Top Gear Overdrive

N64, Top Gear Overdrive (1998) game

Out of the four 'Top Gear' games on N64 I'd only played the two main ones in the series back in the day, 'Top Gear Rally' and 'Top Gear Rally 2,' and as 'Top Gear Overdrive' was cheap (and 'Top Gear Hyperbike was expensive!), I wound up getting a copy in recent years and finally got around to playing it. It was made by a different group than made the original (as would happen again with 'TGR2'), and isn't quite as technically accomplished, though it has a somewhat similar look, it loses the bouncy physics that made the first game so fun - this time if you crash into barriers at too great a speed you explode in a puff of ugly flame. The main difference is a greater emphasis on Arcade style, mainly seen in the two kinds of pickups you can collect, Nitro boosts or cash. There's no adjustment of suspension or steering as there was in the original, but you do earn money by coming in the top four cars (out of twelve), and by collecting cash. There's some tactical element in terms of there often being shortcuts or deviations which may be quicker, but do you choose a path that gets you more money (which you only keep when you win), or go for a stock-up on boosts to increase the chance of actually winning?

It took a while to adjust to the 'new rules' of play, but it unfolds nicely and there's some degree of choice in tracks so you don't necessarily have to do them all in order. Finding shortcuts, learning layouts and choosing whether to upgrade an existing vehicle or try to hang onto the cash till you can afford something bigger and better makes it more engrossing. The tracks themselves aren't bad and have the same style as 'TGR,' and again, you can play the few designs in multiple weathers and times of day, and eventually mirrored, too, conventional for racing games of the time, and especially 'TGR.' Graphics are okay - there's a widescreen hi-res option (this was the first game to ever use the Expansion Pak), but it can get a bit juddery sometimes and normal resolution was good enough. Music's terrible, sounds are fine, and it lasts while you're getting into it, but once you have a souped-up car it becomes somewhat easier towards the end, paradoxically, with the final track (in space!), the easiest of the lot.

There's no time trial, no bells and whistles, though the four-player could be interesting to try, but none of these things matter too much to me as a solitary gamer, and once I'd completed the six seasons successfully I liked it enough to want to go back immediately to play through for 1st places on all tracks, hoping for some new reward (you get a sausage, Nintendo Power-branded and N64 'N' logo cars for general completion), though I was disappointed to find nothing new. Like the first game you also have to reset the save data, there are no multiple files or score tables of any kind. So, basic yes, but also enjoyable. 'TGR2' had the depth, 'TGR' had the originality, this had… more of the same. But I like car games, there was some challenge to this, so I was fulfilled.

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