Top Five MegaDrive Overhead Racers

As mighty as the MegaDrive is, it's not a system I would associate with overhead (or 'top down' if you prefer) racing games - I suppose there aren't any systems that one might specifically associate with them now that I think about it - but Sega's legendary machine does play host to a surprising number of them. I actually had the idea for this post a good few years ago and did some preliminary 'research' accordingly, only to find my enthusiasm dampened by the general quality of the titles available. I recall not really finding one that I really liked, never mind five! That opinion was mostly confirmed when I returned to this post recently - most examples are interesting and have good points, but also some apect that ruined my enjoyment somewhat too. Since I haven't been too prolific with the Top Fives lately, however, I figured I'd go ahead with the post anyway. So, feast your eyes on what could be more accurately described as the Five Least Annoying MegaDrive Overhead Racers...

5. Combat Cars

I don't remember seeing anything about this one in its day but it got a European release as well as a US one. Oh well, wherever it was back then, I 've spent a fair bit of time playing it for this post and... well, it's a good example of what I was talking about above. I kind of get the impression it's set in a post-apocalyptic world but it's hard to be sure since there doesn't seem to be a backstory. Nonetheless, you can choose from eight characters, each of whom has their own car with it's own special ability (speed boost, weapon, smoke, etc), and it initially looked as though it could be a contender for the top spot here. The slidy-but-grippy car handling is superb and there are a decent number of courses (24) over which to race against the other characters, and there are of course multi-player modes too (just two players but better than nothing), with team or head-to-head options on offer. The graphics aren't bad either and the music is great. The thing that ruins it a bit for me is that it just gets too hard too quickly - you basically have to race nearly perfectly within two or three races or you won't have a chance. I was getting lapped! It's a good game for skilled and/or dedicated players but I'm not sure I'd ever get through it.

4. Super Skidmarks

I first encountered this one as the Amiga's run was coming to an end, and I recall it being met with both sniggers (because of its name) and excitement (because of the game itself) by magazines of the time. It was probably most notable on the MD for the 'J Cart' it came on which featured two addition joypad ports. This, along with Sega's multi-tap, meant... six-player races! Not too many of us owned six controllers I guess, but it was still pretty cool. The game itself features some 48 tracks spread over 4 progressively harder leagues, and there are several different vehicles to race with too, from Minis right up to F1 cars. And cows, for some reason. The audio/visuals certainly don't push the MD's limits but, while there is no in-game music, the crisp Amiga-ish graphics are pleasant enough. Races are viewed from an isometric, slightly zoomed-in perspective, and there are lots of jumps, crossroads, banked corners, and all that kind of thing. As the title suggests, there is lots of skidding too. This means there is lots of bumping off the side of the course which slows you down, and the courses are tight/fast enough that you'll be bumping around them a lot, especially to start with. This can often make it quite irritating to play (or do well at) but it can often be great fun too. Obviously, it's a game that was made to be played with friends, and it's much better this way, but it's not too bad for the solo player either.

3. Micro Machines

I have no doubt that the first game most people would think of when seeing the title of this post would be one of the Micro Machines titles released for Sega's 16-bit machine but, if I'm honest, I've never been the biggest fan of the series. The premise (racing teeny cars around ordinary household locations) is ultra-brilliant, the range of vehicles (boats, race cars, monster trucks, choppers, F1 cars, etc) is second-to-none, the presentation, graphics and audio are appealing, and they are a riot in multi-player, but what about for just one player? Most of us (including me) spend the majority of our retro-gaming time by ourselves after all, and the MM games are, in my opinion, much less appealing when played alone. It's so easy to fall off an edge or get stuck behind one of the many household objects and it ruins any chance you might have of advancing, and only the top two (out of four) racers do that. This is probably part of the fun when racing with friends but it drives (hee hee!) me crazy when playing solo. They are very popular games, obviously, so I had to include one of them here, and it's the original one that enrages me the least, but I couldn't in good conscious put it higher than this. At its best it's one of the funnest games ever made, but at its worst it makes me want throw my fracking controller at the TV.

2. Super Off Road

This arcade classic has been ported to even more systems than Micro Machines over the years. This isn't the strongest version, admittedly, and it isn't the most technically impressive game on the MD either, but it's still a lot of fun to play if you ask me, even for one player. It's basically an off-road version of Super Sprint - i.e. lots of bumps, jumps, banked turns, watery bits, crossroads, etc, rather than just straight asphalt. The lumpy bumpy gameplay works well in this format too, and although there is just the one basic truck on offer, it can be upgraded by using prize money or collecting cash while racing. Like everything else about the game, this aspect of it is simple (top speed, acceleration, tyres and shocks can each be upgraded six times), but it gives you something to aim for and it suits the game well. You can collect/buy nitros too, which are helpful. It's the oldest game on this list, there's nothing fancy about it really, and it only supports two-players, but it's not super-hard, and I still enjoy blasting around its 16 courses a lot. Software Creations have also seen fit to increase the size of the bikini-trophy girls' knockers too, for some reason!

1. Rock n' Roll Racing

This one is probably better known as a SNES game than an MD one, and even then it was known more for its use of classic rock and metal tunes than anything else, so my expectations weren't sky-high, but it's actually very good. At least part of the reason for this is that, unlike some other games played for this feature, it's pretty easy at first and has a good difficulty curve from there, and... well, winning now and then always feels good, right? The races are enjoyable too, thanks to the shooty, explodey action, loud, enthusiastic announcer, and that famous rockin' music, and you can upgrade your car and add weapons as you choose. On the downside, the style of the graphics isn't too appealing (to me, anyway) and they only vary from world to world. There are six of these, each featuring quite a few races (8, 10, 12, 14, 14 and 14 respectively), although many courses are repeated on each world. Some of them, especially earlier ones, aren't particularly interesting in design but I still enjoyed this one way more than I thought I would. It's far less frustrating than some other games featured here too, which went a long way to securing its unexpected victory here.

Honourable Mentions: In my first expanded version of the usual 'honourable mentions' section, I've included a bit of info about the games here too.

Championship Pro-Am - Port of the popular NES game R.C. Pro-Am; good fun in short bursts but not enough to it. Looks and sounds like an NES game too.

Double Clutch - Nice Amiga-ish graphics, decent courses, choose from several human characters, but very difficult - car takes damage, make a mistake like hitting an oil patch or getting stuck on trees, it's basically impossible to catch up.

F1 Circus MD - Very similar to the PC Engine original - tricky to get to grips with, progress is slow, but plenty to do. Still not proper circuits you're racing on though.

F1 Grand Prix - Similar to F1 Circus except it's around actual circuits so you aren't always driving up the screen; graphics also more zoomed-in so look nicer and more detailed. Again, lots to do, but only released in Japan so very difficult to navigate menus. Would've been a Top Five contender otherwise.

F1 Super License - Very similar to F1 Grand Prix - racing on proper circuits, lots to do, but Japanese-only. With more zoomed-out graphics like F1 Circus.

Power Drive - Late release and only available on Sega Channel so hard to justify inclusion in main top five. Not bad though. Drift Out-style game featuring rally circuit courses against only one opponent. Controls take some getting used to and there are no sound effects, just music (which is very good).

Metal Fangs - Seems to be some sort of overhead racing team management sim where you don't actually race but take charge of four racers. Japanese-only so difficult to work out.