Iron Draggon
11-01-2004, 12:56 AM
This is a really neat little game! It's half racing, half strategy, and all fun! It doesn't really fit very neatly into any of the standard racing genres at all, but it's still got most of the action of a standard racing game. If you ever played an old Avalon Hill game called Speed Circuit, this is basically a video version of it. There are so many similarities to that game in this one that I'm surprised Sega & Aki didn't get sued over it. You play it the exact same way, you plot your moves around the track turn by turn, instead of just driving like you do in any other racing game. And the rules are exactly the same, each corner has posted speed limits that you can't exceed without running the risk of a spinout, as well as a perfect path that you can follow for a speed advantage if you stick to the arrows that define these paths from the beginning to the end of them. It's only for 1-4 players, while the old board game was for 1-6 players, but the neat thing about this video remake of it is that there's a full pack of 16 cars on the track! There's also 16 tracks to race on, so you can race a full campaign of a whole grand prix season, on tracks all over the world!
If you're a hardcore driving fanatic, you'd probably hate it, because you don't exactly steer your car at all, even though you do control it's movement and direction, but if you're a fan of the classic Japanese top-down formula racing games, then you might find this one to be a very interesting diversion. It has a very Japanese feel to it, and most of the action takes place from the same perspective as those games do, but as you move around the track it's in 3D! So you see the results of your moves being played out as though you were watching ESPN, and at the end of each race, the whole race is replayed for you in 3D! So it has just enough action to keep you from getting bored silly with it, but still not enough to appease the real adrenaline junkies, so if you fall into that category you'd probably want to avoid it. But as for the rest of us, if you want a very different kind of strategy game to play, this is a really neat one! Unfortunately it's very rare these days though, so even a used copy can be very hard to find, but if you can get it for cheap like I did, you might want to give it a try! Lots of Japanese text, but mostly not required reading to play, so a little bit of a learning curve but I was racing in notime.
Sorry I don't have any screenshots for you, but hopefully I can get a new video card for taking some for Christmas or soon after. I really wish that I could show you what this game looks like, it has a very "toy car" feel to it, with very colorful graphics, but not so much so that it looks childish, just enough that it looks really good. It's almost like a slot car racing game too, especially in the way that you control your car, because you choose your lane and control your speed in very much the same way. So if you're a big fan of Aurora racing, then you'd probably really like this game, because that's pretty much what it is, except there's no "jam car" in the classic sense. So you won't have to navigate around an ambulance on the track, but you will have to watch out for slowpokes blocking your slot, and accidents can be just as frequent as they are in real slot car racing, especially in the corners. It's kind of a hybrid of alot of things I guess, but unlike most other games like that, this one is alot of fun to play, and overall it seems very well done.
So don't get too excited about it, if you don't like board games, because it says that it's a board game right on the cover, but if you're into that kinda thing like I am, then it's very enjoyable. I think that it's as much fun as any of the other import strategy games that I've been playing on the Saturn recently, and maybe even more so in some ways, due to the quality of the animation sequences. Usually the animations in games like this get very old and repetetive after you've seen them through the course of a game, but not so with this one, because you're not just watching a standard cutscene. You actually watch the replays the same way that you would in any other racing game, so the only difference here is that your method of control is not as direct as having your hands on the wheel while you sit in the cockpit. But other than that, it's still pretty exciting, and I suspect that if you have a few reasonably patient friends thn it could be a very exciting 4 player game. However, this game is definitely not for those with short attention spans, so if the length of this post about it bored you, then the game probably will too!
If you're a hardcore driving fanatic, you'd probably hate it, because you don't exactly steer your car at all, even though you do control it's movement and direction, but if you're a fan of the classic Japanese top-down formula racing games, then you might find this one to be a very interesting diversion. It has a very Japanese feel to it, and most of the action takes place from the same perspective as those games do, but as you move around the track it's in 3D! So you see the results of your moves being played out as though you were watching ESPN, and at the end of each race, the whole race is replayed for you in 3D! So it has just enough action to keep you from getting bored silly with it, but still not enough to appease the real adrenaline junkies, so if you fall into that category you'd probably want to avoid it. But as for the rest of us, if you want a very different kind of strategy game to play, this is a really neat one! Unfortunately it's very rare these days though, so even a used copy can be very hard to find, but if you can get it for cheap like I did, you might want to give it a try! Lots of Japanese text, but mostly not required reading to play, so a little bit of a learning curve but I was racing in notime.
Sorry I don't have any screenshots for you, but hopefully I can get a new video card for taking some for Christmas or soon after. I really wish that I could show you what this game looks like, it has a very "toy car" feel to it, with very colorful graphics, but not so much so that it looks childish, just enough that it looks really good. It's almost like a slot car racing game too, especially in the way that you control your car, because you choose your lane and control your speed in very much the same way. So if you're a big fan of Aurora racing, then you'd probably really like this game, because that's pretty much what it is, except there's no "jam car" in the classic sense. So you won't have to navigate around an ambulance on the track, but you will have to watch out for slowpokes blocking your slot, and accidents can be just as frequent as they are in real slot car racing, especially in the corners. It's kind of a hybrid of alot of things I guess, but unlike most other games like that, this one is alot of fun to play, and overall it seems very well done.
So don't get too excited about it, if you don't like board games, because it says that it's a board game right on the cover, but if you're into that kinda thing like I am, then it's very enjoyable. I think that it's as much fun as any of the other import strategy games that I've been playing on the Saturn recently, and maybe even more so in some ways, due to the quality of the animation sequences. Usually the animations in games like this get very old and repetetive after you've seen them through the course of a game, but not so with this one, because you're not just watching a standard cutscene. You actually watch the replays the same way that you would in any other racing game, so the only difference here is that your method of control is not as direct as having your hands on the wheel while you sit in the cockpit. But other than that, it's still pretty exciting, and I suspect that if you have a few reasonably patient friends thn it could be a very exciting 4 player game. However, this game is definitely not for those with short attention spans, so if the length of this post about it bored you, then the game probably will too!