What are your favorite 16-bit racing games?

[DigitalSpace]

What are your favorite 16-bit racing games? Feel free to mention any racing games on the SNES, Genesis, TG-16, or any other 16-bit system.

Here's my list:

Rock N' Roll Racing (SNES, Genesis, also ported to GBA) - A really fun game. Plays like RC Pro-AM but the weapon system is better. And with renditions of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid," Deep Purple's "Highway Star," and the Spy Hunter theme, among others, it has the best soundtrack of the 16-bit racing games.

Super Mario Kart (SNES) - The game that started a genre. Mario Kart 64 is my personal favorite in the series, but this is what started it all, and it's really fun to play with a friend.

Biker Mice From Mars (SNES) - Did you watch this cartoon show back in the day? Neither did I. So why is this game worth owning? Well, instead of making a generic platformer or crappy beat 'em up clone like what was done with a good amount of licensed games, Konami put out a racing game. It's a cross between Rock N' Roll Racing and Super Mario Kart. Each character has their own unique advantages and attacks. The powerups are nice as well. One of the most underrated SNES games out there.

F-Zero (SNES) - The debut of Mode 7. And what a grand debut it was. My only gripe is that all of the tracks should have been available in the practice mode.

Championship Pro-AM (Genesis) - This is basically a 16-bit update to RC Pro-AM that oddly was a Genesis exclusive. Like Super Mario All-Stars, the only thing that was different from RC Pro-AM was the graphics. But since it was on the Genesis, I figured it was worth mentioning.

Outrun (Genesis) - If only I could find a copy of this. I loved playing it in the arcade.

Top Gear 3000 (SNES) - The first Top Gear was okay, but I couldn't stand that it had a split-screen in 1-player mode. Top Gear 2 suffered from awful control options. The term "three times the charm" really applies to Top Gear 3000.

Virtua Racing (Genesis) - It only has three tracks, and the graphics look a bit dated today, but Sega did a nice job bringing their arcade hit to the Genesis. I haven't played it much but I do like what I have played.

[PhoeniX]

F-Zero (SNES)
Rock & Roll Racing (SNES)
Super Mario Kart (SNES)
Virtua Racing (Genesis)
Stunt Race FX (SNES) ----- My all time favorite race game I musta spent days playing just the Sunset Valley level, can anyone beat 1'50''56?

[8-Bit Master]

Super Mario Kart (SNES)
F-Zero (SNES)
Top Gear 2 (SNES)
Stunt Race FX (SNES)
Outrun (Genesis)

[sisko]

Super Mario Kart :SNES
Uniracers :SNES
Final Lap Twin :TG16
Championship Pro AM: Genesis

[Cobra Commander]

Not the best, but one of my favorites is Race Drivin'. I love the super stunt track and seeing how many different ways I can crash.

[Lady Jaye]

I'm quite fond of Super Mario Kart.

[Nez]

Only one I played was Stunt Race FX becouse it was a pack in game for my SNES. Fun stuff.

[Cmosfm]

My fave has to be Uniracers, that's because I was always a single player gamer.

But, when I did have some friends over, it was Super Mario Kart all the way!

[DigitalSpace]

Hmm, looks like I should check out Stunt Race FX. I'm starting to regret passing that up as much as I have. Fortunately, it's not too hard to find and it shouldn't set me back more than five bucks.

And I can't believe I left out Uniracers in my list! One hell of a fun game. I don't know how that one slipped past me when I was making this thread.

[digitalpress]

Cool topic.

My favorite all-time 16-bit racer is Out Run on Genesis. The game just looked SO good for its day, such an accurate look AND feel for an arcade port. If you don't like the Out Run game you probably wouldn't like the Genesis version. I am not one of those people.

Close to that is Virtua Racing on Genesis, that crazy extra-large cart to hold the necessary chips. Still impressive to this day.

Running just behind those two is the original Super Monaco GP (not that awful sequel Ayrton Senna) on Genesis. Wow were those graphics top-notch. GP-style racers were never my thing but I can always go back to a game of this.

Finally, the all-time greatest racing party game (on 16-bit consoles) is Moto Roader on TurboGrafx-16. There weren't too many 4 or 5-player racing games at that time (Street Racer on SNES comes to mind) and to top that off, Moto Roader has some of the best upgrade and weapon systems ever. It's STILL a blast to play.

[kainemaxwell]

F-Zero (SNES)
Rock & Roll Racing (SNES)
Super Mario Kart (SNES)
Uniracers (SNES)

[youruglyclone]

Rock N' Roll Racing (SNES, Genesis, also ported to GBA) - A really fun game. Plays like RC Pro-AM but the weapon system is better. And with renditions of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid," Deep Purple's "Highway Star," and the Spy Hunter theme, among others, it has the best soundtrack of the 16-bit racing games.

Super Mario Kart (SNES) - The game that started a genre. Mario Kart 64 is my personal favorite in the series, but this is what started it all, and it's really fun to play with a friend.

Biker Mice From Mars (SNES) - Did you watch this cartoon show back in the day? Neither did I. So why is this game worth owning? Well, instead of making a generic platformer or crappy beat 'em up clone like what was done with a good amount of licensed games, Konami put out a racing game. It's a cross between Rock N' Roll Racing and Super Mario Kart. Each character has their own unique advantages and attacks. The powerups are nice as well. One of the most underrated SNES games out there.


Amen!

my question is did anyone who played BBfM ever pick anyone that isn't Limburger?

[downfall]

Wait a minute!

I really enjoy most all the games listed, but everyone left out Super Off Road! You know, some good old fashioned 4-player, dirt tracking, nitro-boosting, red, yellow, blue, and gray trucking, money-snagging, truck upgrading crazyness!

I pumped so much money into that arcade game back in the day (at good old Billy Bob's Pizza Wonderland) and when it came out on SNES, I rented that game so many times that I probably could have bought it three times over. I've yet to own a copy however. :(

I also loved Dirt Trax FX, though in playing it again recently, it didn't seem quite as cool as it was before. I do remember spending hours trying to beat all the difficulty levels and so forth. I actually think I liked it better than Stunt Race FX, though Stunt Race has probably held up better over time.

[evilmess]

Zen Nihon GT Sensyuken (http://screenmania.retrogames.com/snes/04/snes_0145.html) is an obscure Japanese title for the SFC/SNES that I really like. It features an overhead isometric view like Neo Drift Out. It's a nice blend of sim and arcade but requires track memorization to successfully compete. Learning curve: High

On the more mainstream side I really like Virtua Racing and Street Racer which is a neat little Super Mario Cart clone for both the Genesis and SNES. Both of these are great pick up and play racers.

Others I enjoy
Super Mario Kart: SNES
Outrun: Genesis
Kawasaki Superbike Challenge: Genesis

[thehistorian]

F-Zero (SNES)
Super Mario Kart (SNES)
Uniracers (SNES)

Uniracers should have been updated by now.. and I don't mean make it 3D...

[DigitalSpace]

my question is did anyone who played BBfM ever pick anyone that isn't Limburger?

My brother picked Modo all the time. The first few times I played the game, I went with Grease Pit, but nowadays, much like I do with Mario Kart, I don't really have a specific favored character. I do have a password written down for a level 5 game with Modo, though.

[Damon Plus]

Super Mario Kart and Virtua Racing are my favourites

Uniracers and F-Zero are good also

[YoshiM]

Back then I didn't play that many racing games but....

Super Monoco GP for Genesis: A lotta fun, can be really hard and definitely forces you to learn how to use the manual transmission to get better placings.

Hard Drivin' for Genesis: A pretty good attempt to bring the arcade home, the best thing about this game was you could drive about untimed (if memory serves) so you could meander about the tracks at will and do all sorts of crazy stunts. My favorite: Trying to hit the cow by the barn in the most spectacular way possible.

Road Rash for Genesis: no words come to mind to describe the sheer joy I received sending poor bikers to their doom by my club in this game. And every time I crashed I laughed harder and harder, watching my dude smack into the pavement while my bike sails off into the asphalt yonder.

[DTJAAAAMJSLM]

Super Mario Kart is definitely my favorite.

[Berserker]

I have a soft spot for F-Zero, as it was the first game I had ever seen played on an SNES. Talk about mind-blowing! @_@

I also like Stunt Race FX.

[Speedy]

Ah racing games, my favorites on the 16bit machines:

Mario Kart, nr 1 for sure. I like Mario a lot and putting him and his friends on wheels makes it even better. The game was just so simple, but so damn good .. track design, handling and not to forget the battlemode! Still fun to play nowdays.

further more,

Top Gear, i liked thise racer, great 2 player fun. Downside is indeed as said above, the splitscreen in singleplay (wtf?!), but overall i enjoyed this one. TG2 and TG3000 didn't have the feel that TG gave me.

Biker Mice from Mars, another great game! I almost forgot how much fun i had with this game back in the days, it's on the list for flea market hunts now! :)

Rock 'n Roll racing, no comment needed :)

Street Racer, not as good as mario kart, but fun to play and it had again a nice battlemode, rented this sucker very often, good fun.

Outrun, it had a ferrari, a nice girl, good gameplay and the best part, a awesome soundtrack. I really need to find this one again :-P

[mediamachine]

Mario kart on the snes gets a mention from me but ROAD RASH wins hands down, i still play it to this day, its got that fullfillment factor that is a rare quality in all genres, by this i mean, u feel the speed that you are going and when u hit someone you feel as though you really did connect hard! legendary stuff

[Daniel Thomas]

It seems that all the likely suspects are already out. Personally, I'd have to go with Super Mario Kart. It's one of the best multiplayer games ever made, and still better than pretty much any kart game ever since. Why are so many kart racers so dull? And, of course, the GBA Mario Kart has all the original tracks for 4 players.

In the arcades, there was Outrun and STUN Runner and especially Roadblasters, which were all great fun.

On Genesis, Super Monaco GP was another one of those pre-Sonic classics, and it brought a whole new sophistication to console racing games. It was the racing game to have until the Super NES showed up.

For the SNES, I'm still partial to F-Zero, which is a technical marvel and a perfect example of brilliant game design. Remember the golden days when Nintendo cooked up NEW games, not just sequels?

[Lord007]

My favorite 16-bit racers would definitely be either Super Mario Kart or Rock N' Roll Racing with Road Rash 3 coming in close behind.

Another game I had a lot of fun with (but definitely wasn't the best out there) was Combat Cars...anybody play that?

[NintendoMan]

For me the only one, which happens to be in my top 10 games of all time list, is of course the one and only:
SUPER MARIO KART - SNES

I do also like F-Zero though. I haven't really checked that many racing games out for the 16 -Bit era of games. Everyones recommendations will definately be checked out by me.

[suppafly]

1) Fzero for SNES
2) Super Monaco GP for Genesis
3) Virtua racing for Genesis
4) Outrunners for Genesis
5) Mario Kart for SNES

[FORS YARD]

What, nobody's mentioned Jaguar XJ220 by Core Design for Sega CD yet?!

That game had it all: a cool two-player mode where you and a friend could race an entire season on the same team; incredibly smooth hardware scaling on *every* sprite on the screen; a great redbook soundtrack; etc. There was even a track editor so you could design your own courses (including the placement of all roadside scenery) and save them to the Sega CD's memory!

I also think the Genesis version of Super Hang On is greatly underrated. The RPG-esque "original mode" added hours and hours of fun to the game for me, and really made the purchase price much more worthwhile than it would have been had the game just been a straight arcade port.

[Crush Crawfish]

The only 16-bit racer I'm really partial to is Super Mario kart. Although I played the ROM of a Super Famicom game called Battle Racers, which is a Kart racing game featuring SD versions of Ultraman and Gundams. It was quite cool, and I'd love to get a real copy of it.

[Mitch_Naz]

Mario Kart
F-Zero
Top Gear
Top Gear II

[Habeeb Hamusta]

Super Mario Kart

[junglehunter]

SNES - Super Mario Kart and Uniracers 8-)

[dreamcaster]

Not only my favourite 16-bit racer, but my favourite game of all time:

STUNT RACE FX

Honourable mentions should also go to:

Super Mario Kart
Top Gear 3000
Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing
Unirally

[Iron Draggon]

Jaguar XJ 220 (Sega CD)
Lotus Turbo Challenge series (Genesis)
Top Gear series (SNES & the Genesis version of TG 2)
Outrun series (Especially Turbo Outrun for MegaDrive!)
Road Rash series (Genesis & everything else but SNES ???)

That pretty much covers it, I think. I own every racing game ever made for Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, Saturn (with a couple of new imports on the way), 3DO, Jaguar & Jaguar CD, most for SNES, Dreamcast, & Game Gear, a few for Play Station, and quite a few for PC. So yeah, I'm a big racing junkie too!

[Eternal Tune]

Since Super Mario Kart is the only 16-bit racing game I own....I'm gonna have to go with it as my favorite.

[farfel]

Micro Machines

[thegreatescape]

The Micromachines series on Mega Drive were great, especially the j-cart ones (2,96 and military)- Instant 4-player action :D
As Iron Draggon mentioned, the Lotus Turbo Challenge games are smooth as butter with some nice track variation too. And Lotus 2 has the pod game!

Oh, and I hear the Mega Drive conversion of Power Drive is pretty good too. I'd love to find a copy one day.

[Iron Draggon]

I have Power Drive on the Jag, but I'd like to check out the MD version too.

[hu6800]

Virtal Bart for the snes .
Batman returns for the sega cd
Chase HQ for the TG16
Road Rash for the sega genesis.

[16-bit]

Ivan Stewart's Off Road.

It was one of my favorite games in the arcade and the SNES version was near perfect port.

[fishsandwich]

I second Batman Returns for the Sega CD... it's got driving sequences not found in the Genesis cart, and the scaling is very smooth and gives the game a convincing sense of speed. It's not really a "racer" per say (you're supposed to destroy enemy minions and bosses before a timer runs out) but it's still got cars and tracks.

You can slap me (virtually, anyway) but I liked Dirt Trax FX.

Fish Sandwich

[tritium]

Super Mario Kart and F-Zero for SNES, neither of which I own.

-Tritium

[underexposed+]

Hmmmm

F zero
Super Mario Kart
Super Hang On
Outrun
Virtua racing

[Leo_A]

The original Top Gear for the SuperNes.

[Leo_A]

"It was one of my favorite games in the arcade and the SNES version was near perfect port."

Why do people like Super Off-Road so much for? The fact that it was limited to 2 players, and one of the AI cars was too fast and one was too slow, plus the fact we're limited to trucks, ruined it for me.

All it had that seemed like the arcade game was the great graphics, the gameplay itself was ruined I think for the reasons I mentioned.

[Dire 51]

Outrun is my favorite racing game EVER, so the Genesis version is my number one pick, followed closely by F-Zero.

Does anyone know what happened to the supposed Sega CD port of Power Drift?

[scorch56]

Rock n' Roll Racing (The SNES version) is tops on my list. Second would be all 3 of the Road Rash games.

I've got a copy of Combat Cars for the Genesis. I bought it because it reminded me of Rn'R Racing.. but I've never played it other than for two minutes to test it out.

[underexposed+]

Does anyone know what happened to the supposed Sega CD port of Power Drift?

I was wondering that too. I know it's on the Saturn and Dreamcast

[Iron Draggon]

As far as I know, the Sega CD port was cancelled. I just won a copy of the Saturn version last weekend, so that's one of the new imports that I have on the way. The other one is GT24. I didn't know there was ever a DC port of Power Drift though, I assume that one is an import too? I may have to track it down, just so I can see how the Saturn & Dreamcast ports compare. But first, I'm gonna need a 4-in-1, just so I can play the Saturn port! The auction stated that a 4MB RAM cart was required for it, and I don't have one yet. I use a converter called the Sega Satellite for playing all my imports.

[Daniel Thomas]

I completely forgot about Micro Machines! D'oh!

Micro Machines 2 is the absolute pinnacle, and on my short list of the greatest multiplayer games. The whole idea of scoring points by knocking your opponent off the screen is brilliant -- especially with the table-top levels. I always enjoy those racing games where you can smack into others and drive recklessly.

And, needless to say, this game plays flawlessly on almost every platform, is fast as hell, sports great variety, and is extremely simple to pick up.

[Sibs]

My favorites would have to be:

Super Mario Kart(SNES)
Top Gear 2(SNES)
Top Gear 3000(SNES)
F-Zero(SNES)
Rock n' Roll Racing(SNES)

[suppafly]

I cant believe i forgot to mention Road Rash in my last post.

I played this game for a whole summer back in 1991 (or 1992??). I used to LOVE this game, and i still like it. The graphics, music,e verything is very cool.

The only thing i didnt like is that there are just 5 courses.

[underexposed+]

As far as I know, the Sega CD port was cancelled. I just won a copy of the Saturn version last weekend, so that's one of the new imports that I have on the way. The other one is GT24. I didn't know there was ever a DC port of Power Drift though, I assume that one is an import too?

There is no standalone Power Drift port on the DC, the arcade version is emulated on Yu Suzuki Sega Gameworks Vol. 1 for the DC. It is an import only release.

[SegaAges]

even though this is for 16-bit games, i still want to count virtua racing delux for 32x. the 32x is attached to the genesis. here is the rest of my list:

f-zero
mario kart
super off road
dirt trax fx (i am pretty sure it is called that)
stunt race fx

UNIRACERS(OMG , THIS IS THE BEST RACER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!)
I actually completely beat uniracers with all gold medals. after you beat it, you get 2 new sets or tracks which are crazy hard, but i schooled them. uniracers is one of those games that is awesome once you get good at it, and some people in this topic will agree (i saw their posts).

[Black_Tiger]

Motoroader
Final Lap Twin
Power Drift
Virtua Racing
Sonic CD(Time Trial)

[Psyleid]

Mario Kart
---or---
Any of the Top Gear games.

[THATinkjar]

Top Gear and Mario Kart were my favourites. The music in Top Gear still brings a tear to my eye.

[Eldergod]

SNES
F-Zero
Rock n Roll Racing
Super MArio Cart
Dirt Trax FX
Top Gear
Top Gear 2

Genesis
Road Rash

[Tatsu]

For me it's a tie between F-Zero and Mario Kart. F-Zero is a very fast game with great music, that's hard to beat. But the two-player modus in Mario Kart stands out against this advantages. Since I play most games alone I'd say my favourite is F-Zero. Mario Kart comes close but F-Zero is also a bit more of a challenge.

[legov8]

Super Mario Kart is my favorite.

[suppafly]

Here are 2 other great games that slipped my mind on my first post:

Super Off Road for Genesis: I spent hundreds of hours playing this game. The graphics arent spectacular, but they ARE better than the arcade game. This game is so fun, specialyl upgrading your car and beating the competition...Give it a try!

Road Rash: The best genesis racing game. Excellent scaling (for a genesis), great music, great action...this game OWNZ j00

[Julio III]

i can't believe that Micro Machines only got a couple of mentions. Micro Machines 2 on the MegaDrive is one of my top 3 games of all time. I used to play this 4-player (on one cart! no multitap!) every day after school for months and months and we never got bored of it. Even after I got Micro Machines 96 we still went back to 2 after a while because it had our favourite tracks on it. I only ever played the 8-player (again, with no multitap!) a couple of times but that was a laugh, sharing a controller with someone else and automatically going forwards. I think GamesMaster Magazine got this right when they awarded MicroMachines 2 a rating of 100% for playability.

[Ruudos]

UNIRACERS(OMG , THIS IS THE BEST RACER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!)
I actually completely beat uniracers with all gold medals. after you beat it, you get 2 new sets or tracks which are crazy hard, but i schooled them. uniracers is one of those games that is awesome once you get good at it, and some people in this topic will agree (i saw their posts).

I've beaten it too. The stunt tracks were the hardest to beat I think. Those extra levels where you race against the "black uni" are pretty cool. I won't forget his evil laugh.

[VG_Maniac]

I haven't played very many Genesis racers other then Outrun and Road Rash.

On the SNES, my favorite racers are:

Rock & Roll Racing
Super Mario Kart
F-Zero
Top Gear
Stunt Race FX
Super Off-Road

[VGfan]

F-Zero
Super Mario Kart
Uniracers
Stunt Race FX

[MetroidFan1164]

Rock N Roll Racing, Uniracers and F-Zero on SNES

Outrun and Virtua Racing on Genesis

[clawx]

Super Mario Kart is without a doubt the best 16 bit racer,


BUT

Rock N Roll Racing, Biker Mice From Mars(the cartoon may have sucked, but this game is great) and Stunt Race FX (why did I sell this game!!!?!?! WHY?) were all fantastic games.

[kidkool]

Stunt Race FX was my first real racing game so I think that may be the only reason it is my favorite. I also must say I loved f-zero for the cool looking cars.

[XianXi]

Super Mario Kart, hands down.