Compared to other racing games on the GBA, the car models in Top Gear Rally are fairly complex. You begin in 20th place with only one other car in sight and must spend much of the entire three-round race playing catch-up. While realistic driving games might just bring to mind the image of grown men buying blow-up dolls, Boss Game Studios' first entry for the Nintendo 64, Top Gear Rally, is a title of some inarguable merit. The game also doesn't re-center the steering wheel as quickly as other racing games tend to, so you'll need to countersteer after sharp turns in order to avoid smacking into the guardrail. That's not a particularly easy thing to do initially because the game has a steep learning curve. By Joe Fielder on April 28, 2000 at 10:02PM PDT. © 2020 GAMESPOT, A RED VENTURES COMPANY. Joe Fielder The presence of eight cars on the track is also a little misleading. Classic rally game on the n64. Taken together, these nuances force players to work harder than they're otherwise accustomed to in a portable racer, but the trade-off is an immense sense of control over the vehicle. You get to customize your car to some extent, by choosing the type of suspension, tires, steering, and transmission. On the positive side, the graphics in Top Gear Rally are flirting with incredible, as the backgrounds and foregrounds seamlessly blend in an effect that's nearly photorealistic. Each vehicle has its own speed, handling, and weight characteristics, and some cars perform better on mud or snow than others. That is mostly why I bought it. Entertaining story mode. The courses include jungle, desert, mountain, and coastline environments, mirrored or standard directions within sunny, foggy, rainy, and snowy conditions. Classic rally game on the n64. Most of the time, you can see obstructions, curves, hills, and other vehicles coming a few seconds before you need to deal with them. If you want to know how satisfied I am,hit me up. If you steer too hard, you can flip the car over. 5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome racing game for n64. Good selection of cars. The cartridge records all of your best times in every mode, and this added bit of human competition is a nice bonus. Accenting the unreal premise of the game, the graphics have a definite cartoon feel to them. Critic Reviews. GameSpot: Top Gear Rally Review: 6.2 / 10. Racing surfaces include concrete, dirt, gravel, mud, and snow, and weather conditions can vary from clear and sunny to rainy or snowy. Take a close look at the reflection in the windshield, and you'll realize that it's a canned sequence that loops frequently. Let's hope that Boss Game Studios' next title, Twisted Edge Snowboarding, focuses more on fun than reality. Only four cars total can be visible at any given time, so if you join up into a pack with three other cars, you'll never overtake the leaders and no one else will pass you. The CPU opponents are lifeless, and the number of handling adjustments isn't enough, but these are the most significant complaints toward a game that plays smoothly and looks superb. After you choose a play mode and pick a car, the goal is to take first place against a field of seven other drivers. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Fun circuit shortcuts. Took a while to get used to the controls but once I figured out the drifting this game was very entertaining. And while the courses thankfully have varied terrain (does anyone really like flat ovular racetracks? The championship mode is where most of the action is. I forgot it needs a memory pak so I will have to pick one up but it is well worth it. Reviewed in the United States on December 26, 2014, Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2014, Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2019. Even though Top Gear Rally isn't the be-all and end-all of racing games, it is a huge step in the right direction. While there are only 10 races to complete, each course is three times as long as its championship counterpart. Each vehicle has somewhere around 200 polygons that make up its body shape and paint job, and there are all sorts of little details, like rotating tires, popping exhausts, and reflective windshields. Even though Top Gear Rally isn't the be-all and end-all of racing games, it is a huge step in the right direction. Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2009. Each course has its own set of hills, curves, and drop-offs, all of varying steepness and incline. GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers. Between the championship and quick race modes, there are 11 different vehicles to unlock--although the total climbs to 22 when you take into account GT class upgrades. When you leap off a hilltop, you can actually see the underside of the vehicle as it leaves the ground and crashes back to earth with a dirty thud. I've always enjoyed this game for the open levels, when I was a kid my brother and I would play tag with the cars. ), outcroppings, inclines, and dips will often send vehicles careening out of control if drivers don't navigate just right.