Top Gear Rally
Reviewed by Scott McCall
Top Gear Rally has arguably been the most heavily scrutinized
game of the year. No other title has been subject to such an
extreme love or hate attitude. Unfortunately, my opinion of it
falls under the latter category, and I'm going to tell you why.
Even though "Top Gear" is in the game's title, Top Gear Rally
really doesn't bare much resemblance to the previous games
in the series. In fact, the one feature that put the Top Gear
franchise on the map is suspiciously missing: two-player
simultaneous racing in the Championship Mode. This is the
main reason I don't like the game, but there are other flaws in
the general game design that also make the one-player mode
unacceptable.
Top Gear Rally's Championship Mode is the heart and soul of
the game. In theory, this should be one of the best one-player
racing games around. In my opinion, however, it falls way
short of that distinction. As with too many next generation
racing games, the number of tracks (five) is a major shortcoming.
Another problem is the imbalance of the cars. The initial cars are
so slow and control so horrendously that it's not even funny. I will
point out that subsequent cars do get faster and control better,
but this flaw in design will turn a lot of people off too soon,
myself included. Speaking of control, I even had trouble controlling
the later cars. It's so frustrating to keep smacking into walls and
to keep getting stuck on them. Yet another problem is that the tracks
are too long, or at least it seems this way because of the next problem.
The other problem -- and this is a major one -- is that Top Gear Rally
is just not exciting. How fun can a racing game be when the cars are so
spread out and when a maximum of three cars (you and two CPU cars)
can be on the screen at once?
Ever since Top Gear Rally was first announced, it has been
graphically amazing. The game does look beautiful on-screen,
though I'm not as impressed as others. As a matter of fact, all those
polygons are why we didn't get a GOOD two-player mode and why many
cars cannot be on the screen at the same time. Considering the
result, I absolutely believe this is a terrible trade-off.
The audio department is another area I disagree with most.
While most people think the music is annoying, I think it ranks
in the upper half of Nintendo 64 music. The sound effects aren't
so good, however. And, by the way, there isn't any voice in the
game, which is probably a good
thing.
Overall, I just did not enjoy Top Gear Rally at all. The lack of a
GOOD two-player mode is the main fault, but I couldn't enjoy the
one-player mode, either, because of the aforementioned problems.
However, this doesn't mean you won't like the game. I can't stress
enough that this is one of those games you absolutely have to play
for yourself to decide. Do yourself a favor and rent this one
before passing judgment.
Graphics: 4.2 out of 5
Sound: 3.6 out of 5
Control: 2.4 out of 5
Gameplay: 2.5 out of 5
Lastability: 2.7 out of 5
Overall: 2.7 out of 5