DS launch info

[A Black Falcon]

Two words: No split-screen. Racing games were made for split screen. It's a social genre.

Hmm... okay, splitscreen multiplayer. I have two gamepads and a keyboard, so that works (as long as it is okay with a four button gamepad with no analog). And quite a few of those have it.

Almost all of those games have either split-screen or shared-screen two player modes. A few don't, and a few have four players, but most have shared system multiplayer...

Many: Micro Machines 2. I forget exactly how many it supports, but it's at least 4 and maybe it's 6 or something... many in tournaments.

4 (splitscreen): Rollcage Stage II and Moto Racer 2 for sure. Not sure about the rest, perhaps one or two more has it as well.

No single-system multiplay: Motocross Madness 2 (I think... I should check to be sure), Rally Championship, Death Rally, Extreme-G 2, Driver (which isn't a racing game anyway). The rest of those games have 2-player splitscreen modes. Several also have lan/modem modes, and a couple have (or had) internet play with a gameservice... Pod and NFS High Stakes, to be specific. Though both of those services are now, I believe, offline. Motocross Madness 2's (and maybe Monster Truck Madnesses'?) are still running.

Anyway, I think I made my point. Okay, is it more fun to sit around the TV? Perhaps, but I have spent far too many hours playing single-system multiplayer PC games with friends and relatives to think that it is in any way bad.

Crap handling, crap speed, crap tracks.

Handling depends on settings and the car you choose. Speed increases with difficulty level but is admittedly a bit weak. Tracks? As I said, I consider the great track designs (and style) to be by far the game's greatest strength!

All except for Drome Racers... which got bad reviews anyways. And Screamer 2. Haven't played that.

Screamer 2 had fantastic graphics for a 1996 PC game... it's great fun still, once you get used to the very slippery controls. That takes a little while. But still, great arcade racing game probably best compared to a Ridge Racer. With cars that slide a lot. :)

As for Drome Racers, it cost me $2, is by the guys who made Rollcage, and is decent. Not fantastic, but okay...

Oh, and I'd be pretty surprised if you've played even half as many demos as I have. Sure they only give you a track or two of the game, but that's enough to get a good picture of how it plays... and I have five years of PC gaming magazines with demo CDs, which means many demos, including quite a few racing games. :)

The latest Bloody Roar is about as good of a fighting game as XG and Pod are racing games. Not very good.

'Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity...' I think that saying applies here. :)

Well good for you. I on the other hand place great importance on "fun".

So a complex game with a very high learning curve cannot be fun to anyone, even once they get used to the control scheme and game system? I do not think that that is the case at all!

Therein lies the problem. The second is much better than the first and the third [from what I have seen] is better than the second. I've played some of the NFS games before and they just can't beat the Burnout series.

As you remember, I'm sure, I'm not a huge NFS fan... but they are okay racing games. Burnout 1 is a lot of fun. But since I've only played that Burnout game, and I've played at least a little of all of the NFS (PC-version) games (full versions of 1 and 4, demos of the rest), it's definitely an unequal comparison and that certainly helps NFS... playing Burnout 2 would be good to let me see if that series has improved enough to beat NFS, but as it is I don't know, obviously.