a track in one piece, but great game.
And re: Need For Speed 3, it was great but Need For Speed: Road Challenge was better, in my opinion at least, also NFS3 was criminally overshadowed by Gran Turismos almost simultaneous release.

Dardania · 19-10-2010 8:33am

my favourite would be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One_Grand_Prix_(video_game) on the Amiga. You could name all your opponents whcih was fun...

and then for the graphics for the time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need_for_Speed:_Porsche_Unleashed the scenery was excellent

CiDeRmAn · 19-10-2010 12:08pm

Yup, played Porsche Unleashed on the PC, PS and the GBA!
Each version was pretty good, the PC one being excellent.
I did find though, by this stage, it was being outstripped by other games on other consoles, in particular the under rated Vanishing Point, Colin McCrea 2 and Gran Turismo 2.
But, imho, the most excellent NFS title, aside from the 3DO original, was Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 on the PS2.

Dardania · 19-10-2010 1:24pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Yup, played Porsche Unleashed on the PC, PS and the GBA!
Each version was pretty good, the PC one being excellent.
I did find though, by this stage, it was being outstripped by other games on other consoles, in particular the under rated Vanishing Point, Colin McCrea 2 and Gran Turismo 2.
But, imho, the most excellent NFS title, aside from the 3DO original, was Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 on the PS2.

Played NFS: Hot Pursuit 2 also myself - it was a good one, however Porsche Unleashed did it for me just that bit more! I think it was also because I was into modding my PC at the time, and it was around then I got a Crucial ATi Radeon (Think it was a 9000) with 128 meg vram - suddenly this game popped to life in front of me...

Have: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need_for_Speed:_Hot_Pursuit_(2010_video_game) on order for the brothers for Christmas on the PS3, and the ladyfriend is getting me http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Turismo_5 for Christmas - I have a suspision we'll be swapping, fingers crossed!

rubadub · 20-10-2010 7:41pm

Arcade pole position (with the burnt in screen!)
Outrun -the shakey steering wheel, and sit in version
Chase HQ, the follow up SCI was pretty good too
Hard Drivin', too much of a simulator for my liking, but the loop was good, and the gimmick of the key.

Forgot about supersprint & buggy boy, think I played buggy boy on a mates ST or amiga.

stooodent · 20-10-2010 7:44pm

CRASH TEAM RACING was the ****!
wipeout was good too and Ridge racer

Augmerson · 20-10-2010 9:48pm

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Toca Touring 2 surely better?
GPL was sensational, never actually got around a track in one piece, but great game.
And re: Need For Speed 3, it was great but Need For Speed: Road Challenge was better, in my opinion at least, also NFS3 was criminally overshadowed by Gran Turismos almost simultaneous release.

I remember well a trip up to Dublin and going into Gamesworld on Middle Abbey Street. This was when it was at the back of Chapter's music place. NFS 3 was on the demo machine and I was hooked the minute I saw it, Gran Tourismo was not really my game back then. Will have to have a look at Road Challenge.