Little-Known or Forgotten Racing/Driving Games

What. A. Game. I bought this from Morrisons (of all places!) and it had me hooked. Decent driving engine, awesome car selection and a lot of random fun to boot. It even had endurance races with actual tyre wear!

 

There's this game i remember playing but can't find any info on it anywhere, not even a name. From what I remember it was a PS2 combat driving game, where you are put into an arena and have to destroy your opponents, and most levels usually had one boss who had an extremely powerful car. I also think the cars might've been spaceships, or at least hovered off the ground, but I could be wrong on that. I only remember 2 levels, one which was in the desert and 1 which was in some sort of industrial area like a factory.

The game also had an announcer of some kind, but I think that was usually just the boss.

 

Sounds a little like Twisted Metal, but more like Cel Damage?

 

So... Who knows this?



Released only in Japan in 1999 for the PS1. It was a first attempt from Squaresoft to do a GDR style racing game.
I followed this interesting game since announcment.. unfortunately it never reached Europe market

 

I can't tell if that's supposed to be an FC RX-7 or an R32 Skyline in that first race.

Man, Gran Turismo 1 really did blow things out of the water.

 

It really did. Almost every console racing game was very GT-ish back in the days

 

Wow, so many great memories from this game!

It was a car RPG. You were a night racer who lost his memory. You raced on Yokohama in order to find out who you were (at least this was what i understood, the game is in Japanese).

Had a lot of car customization... you could change rims, install body kits, do engine swaps, drivetrain swaps etc...

Also had a good car selection. All the cars were real, except their names. And there were also a bus and a truck to customize and race. Awesome!!!

 

I have it on playstation. Decent game from memory.

It's neither, that's a NSX... You're not into jdm cars are you ?

 

Now that I am on Mega Man binge (although I only fully played The Power Fighters and read Bob and George), Mega Man: Battle & Chase anyone? The game was included in Mega Man X Collection, which included the first six Mega Man X games.

 

havent checked if someone mentioned it, but Street Legal Racing, i occasionally mod it (learnt to 3d model inspired by it lol)





yeah, some bolts are missing on the rim, i forgot to export them from 3d max xD

 

Someone in Japan acquired a developer N64 cartridge for an unfinished and unreleased racing game called Rev Limit. It's one of those games with unlicensed cars designated by chassis codes, and was being made by SETA Corp., perhaps best known for Nosferatu or the F1 ROC: Race of Champions games on SNES, as well as Tetris 64.

Like the pre-Dreamcast Shutokou Battle titles, it includes a circuit loosely based on Tokyo's metropolitan highways, which is neat, and the mock liveries/sponsors are good for a laugh.

 

That's some pretty impressive (for N64) low poly car models.

 

R:Racing....it was also one of the first 10 games I have on my PS2. The reason why this game didn't get much attention is because of its release date. 2003 was also the year GT4 Prologue made its appearance.

As for the gameplay of R: Racing, it felt like GT4 except its a spinoff of Ridge Racer plus it had a story. Also R: Racing had Drag racing that time and it was awesome to see a simcade game like R:Racing have drag racing that time.

 

This is easily one of my favorite PS2 games. The mini battles and "pressure" bars during races were most entertaining. The soundtrack brings deep sense of nostalgia to me.

But I've always believed it to be more of a Moto GP spin off due to the fact is running on the the same/similar engine. Back then namco was producing and publishing the MOTO GP games on PS2.
I don't see any connection to the Ridge Racer world, besides the fact people mistake the main character Rena Hayami for Reiko Nagase from Ridge Racer. Which, in turn, does have a direct connection to Kei Nagase from Ace Combat.

 

Well for me there are some features in the game that has some connection to the Ridge Racer series that time and some are:

- Buying cars. Even though only Rage Racer had the ability to buy cars, it still influenced Namco to add that feature in R:Racing. Also not to mention the upgrading system (minus the visual modifications)
- Story mode. This is one of the main features of R:Racing. Again even if only one RR game had that feature (yes I count RR Type 4 as a RR game that has story into it), it still influenced Namco to add that.
- Soundtrack. Of course the choice. of songs in R: Racing are heavily influenced by RR.


That's all the features that I can think that R: Racing has that the RR series has/had.

 

Anyone remember Drive To Survive and Micro Machines V4? They were pretty fun racing games, and the actors of Drive To Survive were hilarious.

 

I've always wanted to try Racing Lagoon. Looks unbelievable for a PS1 game, it could almost pass for PS2. Almost.

Reminds me of Imagineer's GT64, which was actually quite good.

 

this was one that went under the radar for Playstation one



the physics and car models were way ahead of its time.

 

Don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but here's Corvette Evolution GT for the PS2. It had some neat mechanics in it, like being able to equip different racing gear onto your driver to gain RPG-esque bonuses, and that it had what was called "Tiger Effect", which was basically a fancy name for a rewind feature. Overall, the game was decent for what it was, although I've heard that the PC version has more cars and better physics (it was also only called "Evolution GT" on PC). That, and I believe there was a version of this game that only had Alfa Romeos and was only sold in Europe.

 

That Alfa Romeo game I have, it was sold in the US, not only in Europe. I also have Corvette: Evolution GT for the PS2. They are made by the same company. I forgot it was called, but I think it was called Alfa Romeo: Racing Italiano.

 

Looked more like an R32 if you watched the video. Not the still image...

 

seem to be also an evolution gt not sure if the corvette version is different but im on the hunt to find these games.

 

Good, I appreciate that. Some people need to give these games lives again so new comers can play them.

 

Yes, it was called Alfa Romeo Racing Italiano and it wasn't very good. The physics were rubish, the graphics even worse, and the career mode was bland and short.

 

picked up a copy of this today for $2.

pretty fun game, I like the rally stages

 

Fun game. Weird physics that take a little getting used to, but once you've adjusted it is enjoyable. Great car roster, could use some more tracks, dig the story mode. Everyone panned it at launch but I do think it deserves a fair shake, and it is more immediately playable than Enthusia, which also launched around this time.

 

I actualy like more arcade style games that you can just jump into.

I personally wouldn't compare this to gt4 or enthusia I just respect it for what it is on its own.

 

It was billed as a GT clone but honestly wasn't. The physics aligned closer to PGR (though not quite as sound). Also, unlike GT it was primarily focused on racing cars and motorsport, which was refreshing.

 

Not to mention the menu BGM: