Nintendo 64 racing games.

This post shall be about the old Nintendo 64 racing games, and some Playstation 1 games compared to now.

The first console I played was the Super Nintendo, and I was pretty young then. When we got a Nintendo 64, there where 2 main racing games I liked to play which were the Star Wars Pod racing game and a RC game called Re-volt. For the Star Wars game, you drove the racing pods that where in the phantom menace for anyone who does not know this game. You start with a few pods, and nearly every race you one, you got a new pod to be able to use. In each race, you needed to stay out in front with while keeping your pod in one piece. You hit a wall, you need to repair that section of the pod. This gave the game that extra difficultly if you kept hitting the walls. Repairing costed you speed and allowed the other races to catch up. You are able to destroy your pod if you hit something to hard, making the others to catch up as you respawn. The difficultly in this game was there, and each race you won, you felt something as you one the new pods. A lap of some of the  tracks could be anywhere from 45 seconds to 3 minutes, with each track is 3 laps long. Needing to respawn and repairing your vehicle makes it a good workout to stay in front. The difficultly was there in that game. Now to Re-Volt

A game about Remote control cars running wild in life size environments. 4 different championship that are range from different environments- museum, suburbs, toy shop, etc. You get about 6 RCs to start of with and need to complete the championships to unlock more tracks and vehicles. You can also unlock RCs by time trail, Collecting a star and arcade mode. The hardest part is the championship, where you needed to come in the top 3 each race for the 4 races in that series. You only get 3 restarts for the whole 4 races, If you come just behind 3rd on the final lap, you got to restart that race, you run out and its game over for that championship. Needing to complete all the races again for that championship. If that was not enough, there are power ups (like the ones in Mario racing if you don't know this game). Most of them can have some splash effect, e.g. There is a fireworks power up, that allows you to fire at a car that is visible in front of you. You can fire it and it hits the RC, if there is a RC close enough to the one that gets hit, they to will be thrown of their course.
The weapons can make you go from hero to zero and visa versa. the vehicles are so light if you run into another RC trying to make them spin out, you may be the one facing the other way. Winning a race on this can be tough as each race is complete different with the opponents.

As for a Playstation one game called Hot Wheels Turbo Racing. ( I do like my racing games). Even though it did come out on the N64, we only got it on the Playstation. The championship in this was more brutal in my eyes, you could come any place from 1st to 6th (last). to continue on to the next championship you needed to come first in the points, which meant to stay in the lead. As there short cuts on each track, taking these helped you to win, but getting in them sometimes meant perfect precision. Taking a jump on an angle only to think you are in the gap for the shortcut as you fall to the ground, respawning to retry again or take the normal route. Back to the championship, If you won, you unlocked the next championship series, the tracks and a good amount of new cars to use. If you lost even by 1 point, An image came up (going by memory now) of the trophy destroyed with some text. As a child, this was devastating when this came up. Spending a a good half an hour on a championship only to see this image come up of the trophy you could have won destroyed.

These games where brutal in a way when you lost, but it taught me I needed to become better at them, brake later into corners, you boast at the most important time, and hold onto weapons so you have it when you need it. Take a different lines into the corner and also I actually memorized tracks. All this gave me a fighting chance at these games.

Games these days, not all of them, but a good amount of them have something called "FlashBack". I have to say I have used some in dirt when I wasn't bothered redoing a section of brick breaker (I think that's what its called). Other than this I do not like to use it. But this feature Takes the fun away from the game just a touch, , as if they want you to use it. I know you can turn the function off, or make it that you have less to use.
As for the rewards in the games, I  don't see many rewards in this style of game, you get money to buy a new car, or to upgrade the vehicle. Some you do not need to purchase the vehicle, Its already there to use. I find the reward of winning some of these championships are not there as much. If you lose, there is no scene saying you lost, making you feel you need to do a lot better if you want to win this championship.

Some games do have the feel of the victory if you win after that massive struggle to stay in the lead. Also, just a quick think on games that give you money to buy new equipment/ cars. I have never been able to fail on of these games. And I personally find this disappointing. To have the fact to be able to fail would make the game more interesting for me, to show me where I go wrong and how to fix it for next time.

So, to sum all of what I have stated up quickly. I find the old games a greater learning curve and more based on your skill as a racer, as you can be working your way up the grid a lot of times in 1 race, and feeling relief when you one the race. Don't get me wrong, new games have it in there. It could just be because I was young and losing a race in the game was a big deal with what happened when you lost. Now it just seems like you can just skimp your way though if you want. Modern games are fun as they offer new ways to race and complete environments that you only dream about racing on. Also, I find there is a phase in games where the difficultly just vanished, and only now they are bringing back the hardness in the games, Which I like.

These are just my feelings on old racing games, and I love to play them now, the challenge and fun is still there, And the new games are just as fun.



- Joshua - Out - Digital word Racing!