Top Gear Rally 2

"Top Gear Rally 2" is one of the most innovative racing games to hit the market in years. It incorporates an exclusive random track generation system that gives the player virtually unlimited tracks to race on.

Source:

Saffire website

Unlike virtually every other racer out there, TGR2 makes sure you pay the price for lousy driving.

Bang into a wall, a boulder or another car and you'll suffer realistic mechanical damage. A few knocks like these will send you scurrying back to the Support Van for repairs.

The multiplayer head-to-head mode allows you to indulge in typically reckless video-game driving, but kiddie-car aficionados will have to adapt or perish in the aptly named Challenge mode. Fortunately you can enter five progressively harder Driving Schools -- one for each circuit -- and master steering, accelerating, braking and coping with improper equipment and bad weather.

In the single-player Challenge, you start out in the North American-based Amateur Cup. Winning gives you the money and sponsorship to upgrade your car with lots of officially licensed products, including PIAA lighting arrays and Falken tires. Your car will display your sponsors' logos. As you advance through the five circuits, you travel the world and earn the right to drive better cars.

Kemco has secured licenses from the American Rally Sport Group, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Toyota and sundry parts manufacturers. Advertisements from these licensees line the tracks.

The tracks are preset in the early circuits, but by the time you reach the season-ending Rally Cup an advanced algorithm kicks in that assembles new tracks on the fly. Developer Saffire has designed about 30 100-meter "tiles" for each environment (e.g. mountain, jungle, grassland). Any or all of these tiles can then be reassembled in virtually any order. Instead of simply memorizing tracks, players will have to cope with a constant string of new challenges.

A novel Team Challenge mode is virtually identical to the one-player Challenge mode, except that you and a pal square off against a CPU-controlled two-driver team. While co-op racing sounds like a gimmick, it actually makes sense in the context of a road rally game.

Busy developer Saffire has delivered the N64 graphics goods with Bio F.R.E.A.K.S., Rampage: World Tour and Xena Fighter 64. Going gentle on the gas, tapping the brakes a lot and, most important of all, easing your way through turns, will be a big challenge for players used to mindlessly crushing the A Button. For players seeking a challenging racer that delivers long-term replayability, though, TGR 2 delivers the goods, big time.

Source:

www.nintendo.com – Nintendo 64