Top Five PC Engine Racing Games

Although it certainly didn't start as such, this has almost turned into one of the old 'comedy' Top Fives I used to do. The main reason for this was down to how difficult it turned out to be to even find five half-decent racing games for this usually-excellent system. I know the mighty PC Engine is hardly known for this genre - its legendary status is more to do with its outstanding shmups and platformers - but I still didn't think I've have as much trouble as I did. So, I guess you should probably instead consider this the Top Five Least Crap PC Engine Racing Games instead!

Special Note: This list does not include overheard/top-down racing games as they are different enough and numerous enough to have their own list.

5. Power Drift (1990)

If I'm honest, I've never been the biggest fan of Power Drift, at least compared to other Super Scaler games, and porting it to the Engine was ambitious, but it's actually not too bad. It does deviate from the arcade version a little in that it basically gives you a championship mode in place of the arcade mode, meaning you have to work your way through the courses rather than just choose any you like. It works quite well though, and it's technically quite impressive, all things considered. It does suffer from the same faults as the arcade version (or what I always perceived to be faults anyway) - namely, the undulating log sections of track often making it hard to see where you're going, and the large cars making it hard to overtake (or be overtaken). But that does at least mean it's a good conversion I guess, and it's pretty good fun to play now and then too. The graphics are probably about as good as you could expect too, although the music isn't so great, but this could easily have been a lot worse, as some of the other versions were.

4. Racing Damashii (1991)

This is probably a less well-known game than the others on this list and I had never played it before either. The first thing I noticed was lots of Japanese text so it's one where you'll have to bumble your way through the menus/options etc, but once you do you'll find a surprisingly deep racing game. You get to choose your racer, team, and mechanic before starting, and in-game it employs a permanent split-screen, the lower half of which shows the rival you're up against Or the second player if you have a friend (and multi-tap) handy. The two-player mode would be good for practising too, for Racing Spirits (as it's also known) is a mighty challenging game! I still haven't even managed to win a race, for example. Control of your bike seems increasingly sluggish as you get faster so I suppose it's intentional, but it does make the going tough. Nonetheless, it certainly seems to be a game that will keep you occupied for a good while... if you can get the hang of it!

3. Victory Run (1987)

One of the Engine's early releases and the only game on the list I had played thoroughly beforehand, albeit some time ago so I needed a refresher! It is based on the Paris-Dakar Rally (not that you would guess from the US version's cover) and consists of eight stages on what seem to be public roads alternating between tarmac and loose surfaces, but either kind is filled with oafs driving trucks and stuff. One innovative feature is the spare parts - you can choose which spares you want to take with you and your choice can affect both your car's performance as well as your ability to progress though the game. It's not a bad idea and does increase the game's longevity, but enjoyment is let down a little by slightly irritating controls and collision-detection. Still, there aren't many games of this type on the Engine and this one definitely has enough to keep most players going for a while.

2. Final Lap Twin (1989)

I still remember the gaming mags of the day burbling on about this one. It's unsurprisingly based on Namco's 1987 arcade game, and for all these years I had been under the impression that it was simply that - a racing game. So imagine my surprise to find out that it's actually a cross between a racing game and an RPG, and that means there's a story and other characters and you wander around a map meeting them and all that stuff too. It might sound weird but it works really well and adds a lot to the game. Much like Racing Damashii, it uses a permanent split-screen which is again used to show your rival or the second player. The racing here is a little easier to get to grips with though, and there are way more competitors on the road which obviously makes races more interesting too. Graphics are pretty good - the cars look nice and it's fairly colourful, although there isn't a huge amount of variety as you might expect. The music is also quite pleasant, and it's a really slick game overall. Very nearly the best racer on the Engine in fact.

1. Out Run (1990)

You know, it's funny. Out Run is a game that means more to me than probably any other game. I spent a fortune on the arcade version, the MS version was one of the first games I got for what was my first console, I endured the Speccy version, and even had two copies of the Saturn version. Add to that the fact that the PC Engine is one of my top three favourite consoles, and it's very strange that I never played this version of Yu Suzuki's masterpiece until a few days ago for this feature. I've routinely heard bad things about most of the home versions for the whole time that there has been home versions, so perhaps I subconsciously avoided it through fear of my precious Out Run memories being tarnished. Whatever the reason is, imagine my surprise to find that the Engine version of this classic is actually superb! The graphics are really nice, there are decent renditions of the classic choons, and it plays really well too. Sorry PCE Out Run for unfairly dismissing you all these years. Not only is this the best home version of the game (discounting the cheat Saturn version) but it's also the Engine's best racing game too.

Dishonourable Mentions: Chase HQ (poor version of a great game), Knight Rider Special (even playing as KITT doesn't save this awful game)