11th March 2015, 4:10 PM
TurboGrafx CD
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Road Spirits (J) - I got around to playing this game again, and finished it easily; this is one of the easiest racing games I have ever played. This is an Outrun-style point-to-point racer, but it's linear instead of branching. There are 17 races, which sounds like quite a few, but you'll never lose. The game has nice graphics for the system, good music, okay controls... but there is no challenge here at all. You rarely need to brake, I never actually ran out of time in a race except for one where I intentionally ran out of time just so I could see the game over screen. The game actually has a neat little Game Over animation, so it was worth it. Otherwise, though... this game is playable, but they forgot to include any challenge at all! Everything is here except for a game that's challenging in even the slightest way, and that makes it not that much fun to play. There are no difficulty settings, either. There are four cars and three transmissions (Automatic, 2-speed manual, 5-speed manual), but even in 5-speed mode this game is super easy, you will rarely if ever need to shift down. And the game doesn't really get harder as you go along, either. Just hold down the accelerator, shift up if using manual, and turn when the road does and you should finish every race with plenty of time to spare.
Still, this game is maybe the only behind-the-car linescroll racing game on the Turbo (PC Engine) CD, so I'm happy to have it even if it's absurdly simplistic. It does look and sound good, and it's fun for a few minutes at least. I like the varied settings, you go around the world... though oddly, this Japan-only release has no tracks in Japan, but a full seven in the US, out of 17 total! Yeah. There are as many races in Alaska as there are in Europe -- two each. Heh. Not sure if I've ever seen that before in a racing game. :p
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Road Spirits (J) - I got around to playing this game again, and finished it easily; this is one of the easiest racing games I have ever played. This is an Outrun-style point-to-point racer, but it's linear instead of branching. There are 17 races, which sounds like quite a few, but you'll never lose. The game has nice graphics for the system, good music, okay controls... but there is no challenge here at all. You rarely need to brake, I never actually ran out of time in a race except for one where I intentionally ran out of time just so I could see the game over screen. The game actually has a neat little Game Over animation, so it was worth it. Otherwise, though... this game is playable, but they forgot to include any challenge at all! Everything is here except for a game that's challenging in even the slightest way, and that makes it not that much fun to play. There are no difficulty settings, either. There are four cars and three transmissions (Automatic, 2-speed manual, 5-speed manual), but even in 5-speed mode this game is super easy, you will rarely if ever need to shift down. And the game doesn't really get harder as you go along, either. Just hold down the accelerator, shift up if using manual, and turn when the road does and you should finish every race with plenty of time to spare.
Still, this game is maybe the only behind-the-car linescroll racing game on the Turbo (PC Engine) CD, so I'm happy to have it even if it's absurdly simplistic. It does look and sound good, and it's fun for a few minutes at least. I like the varied settings, you go around the world... though oddly, this Japan-only release has no tracks in Japan, but a full seven in the US, out of 17 total! Yeah. There are as many races in Alaska as there are in Europe -- two each. Heh. Not sure if I've ever seen that before in a racing game. :p