Little-Known or Forgotten Racing/Driving Games

[yabiggoose]

road rage 3 the first game and i think only game that has a 91 ef9 honda civic sir hatch

I've got this on PS2 still lol.

 

[VXR]

Need For Speed GT

An arcade game based on the PC/GC/Xbox version of NFS Hot Pursuit 2. Very little information is known about the game, and I haven't found any video footage of the game in action. If there is, it's probably very low-quality and brief. I did see a cabinet of one of these a few years ago, but I didn't play it. I don't think there are many cabinets running this game left, and they've all moved on to Underground or Carbon.​

I played it and found it very poor compared to the PS2 version I loved.

 

[Matej]

GT Advance games were great considering the platform they run on. Another gem for GBA, JGTC-based:

I remember playing this on DC back in the day. Titus wasn't a particularly capable developer, but they managed something solid with Automobili Lamborghini on the N64. This was a step back from that. At least Lamborghini looked great and played decently, even if it was a bit boring. But Roadsters was right down there with Test Drive 6 in terms of quality (or lack thereof).

Lamborghini really looks better. They kept the pit stop feature, that's nice. Shame all cars hit top speed very fast and you can't face any traffic, it would bring more life on the circuits.

 

[Stephan]

Does anybody remember L.A Rush?

This game had a lot of potential if it had a different game title other than Rush. Rush fans were disappointed when Midway released this. LA Rush didn't feel like Rush at all. Sure the Midway/Rush cars are present but most of the time you are driving real cars in the game. The physics were unstable and it has that wobbly handling that can be seen when you decide to turn in high speeds. The one thing I disliked about LA Rush is the customization. There is customization but its premade by the West Coast Customs.

 

[Sonygamer455]

Ok back to forgotten racing games. Has anyone played Test Drive Overdrive?

This has to be the underrated Test Drive game. Car list is just like TD6 but lacks cars like the R390 GT1, AM Project Vantage, Toyota GT-One, and more. Has a story mode (the only Test Drive game to have a story mode without counting TDU and TDU2) and a decent soundtrack.

Yep. Got this game for the PS2 back in 2007 or 2008 (can't remember when) and I enjoyed it right much. Was quite impressed with the car list and I really dig the customized cars like the Hamada and Skeeter's Camaro. The soundtrack, although it's small, I enjoyed the songs in the game a lot and to this day, it's still great! Test Drive was a good game I don't see or hear much talk about these days and it's still something I occasionally like to play again.

I believe in the US this was just called "Test Drive."

It was.

 

[Stephan]

Yep. Got this game for the PS2 back in 2007 or 2008 (can't remember when) and I enjoyed it right much. Was quite impressed with the car list and I really dig the customized cars like the Hamada and Skeeter's Camaro. The soundtrack, although it's small, I enjoyed the songs in the game a lot and to this day, it's still great! Test Drive was a good game I don't see or hear much talk about these days and it's still something I occasionally like to play again.

The only thing it lacked from TD6 is the awesome car list that they had before. I mentioned from my review of TD6 (you can check it out at @Matej's Retro Game Reviews) that this is the only street racing game that I've played that has Le Mans cars (unless someone can give me another game that has Le Mans cars). But of course Overdrive suffered the same problem that Gran Turismo 3 had.

 

[Yarf]

Much like we seriously need another Le Mans video game, we also need a new Dakar game. Here's Dakar 2. And for a second attempt at the worlds most challenging rally, it's not too bad, it has a small but interesting car/truck/bike list. The point to point stages are decent, i mean they're not ridiculously long like the real thing, and the handling is pretty nice. There's also a funny graphical glitch where you keep driving away from from the orange arrow on the radar. We do need a more realistic sequel though. If they can get car and bike physics together, maybe the guys behind the WRC series could do it since codies is still doing DiRT, and even if codies implemented Dakar into the franchise, they would have to find a way to but bike physics in there

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AQuaLPg4oA

 

[McLaren]

Watching an episode of Demo Disk on Funhaus' channel, I witnessed them playing an old favorite of mine I had forgotten about; Total Immersion Racing.

I used to love this game a lot. Multi-class racing, rising up through the classes via the career mode. I think there was only around 20 cars or so, but it was one of the few games that catered to endurance racing fans. Even had a cockpit view and I believe the AI used to be touted as being able to remember if you raced dirty with them, and would look for opportunities to get you back.

I think this came out around the same time as Test Drive: Le Mans, so it was easily overshadowed b/c TD:Le Mans was a much better representative of sport.

 

[Silver Arrows]

I hope i'm not the only one who enjoyed this game. I remember there were some Touge races.

God, this game looks fantastic on an HD emulator. Like, for a game of it's relative crappyness, it looks criminally good.

Ah yes FnF Tokyo Drift.

The drift and sprint events are ok at first but once you reach Suicide Mountain aka DK Turf, you will rage and be forced to cheat just beat DK. In fact the only car that can match up to DK and Kazuya Bai is the Fairlady Z based from my experience of finishing FnF.

How did I cheat? By doing donuts continuously until I gain a lot of points for the opponent to not catch up.

Oh and the highway races, interesting at first but then the game becomes so hard to the point where you need to grind some cash to buy the Vette C6.R. Yes there is a race car in the game.

Customization? Loved the selection of bodykits and even some obscure ones similar to the ones you see in NFS2015's bodykit selection. But yes there has been no game that has customization like FnF.

I like the fact that Brian and Dom makes an appearance in the game but there's one problem. Brian's Skyline is the same Skyline featured in SRS. I wished they could've used either 2F2F Skyline or the Supra.

But overall good game but just like NFS2015, the physics is what killed the game.

You certainly put many more words then I could have regarding FnF, but I want to mention the back of the box:

EDIT: Also, FnF always had a fantastically rounded car list with a ton of American muscle to balance out the Japanese steel. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for American muscle on Japanese streets, a sort of Lost in Translation sort of feeling.

 

[JakeMR2]

God, this game looks fantastic on an HD emulator. Like, for a game of it's relative crappyness, it looks criminally good.



You certainly put many more words then I could have regarding FnF, but I want to mention the back of the box:

Oh yeah, I remember this game, the AE86 is OP as hell though. Putting a 2JZ in a AE86 is overkill on the Wangan, it is basically the fastest car in the game.

I wonder if I can setup PCSX2 to work for the online portion though, it would be interesting to see since my PC is gonna be built up pretty soon.

 

[Silver Arrows]

Oh yeah, I remember this game, the AE86 is OP as hell though. Putting a 2JZ in a AE86 is overkill on the Wangan, it is basically the fastest car in the game.

I wonder if I can setup PCSX2 to work for the online portion though, it would be interesting to see since my PC is gonna be built up pretty soon.

Oh god yes, the AE86 is OP definitely. Though I managed to smash a lot of the later races in a fully upgraded Saleen S281 Extreme however. 220 MPH baby!

Isn't the online portion have servers run by Gamespy however? Wouldn't that be dead and make it unable to connect? Or are there tricks around this?

 

[JakeMR2]

Isn't the online portion have servers run by Gamespy however? Wouldn't that be dead and make it unable to connect? Or are there tricks around this?

PCSX2 has it's own server counterpart, as you see in the video most of the online functionality is disabled and can never be touched, even in Burnout 3 has the online features disabled. Unless you install a package to your emulator with to play with others.

 

[Michelin Man]

God I remember F&F, I had it on PSP, and remember it being a cracking little game, would be almost tempted to get it for PS2 and see what it's like on that.

Oh and as @JakeMR2 mentioned, I can vouch for the AE86 being somewhat OP , I remember having a couple, one being a fully tuned monster, and the other being more lightly tuned for handling. And I remember the Touge races, looking back on it they were pretty well thought out.

 

[DK]

I think I got to the showdowns with the Yakuza before giving up because the touge duels were pretty hard for 13-year-old me, but I never bought it outright instead of just renting it from the local Xtra-Vision (the Irish Blockbuster, which has met a similar fate too).

 

[Silver Arrows]

I think I got to the showdowns with the Yakuza before giving up because the touge duels were pretty hard for 13-year-old me, but I never bought it outright instead of just renting it from the local Xtra-Vision (the Irish Blockbuster, which has met a similar fate too).

I remember I rented it only once, and it showed me the weird and wonderful 2006-era Honda Civic that the EU had that was made in Swindon I believe. Even now, that is one of my favorite Civic generations.

Now, as you can see, I own a copy for myself.

 

[Stephan]

Oh yeah, I remember this game, the AE86 is OP as hell though. Putting a 2JZ in a AE86 is overkill on the Wangan, it is basically the fastest car in the game.

I wonder if I can setup PCSX2 to work for the online portion though, it would be interesting to see since my PC is gonna be built up pretty soon.

How about the Corvette C6.R? It's OP also plus it has good handling and lesser chance of spinning out.

 

[yabiggoose]

I bought it about 3 years or so ago used at a shop here in Australia for like $3 (aud) for gits and shiggles.

Whilst short I (as a Tokyo Extreme Racer fan) was actually really pleased. It was a lot better than I expected and the customisation for a PS2 title was pretty good.

 

[Silver Arrows]

Ah yes FnF Tokyo Drift.

The drift and sprint events are ok at first but once you reach Suicide Mountain aka DK Turf, you will rage and be forced to cheat just beat DK. In fact the only car that can match up to DK and Kazuya Bai is the Fairlady Z based from my experience of finishing FnF.

How did I cheat? By doing donuts continuously until I gain a lot of points for the opponent to not catch up.

Oh and the highway races, interesting at first but then the game becomes so hard to the point where you need to grind some cash to buy the Vette C6.R. Yes there is a race car in the game.

Customization? Loved the selection of bodykits and even some obscure ones similar to the ones you see in NFS2015's bodykit selection. But yes there has been no game that has customization like FnF.

I like the fact that Brian and Dom makes an appearance in the game but there's one problem. Brian's Skyline is the same Skyline featured in SRS. I wished they could've used either 2F2F Skyline or the Supra.

But overall good game but just like NFS2015, the physics is what killed the game.

Re-quoting to ask: you want to show the world how you were able to do donuts and cheat? Because I tried and I do not seem to get anything going.

 

[Stephan]

Re-quoting to ask: you want to show the world how you were able to do donuts and cheat? Because I tried and I do not seem to get anything going.

Doing donuts depend on what FR car you are using. Usually when doing donuts I would use the 350Z 35th Anniversary to do donuts. I don't have my own video but I suggest watching @GTRufus' video. He does donuts as well for the last boss' Kazuya Bai.

 

[Silver Arrows]

I also want to mention in regards to TFAF: in both the music credits in the manual, and the credits of the actual game, Attack by 30 Seconds to Mars is credited.

I don't think I have heard a second of that aong at any point. Ever.

 

[Stephan]

I also want to mention in regards to TFAF: in both the music credits in the manual, and the credits of the actual game, Attack by 30 Seconds to Mars is credited.

I don't think I have heard a second of that aong at any point. Ever.

Maybe PAL version has it? But then again PAL version sucks since it doesn't have Hondas though.

 

[Silver Arrows]

Maybe PAL version has it? But then again PAL version sucks since it doesn't have Hondas though.

Possibly, but I doubt that the music licenses would change drastically on a game as low budget as this. It's not like GT4 and the Jacknife Lee remix of Reason is Treason being used for the intro.

 

[Stephan]

I'm going to try play the PAL version but it's going to be hard since during my first playthrough I relied a lot on Honda especially with the NSX before I bought the Corvette C6.

Also I'm not going to like as well the first race because you'll be driving the Supra instead of the NSX.

 

[Tornado]

I never knew that was on PS2. I only had the PSP version.

 

[Silver Arrows]

I never knew that was on PS2. I only had the PSP version.

How is the PSP version? Is it gimped in anyway, or is it relatively one to one? That's what always amazed me about the PSP port of Midnight Club 3, aside from a downgrade in graphics and framerate, it was a pretty much intact port onto a less powerful system.

 

[Marc30599]

How is the PSP version? Is it gimped in anyway, or is it relatively one to one? That's what always amazed me about the PSP port of Midnight Club 3, aside from a downgrade in graphics and framerate, it was a pretty much intact port onto a less powerful system.

When I played through it on my ppsspp it was pretty much the same and all the cars were fully customizable only thing was downgrade in graphics

 

[Michelin Man]

Well from my experience, after seeing game play of the PS2 variant, they seem to be pretty much identical, aside from a slight downgrade in graphics with it being on PSP.

 

[Yarf]

Speed up, a Spanish arcade racer from the 90s, a bit different this one, it's one of those lap eliminators (seen as some other game mode in other racing games

Dirt dash, i dunno some endurance rally kinda thing, one of the cars seems to be an off road version of the iconic Kamata Fiera from the Ridge Racer series

 

[JohnBM01]

I actually saw a "Speed Up!" arcade unit before a long time ago. I even blogged about this game in my racing/driving game blog once. "Speed Up!" is a unique elimination racing game. It may not be overly exciting, but it surely is a unique title.

As for "Dirt Dash," I want to think about it as the Ridge Racer of off-road racing. Unlike "Speed Up!", I have not seen this game at any arcade. It is a pretty fun game from what I've seen in videos.

 

[Yarf]

CART Fury, Champ Car racing, given the NBA Jam treatment

Flag to flag racing another CART/Champ Car game, gee it's hard to believe we had a ton of games based of Indycar or CART, but they never really sold much