Racing Games Top 10 List: Cruzer’s Picks

 

In 10th place: Star Wars Racer Arcade

 

A bit of an obscure title for the number 10 slot, Star Wars Racer Arcade was by-far one of the HARDEST racing games I have ever played. However, this was chiefly due to the controls that you were given on the arcade machine. Instead of a steering wheel, you had a pair of throttle levers reminiscent of Anakin’s podracer from Star Wars Episode One, one for the right engine and one for the left engine. Steering was dependent on how much more juice you were giving one engine than the other. Also, since it was an arcade-style game, this meant the first $1-2 you dropped into the machine would be mainly spent on learning how to actually control the sci-fi racing beast you were put behind. However, this extra challenge definitely fed into what made this game fun. Once you had a basic mastery of the controls, you instantly had arcade bragging rights… and empty pockets.

In 9th place: Driver San Francisco

 

Driver San Francisco was certainly one of the oddballs of the actual car racing genre. The main feature of the game was the main character’s “shift” ability, a game mechanic where you were not only able to leave your own car, but also take control of another mid-race! I can’t begin to explain the satisfaction that came with shifting into a vehicle in the oncoming lane and having it front-end an opponent just before jumping back to your car and skating past the wreckage. The story behind the game was pretty decent as well, even for a racing game, and even did a good job explaining what the shift ability was and how the main character acquired it. My only major gripe about it is that it suffered from controls that put too much on trying to be more realistic, so the steering tended to feel a bit like you were having to manhandle the vehicle into a turn and the boost was laughably weak.

In 8th place: Lego Racers

Alright, I can hear the chuckles already, but let me explain. Lego Racers had to be one of the first racing games I ever played back when I was a kid. All things considered, it was a pretty solid experience that definitely got addicting very easily. The game had weapons, boosts, short cuts, and just about full car-customization (which is kinda Lego’s thing). As a kid, you were able to race around the locations of your favorite Lego franchises, defeat characters you had come to know and love, and ultimately have a great time while doing it. The only thing that really got annoying with this game was how monumentally tough the final race was. Pretty sure teleportation defeats the purpose of using a car.

In 7th place: Hydro Thunder

The second non-car entry on this list, Hydro Thunder was another huge arcade favorite of mine. Aside from the typical EXTREME 90s flavor of it and the loud-voiced, in your face announcer (who to this day I swear was the same one from Crazy Taxi), the big thing about this game was that it made boat racing cool. The courses were exciting an imaginative, ranging from the Arctic Circle to a flooded New York City; and the boats themselves looked awesome, becoming only more so when the boosters were deployed. Speaking of which, to this day, I remember Hydro Thunder as having one of the most satisfying boost systems of any racing game I’ve ever played! We are talking rockets, jet engines, and stuff that looks like it belongs more on a spaceship than a hydroplane. And when you hit the boost button, it feels like you’re being launched into the red on the mph dial. Now, I will say Microsoft made a good effort with Hydro Thunder Hurricane on XBL, but there’s no beating the original arcade game and the experience that came with it.

In 6th place: Forza Motorsport 3

The one and only racing simulator on this list, Forza Motorsport 3 was surprisingly fun despite lacking in police chases, nitrous oxide, big jumps, or explosions. Being a decent-sized car enthusiast, what drew me to the game was the huge roster of driveable vehicles, including the the Audi R8 (which at the time I called the Tony Stark Wagon). On top of that, each car looked like a fully-rendered, moving, 3D, HD photograph that both looked and sounded like the real thing. The amount of detail put into this game still blows my mind to this day. I can also say that, once again, despite the lack of any Need for Speed-type qualities to them, the events are also pretty fun. My one and only issue with this game is the forgettable soundtrack. In a racing game, you need some great background music to keep you pumped; in a racing sim, even more-so.

In 5th place: San Francisco Rush 2044

My final Arcade entry for this list, San Francisco Rush 2049 has to be the best arcade racer I have ever played. This is a bit odd, due to the fact that despite the image above, this game has NO boost feature. However, what it does have is the ability to progress and unlock vehicles and tracks over subsequent playthroughs. This was accomplished through a phone-number length pin (which just about every kid used their home phone for), allowing one to come back to the same machine and get new content almost each time. It was a huge quarter vaccum, but having cars and tracks that other kids didn’t was a reward in and of itself. On top of this, the controls were standard but extremely functional, the futuristic aesthetic was candy to a sci-fi nerd like myself, and the amount of short cuts, secrets and unlocks was a fishhook that I just didn’t want to pull out. San Francisco Rush 2049 was the highlight of pizza night out with the family.

In 4th place: Kirby Air Ride

 

Despite always hearing that this game went largely unnoticed according to the Nintendo fanbase, it still seems that whenever I mention Kirby Air Ride to fellow gamers in real life it always gets an “Oh yeah! Great game!” response. This was a great game. In addition to having one of the main Nintendo mascots on the cover, the game had plenty to offer in terms of vehicles, tracks, and game modes. Naturally, Kirby’s ability to suck up enemies and use their powers came into play, and both Meta Knight and King Dedede were playable characters. City Trial, where you essentially built the perfect machine by picking up stat boosts before using it to win a random event, was perhaps the best part of this game. The sheer mayhem that ensued with four people running around a map trying to pick up the best vehicle was nothing short of wonderful. I will come right out and say that it isn’t the most balanced game on this list, but that didn’t matter. This was a true Nintendo multiplayer game. It was the kind of game you brought friends over and plugged in all four controllers for. Did I mention it was also made by the same studio that made Super Smash Bros?

In 3rd place: Mario Kart Double Dash

Speaking of Nintendo multiplayer mayhem, Mario Kart Double Dash takes the crown in the racing category. Now I know a lot of people will probably argue that Mario Kart 64 was better, but to be honest I got a lot more memories out of playing Double Dash with my friends. There was just something about the chaotic nature of being able to switch the driver and the item thrower (we called them the gunner) that made the game so great for four players. There was actual strategy behind the character selection process, rather than which character you liked the most. The kart you chose mattered, the character combo you chose mattered, who got to drive/gun mattered; it was serious competitive business! In spite of that, however, once the big “GO!” appeared, it was full-on Mario Kart and all the craziness that came with it. Definitely an unforgettable experience for anyone who ever owned a Gamecube.

In 2nd place: Need for Speed Hot Pursuit (2010)

 

Finally, we reach the IP that I’m sure everyone was waiting for on this list. Out of all the titles listed so far, Need for Speed has to be the series here that I’ve had the most time with. And what a time that’s been. The first question that’s sure to come up is “why not Most Wanted?” Well, to tell the truth, I found Most Wanted to be an excellent Need for Speed game, but not quite to the style of what I liked about the series. Most wanted was about the chases, but due to this it felt like the racing took a back seat. Now some people may like that more, and I can understand that, but to me a racing game should be about racing first and foremost. That’s what you got with Hot Pursuit. The player’s role in the game was either being a racer who wanted to turn Seacrest County into their own personal race track, or a cop trying to stop the party. This simple “it’s us or them” tone really fueled the game’s high intensity pursuits to the absolute peak and made both outrunning the cops or busting the racers an enjoyable experience. Now if only Rivals had kept this without adding a weird story element to it.

Finally, in 1st place:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-kF-PTcLlA]

The aptly named Burnout Paradise is, BY FAR, the greatest racing game I have ever played. While previous games on this list were fun ways to get sidetracked or nice party games to play with friends, this game was one to get absolutely LOST in. It was one of the first games to not only offer an entirely open-world racing experience to the player but also perfect it. There was never a shortage of things to do in Paradise City. Between doing events, smashing billboards, finding shortcuts, running off jumps, doing barrel rolls (not kidding), and otherwise smashing your car to an absolute pulp, it was a game to spend hours upon hours on. One of my favorite parts of the game was how you unlocked new vehicles. They weren’t just given to you. Oh no, you would have to seek them out in Paradise City and run them off the road before you could drive them yourself. The aesthetics are by no means Forza level, but they fit together almost perfectly with the excellent soundtrack that comes with it. It is a bitter-sweet pill that since its release, Criterion has shifted their focus over to the Need for Speed Franchise and we have yet to see another Burnout since. However, it is all too clear that the developer hasn’t forgotten this game. Between the road rage of Hot Pursuit, the stunt run that is the new Most Wanted, and the completely octaine obsessed Rivals, you can still see bits of Burnout Paradise in every new game.

 

Well that’s my top 10 list. What are the racing games that you like the most? Feel free to share in the comments below!