Mario Kart 64 is the successor to the brilliant Super Mario Kart on the SNES and the second game in the famous Mario Kart series. It was first published by Nintendo for the N64 console in 1996.
Tag Archives: racing
Sprint 2, Arcade
The Sprint series began in 1976 with Sprint 1 and Sprint 2 – not, as you may think, a first game and a sequel, but the “1” and “2” denotes the number of players who can play the game.
Sprint 1 had a single steering wheel, and Sprint 2 had a pair of steering wheels, and in each game players control their vehicles through a variety of overhead, black and white race tracks.
S.T.U.N. Runner, Arcade
S.T.U.N. Runner is a 1989 arcade game by Atari Games that uses 3D polygonal graphics to create a fast-paced tunnel shooter.
The “S.T.U.N.“, by the way, means “Spread Tunnel Underground Network“, which doesn’t mean a great deal in the grand scheme of things…
RoadBlasters, Arcade
Released into arcades in 1987, RoadBlasters is a legendary driving/shooting game from Atari Games. It is, however, a little tricky to control…
Masterblazer, Amiga
Masterblazer is a 1990 conversion of the classic LucasFilm Games game, Ballblazer, but with faster, smoother graphics than the 8-bit versions, and a couple of extra play modes.
That said: the 8-bit versions were all pretty much fast and smooth enough, so is this Amiga update good enough?
Special Criminal Investigation, Commodore 64
Special Criminal Investigation is quite a ‘special’ game. It is part of the Chase HQ series and was released on cartridge only, for the Commodore 64 at least, by Ocean Software in the UK.
SCI was also released late in the Commodore 64‘s lifetime (in 1990 to be precise), so benefited from coders knowing advanced programming techniques that could push the beige bread bin further than it had ever been pushed before.
And the result is a fast-paced, visually-impressive, and highly playable racing game. Sorry, chasing game… A conversion of the Taito arcade game, sometimes known as simply S.C.I. or Chase HQ 2: Special Criminal Investigation.
Continue reading Special Criminal Investigation, Commodore 64
Special Criminal Investigation, Arcade
Sometimes known simply as S.C.I. or Chase HQ 2: Special Criminal Investigation, this high octane driving sequel to Chase HQ is another fast-paced driving game with you playing a cop hot on the heels of some nasty criminals.
It was developed and manufactured by Taito and released into arcades in 1989, and – for my money – is one of the most exciting and heart-pumping 2D chase games ever made.
Stakes Winner, Neo Geo
This bizarre-but-entertaining video game was developed by Saurus and published by SNK in 1995. Stakes Winner is a cute and colourful horse racing sim, where you can become a jockey and fulfil your equestrian dreams.
Micro Machines V3, PlayStation
The third Micro Machines was released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation. In V3 the environments and vehicles are all 3D-modelled, and the action is displayed at a slightly tilted angle, rather than directly overhead.
The same excellent gameplay mechanics of the previous games have been retained though. Mostly revolving around getting ahead of your opponents in order to push them off-screen.
Out Run Europa, Commodore 64
Out Run Europa is an interesting game in that it was designed and written by British developer Probe Software in 1991. Sega simply provided a license and Probe made the game. And: this wasn’t a conversion of an arcade game – it was a spin-off from Out Run, produced only for home computers at the time.