VG Mad

Top Gear 2

System: Snes
Developer: Gremlin
Publisher: Kemco

19 Jan 2015

On load up, you are greeted by a static screen with the games options. The only thing not letting this title screen seem bland, is the lively music that urges you to get stuck in.

Thankfully, even back in the old days, you could use a variety of controller layouts. This is a well needed option, as using Y to accelerate just feels damn uncomfortable, not to mention abnormal.

You start of with no money, so the only customisation you can do for the first race, is choose wet or dry tires, and select one of the bodywork colours.

Diving into the game, is very nostalgic, rolling roads with an illusion of great speed created by 2 tone blocks of ground scenery whizzing by and below you. There's no real feel that you are actually racing on a circuit, due to the winding corners being more swerved than an actual corner. Still, you are able to learn the circuits by the trackside scenery.

Another thing to note, is that you all race in the same unknown car, thankfully they aren't all the same colour. The developer being Gremlin, should pretty much give away that this game is basically a Lotus game, yet with some nice changes.

The artificial intelligence in this game, just like most games of this type, is very predictable. Specifically in that, the computer drivers all race, moving from one side of the track to the other. Continuously zigzagging their way through the whole race. Knowing this will greatly help you avoid collisions at high speed.

To qualify for the next race, you must always finish the previous race in the top 10. Finishing in the top 6 gives you championship points, and reward money to customise your car.

Tyres, gearbox, engine, armour (front, side, and rear), and NOS can all be upgraded after every race, providing you have the necessary funds.

In later races, you will be driving in the night, wet, fog, and snow. Later races also start placing obstacles on the track such as logs, barriers, and occasionally a pick up or few, to help you.

Eventually, your fuel will not last you the whole race, nor can you make fuel stops. To overcome fuel shortage, you had best make sure you upgrade your transmission, to increase fuel efficiency.

Between races, there's a nice little touch of a scrolling skyline of the following race location on the top third of the screen. Below this is information on weather, time, track length and laps.

That armour, if you are one for hitting the odd corner or opponent at speed, then you may have to consider this upgrade. Otherwise, armour is pointless for the more experienced racer. Simply put, if you get damage to your car from collisions, it will affect your speed and acceleration.

NOS on the other hand, you will certainly be needing to use this fairly often, no use of NOS at all, and it's highly doubtful you will finish more than one race in the top ten.

After every stage, you get a password so to enable you to continue from where you left of, or try the last stage again should you fail to qualify in one of the races. So be sure to have a pen and pad handy (unless you're emulating).

In total, there are 64 races, spread over 16 countries, so there are plenty of gameplay hours in Top Gear 2.

The music for all races seem just right, and has that arcade feel to it. Some nice touches include speech bubbles, actual horizons of recognisable places, and high speed crashes spin your car a full 360 degrees, giving that 3D feeling to a 2D racer.

You can also go split screen, meaning a friend can play too. The advantage to split screen, is that only one of you need to finish in the top ten to advance onto the next race.

After a while, usually each stage, you feel you are being a bit repetitive, so will likely only play this for around an hour or two at a time max. You will come back to it though at some point, just to prove to yourself you can beat the game, plus the fact that this game, is easily one of the best racing games to hit the snes.