Tag Archives: racing games

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Sunday Driving, Videos

Sunday Driving: Scud Racer – Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed #3

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It’s time for another episode of Sunday Driving and the continuation of Amy’s world tour in Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.

I noticed the quality on the previous videos was lower than it has been from my previous PC game captures, likely due to the fact that some combination of Windows 10 and/or my switch to SSD has meant that I’ve been having to re-encode captured video to a constant frame rate otherwise I get audio sync issues. This time around I’ve used higher quality settings, so let me know if you notice the difference.

Hit the jump to see the video! Continue reading Sunday Driving: Scud Racer – Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed #3 →

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, Sunday Driving, Videos

Sunday Driving: Amy’s Hot Wheels – Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed #1

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I’m currently deep in editing the next episode of the MoeGamer Podcast, but I managed to find some time to get a new Sunday Driving up.

I’ve had a few computer woes recently with a failing hard drive (probably down to it being about eight years old and getting battered pretty hard with video work) so I upgraded to an SSD (and Windows 10, against my better judgement). In the process I misplaced my Blur save file, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to revisit a favourite Sega game.

Here’s a look at Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed from Sega and Sumo Digital, a game that I enjoy a whole lot more than Mario Kart… in single-player, anyway.

Continue reading Sunday Driving: Amy’s Hot Wheels – Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed #1 →

Features, Sega Ages

Sega Ages: Monaco GP

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In Japan, the PlayStation 2 era was a fantastic time for budget-priced, arcade-style releases.

D3 Publisher is the indisputed master of janky but charming budget fare in this period of gaming history thanks to its expansive Simple Series, but they didn’t keep this knowledge and experience to themselves. They actually collaborated with Sega on a project dubbed “3D Ages” (“Sega D3” backwards) which ultimately resulted in the Sega Ages 2500 collection — a range of games that retailed for 2500 yen each (about £17.50 in today’s money) and encompassed a variety of remakes of Sega’s classic arcade and console titles.

We didn’t see a lot of these games in the West, but we were fortunate enough to get a cool compilation of them bundled together on a single PS2 disc in the form of the Sega Classics Collection. So let’s take a look at exactly what’s on offer, beginning with Monaco GP.

Continue reading Sega Ages: Monaco GP →

Essentials, Switch

Switch Essentials: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

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It’s quite peculiar, when you think about it — an awful lot of what are now regarded as Nintendo’s best games initially appeared on what turned out to be one of its most commercially underperforming systems: the dear old Wii U.

Given that games like Mario Kart 8 were universally well-received on the Wii U, it’s not altogether surprising that Nintendo would want to take the time to port them to a platform like the Switch, which has already absolutely crushed its predecessor in terms of sales.

And while Mario Kart 8 Deluxe isn’t a radical reinvention of its source material, it provides enough improvements over the original experience to make it a worthwhile purchase. Not to mention the prospect of having rather more people to play against!

Continue reading Switch Essentials: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe →

Essentials, SNES

SNES Essentials: Top Gear

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It’s weird how some memories stick with you for the longest time, for seemingly no reason whatsoever.

Prior to picking up a copy again recently, I hadn’t played Top Gear on the Super NES since the early ’90s when it was first released. And yet upon firing it up I confirmed something I had suspected for a while: its music had indeed been stuck in my head for nearly thirty years.

I was also pleased to discover that Top Gear is indeed still a whole lot of fun — and a great example of a type of racing game that has been rendered largely obsolete by the advances in technology over the years.

Continue reading SNES Essentials: Top Gear →

Essentials

PS2 Essentials: Alpine Racer 3

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I am one of the least sporty people I know, and I find the prospect of winter sports particularly terrifying. But I’ve always found something appealing about games involving skiing and suchlike.

My interest in this type of game dates right back to the imaginatively titled Skiing on the Philips G7000 Videopac (aka the Magnavox Odyssey 2 for American readers, where the game was known as Alpine Skiing) and the slightly later Winter Games from Epyx for various home computers.

Sometime around the PlayStation 1 and 2 eras, winter sports games started to place a heavy focus on technical, trick-based gameplay rather than the straight racing of early titles such as Skiing. And I kind of missed that simplicity.

Enter Namco’s Alpine Racer 3, the third installment of a series that began as a 1994 arcade title.

Continue reading PS2 Essentials: Alpine Racer 3 →

Essentials, N64

N64 Essentials: Wave Race 64

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Some of my fondest memories from my formative years have the Nintendo 64 as their focal point.

Whether it was indulging in loud-mouthed, profanity-laden four-player GoldenEye, Perfect Dark and Duke Nukem 64 deathmatches or just me and my similarly non-sporty school friends desperately trying to understand the appeal of the World Cup through the use of EA’s imaginatively titled World Cup 98, this console holds a special place in my heart.

And yet somehow up until now I’d never played one of its most well-respected games: Wave Race 64. And now I am kicking myself for not checking it out sooner.

Continue reading N64 Essentials: Wave Race 64 →

Features, MoeGamer Awards 2017

The MoeGamer Awards: Best Ridge Racer

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The MoeGamer Awards are a series of made-up prizes that give me an excuse to celebrate games, concepts and communities I’ve particularly appreciated over the course of 2017. Find out more and suggest some categories here!

The Ridge Racer series was a prime candidate for the Uncancel This Series award, but I’m still holding out hope that we’ll get a new one someday, and that it will be the most amazing arcade racer in existence.

Until that time comes, there are plenty of games in the series that I can continue to enjoy. But that, of course, begs an important question: which one of them is best?

And the winner is…

Continue reading The MoeGamer Awards: Best Ridge Racer →

Cover Games, Ridge Racer

Ridge Racer 7: The New “Revolution”

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cropped-ridge-header-8975512This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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Almost exactly a year after its previous installment, Ridge Racer got another mainline entry — a title which marked the franchise’s return to Sony platforms after its temporary dalliance with Microsoft.

Ridge Racer 7 was an exclusive title for Sony’s new PlayStation 3 platform — and in keeping with series tradition, it was a launch title, too — but it represented a less radical reinvention of the series than some of the previous games. In fact, those who played Ridge Racer 6 might find an awful lot of it quite familiar.

Ridge Racer 7, you see, is largely a reinvention of Ridge Racer 6, similar to how Ridge Racer Revolution was a reinvention of the original game. But that doesn’t make it a game you should pass up. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Continue reading Ridge Racer 7: The New “Revolution” →

Cover Games, Ridge Racer

Ridge Racer 6: PlayStation Who?

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cropped-ridge-header-8975512This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
<< First | < Previous | Next > | Latest >>

It was a good five years between Ridge Racer V helping to launch the PlayStation 2 and the next mainline numbered installment in the series.

In the intervening years we had a couple of spinoff games that are a little beyond the scope of what we have time to cover this month: in 2003, there was series outlier R: Racing Evolution, the only installment to feature licensed cars and thus a game some don’t consider to be a Ridge Racer at all, and 2004 gave us a well-received title for PSP that, in true Ridge Racer tradition, helped to demonstrate what a new Sony platform was capable of at launch.

It was 2005 before the next “true” sequel, however, and once again the series helped to launch a console. This time, however, it wasn’t a showcase game for a Sony platform; it instead formed part of the launch lineup for Microsoft’s Xbox 360, the first of the high-definition consoles to hit the market.

Continue reading Ridge Racer 6: PlayStation Who? →