Review of Top Racer Collection

Looking back at Gremlin’s popular arcade racing

Top Racer Collection
Platform: PC, also on PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox
Developer: Gremlin Interactive, QUByte Interactive
Publisher: QUByte Interactive, Piko Interactive, bleem.net
Release date: March 6th, 2024
Price: $19.99
Digital availability: Steam

Many people associate Top Gear with the venerable BBC television series that is fixated on cars. But for those who grew up during the Super Nintendo / Super Famicom heyday, the name may bring back memories of the trilogy of 16-bit races developed by Gremlin Interactive. Although they lacked the advanced Mode 7 graphics of F-Zero or Super Mario Kart, each game offered tense gameplay that brought back memories of Out Run and served as a precursor to more recent games like Horizon Chase Turbo.

Top Gear’s trademark is owned by the British Broadcasting Corporation, hence the anthology’s developer, QUByte Interactive, had to rename it to Top Racer Collection when it was first launched. Players used to more contemporary arcade races won’t be drawn to this compilation because Top Gear, Top Gear 2, and Top Gear 3000 are about 25 years old. However, Top Racer Collection fills a void as purchasing an Evercade cartridge is the only alternative method to legally obtain these games.

The Dilemma of Pitting

If you look through the anthology, you’ll see that the Lotus Challenge series and the oldest entry, Top Gear / Top Racer from 1992, have some parallels. The most noteworthy feature is that even single-player games make use of horizontal split screens. The perspective of a rival motorist appears on the bottom screen if there isn’t another willing participant nearby. In contrast to the majority of your other CPU opponents, who drive primarily like it’s the morning commute, your rival actively passes other cars and even plays the defensive card. You have the choice of a manual or automatic transmission, as the original title suggests. The manual option makes races a little more involved.

Similar to the Lotus games, some strategy is involved. Here, three turbos are available for each race. You will have to carefully consider when to use the nitrous oxide because there is no way to obtain more. Players may need to halt on some of the game’s lengthier tracks. You will periodically have to decide whether to stop and risk losing your racing place, or continue and try to reach the finish line before your tank runs out. The campaign for Top Racer Collection includes save states (passwords that are substituted for those featured in the original carts), but the omission of a rewind feature keeps the pitting experience unnerving.

Form’s Evolution

The four-car inventory in Top Racer 2 differs from that of its predecessor, where choosing a vehicle found a balance between top speed, acceleration, tire grip, and fuel efficiency. From here, the series embraces personalization, enabling you to buy and install upgraded engines, armor, boosting, gearboxes (which replace the pitting), and tires (dry and wet) to assist you cope with Racer 2’s incorporation of weather. Even the capacity to jump higher on your craft can be enhanced in the futuristic Racer 3000. It makes sense that as opposing drivers get more skilled, races will grow more tense since you have to keep improving your car to stay competitive. Notably, all single-player events in Racer 2 and 3000 offer a full-screen perspective, which highlights the visual enhancements and range of locations.

Although “weapons” are added to the concept in Top Gear / Racer 3000 (1995), the exchange of attacks seen in other automobile combat games is not what to expect. Rather, all of the game’s gadgets give the player non-confrontational powers, such as the ability to use the “warp” apparatus to go autopilot or the infrared tool to improve visibility in the dark. In hindsight, the space-age backdrop of the game isn’t fully realized because the racing grounds have an earthly appearance and the weapons is passive. The addition of forking circuits is neat because it allows astute players to cut a few seconds off their lap timings.

Not Quite Enough to Place First

Top Racer Crossroads, which feels like a rom hack of the original game, completes the Top Racer Collection. The series was a big hit in Brazil, so the allusions to that country’s automotive culture are appreciated, but there aren’t enough new features or changes to distinguish Crossroads from the original Top Gear. The four Nintendo 64 Top Gear games should have been included, according to producer QUByte Interactive.

You should only anticipate a synopsis of each game’s mechanics in the bonuses. It seems sense that there are no interviews of any kind because the games in this collection are older, but it is disheartening that there isn’t more background information available for the four games. There are 25 distinct in-game achievements, two-paragraph histories, and scans of the original Japanese manuals (without the option to zoom in). There is no information about the production process or the game’s response from critics.

Players can easily begin a campaign, local or online competitive race, time attack, or custom cup in any title, although there is a noticeable visual difference between the modern menuing and the pixelated appearance of the SNES-era originals. With the SNES’ SHVC-SOUND chip glowing replicated by emulation, at least Shaun Southern’s repurposed tunes for Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge, Barry Leitch (Top Gear), Hiroyuki Masuno (Top Gear and Top Gear 3000), and others haven’t been tampered with.

In summary

Not much can be expected from Top Racer Collection other than the bundle of three racing games and a rom hack-style addition. Yes, the individual titles are rather timeless, combining basic driving principles with minor race management tasks like pit scheduling. However, the overall dearth of curation is only passably upsetting. When films that are 25 years old are released on tangible media, they typically come with a ton of extras. Here, however, QUByte Interactive only provides the essentials. In any case, the games are self-explanatory.

On a PC, Top Racer Collection was used with
review code sent by the author.

Review Overview

Gameplay – 70%

Controls – 70%

Aesthetics – 65%

Content – 75%

Accessibility – 70%

Value – 75%

71%

AVERAGE

Summary :Almost 25 years later, the four games in the Top Racer Collection are still captivating because they strike a balance between managing your car’s maintenance and racing the entire course. However, be aware that this is a really basic release that omits to explicitly explain why the games are so highly regarded in various regions of the world.