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Where have all the arcade racers gone?
- Thread starter MechDX
- Start date
Hey, I'll be the first to say that Rush 2049 and Hydro Thunder are kickass to the max, but don't discount GRID. If you're not on the f-ing edge in that game at all times, you're not playing it right. It's exhilirating to push the car to the ragged edge in that game because one really wrong move and BLAM, race over and a mangled hunk of metal. It's good stuff.
VVV Mars VG
Member
Ranger X said:
Agreed...
Crab Milk Mickey
Member
Since hardly anyone else did, I'll mention FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage. Available for the PC and Xbox 360.
Warm Machine
Member
ram said:
Arcade racing is more defined by car feel and speed than track layout. Arcade Racers need to progress into the future as well as an other genre and not be limited by circuit based content.
PowerSmell
Member
Real arcade racers are in the arcades, but nobody wants to port them because most console gamers want to paint a dick on one 300 different cars.
PowerSmell
Member
Warm Machine said:
I disagree with your definition. Sega's Ferrari F355 Challenge is arcade racer with realistic physics. Arcade racers are defined as racing games that are made for the arcade.
They are usually better than console racers as the developers know that it takes a single credit for a gamer to know whether or not their game is good, so they are forced to make it good.Many people use the term in a lazy way to quickly convey that a game has unrealistic physics.
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
I liked Cruis'n Wii when it was in the arcades and it was called The Fast and the Furious...Grecco said:
Crag Dweller
aka kindbudmaster
Whatever you want to call it, I just want a racer in hd that I can drive under a swinging pirate ship before I go into a glass tunnel underneath the water with fish swimming all around followed by a choice to take one of three shortcuts each harder to navigate than the others followed by a button on the road that I can run over so I can smash the cars in front of me with a big fucking hammer.
PepsimanVsJoe
Member
PowerSmell said:Arcade racers are defined as racing games that are made for the arcade.
The same could be said for all arcade games.
*sniff* I think I have something in my eye. =(
Mohonky
Member
Router said:
Didn't think much of Burnout Paradise personally, the lack of retry in events (unless they patched that in?) and the open layout bored me rather quickly.
PGR3 and 4 however are the best arcade racers on the market imo, they're arcade but taking the perfect line makes a big difference in lap times and the visuals are phenomenal.
Just recently got Midnight Club LA as well and I'm loving it personally. More of the same but the visuals are really nice and clean and the open world actually works better than Burnout.
Pure also, one of the best arcade racers I've ever played. Hugely impressive game.
PowerSmell
Member
MadOdorMachine
No additional functions
Excite Truck, Ridge Racer 6 & 7 and Motorstorm 1 & 2 are my favoritest arcade racers so far this gen. There have been a lot of hybrids like GRID and PGR. Need for Speed and the Burnout series have also started to abandon the arcade style. I'll agree that there are bunches of racers to choose from, but most of them just don't click for me. I just want to get in a car, pick a track and go race, nothing more. The less customization the better.
H_Prestige
Banned
Motorstorm Pacific Rift
CurlySaysX
Banned
QFT
Motorstorm Pacific Rift.
I got sick of sim racers or arcade racers with real life handling after GT3.
Motorstorm, unlike a lot of recent racing games, doesn't become easy as shit once you've played the game for about 1 hour.
The time trial mode is very well done and online is brilliant. IMO.
10/10 - Fact
Dead Man Typing
Member
Outrun is coming to XBLA and PSN.
Buy it and maybe we'll have more HD-arcade racing wonders ported to home consoles. I light a candle every night so that Crazy Taxi can find it's way home.
Buy it and maybe we'll have more HD-arcade racing wonders ported to home consoles. I light a candle every night so that Crazy Taxi can find it's way home.
ThatCrazyGuy
Member
Does Scud Race count as a arcade racer? Also, Midway should just do a straight up graphical update of Rush 2049 and stick it on XBLA. Money in the bank. Then Hydro thunder, then NBA jam! Then the grid! then old school blitz!
SolidSnakex
Member
MechDX said:
Well, the major problem is that Midway was the company that was best known for those games and they could go under at any point. It's a shame that they don't realize that they probably could make quite a bit of money just porting stuff like Rush and Hydro Thunder to PSN and Live Arcade. They really blew it with L.A. Rush.
A Black Falcon
Member
SolidSnakex said:
San Francisco Rush 2049: Best racing game ever made
San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing: Also still in the top five
LA Rush: Abysmal garbage
And this is why LA Rush has to be considered one of the worst games ever made.
But yes, I agree -- Midway's collapse and exit from the racing game market dealt a crippling blow to the awesome style of over-the-top racing game they had pretty much perfected. It's not Midway's current collapse that matters here so much as their shutdown of arcade development in 2000-2001 that did the damage. It didn't have to kill the genre as nearly completely as it seems to have, though, but sadly that happened. There have been a few here and there, but not nearly enough.
Other blows to the field include Acclaim's closure in 2004 (they had of course made the great Extreme-G series, which peaked with its last release, the all-time great XGRA, aka "my favorite racing game of last gen", as well as Re-Volt (a really, really good game on the PC and DC) and some others), Kalisto, makers of 4-Wheel Thunder on DC and Ultim@te Race Pro on PC, went out of business, that we haven't got a F-Zero game yet this gen or even seen a major one announced since Sega did F-Zero AX/GX, that Psygnosis died and the studio that succeeded them spent several years just making PSP games... they have made three good Wipeout games this gen, but only Wipeout. Where's Rollcage III, for instance/ I liked Rollcage at least as much as Wipeout, actually, as much as I love Wipeout. And why did that PS2 port of one of the PSP games never happen... oh well. There's plenty more too -- Lucasarts abandoning futuristic racing after making two of them ( Episode I Racer (PC/N64/DC) and Racer Revenge (PS2)), for example. Few teams seem to have stepped in to fill in those gaps.
Recent stuff mentioned here and worth looking at:
-Excite Truck (Wii) -- one of the generation's best racing games!
-Cruis'n (Wii) -- if you liked the old Cruis'n games or The Fast and the Furious in the arcade and find it cheap, it's worth getting.
-Wipeout HD (PS3) -- it's Wipeout. Enough said.
-TrackMania series (PC) -- some of the best current stuff in the genre
-Outrun 2/2006 (PC/Xbox/PS2) -- great fun simple arcade racing...
Other current-gen stuff to look up:
-Speed Racer (PS2/Wii) -- heard it's good, I'm looking for this one...
-Fatal Inertia (X360/PS3 PSN) -- yeah, disc on X360 but download on PS3. Cool looking futuristic racing game, it'd be on my list for either console.
-Wipeout Pulse and Wipeout Pure (PSP) -- it's Wipeout, see above...
Plus go back to last gen and play XGRA if you didn't.
But yes, overall I absolutely agree with the thesis, and in fact would say that the problem started last gen. The N64/PSX generation was, it seems to me, a peaking of the field of arcade/futuristic racing games, a peaking that faded last gen. Sure, the last-gen consoles had good racing games... but aside from DC ports of games also available on N64 like Hydro Thunder or Rush 2049 and a few rare titles like F-Zero X and GX or XG3 and XGRA, there just weren't as many. Burnout did add something for a while, but then that series seems to have stumbled a bit too... maybe not as much as some of these others, though. Overall Midway's absence was the most sorely felt, but other studios turned away from the genre too, turning to modern-day-vehicle-based stuff and a heavy focus on the tuner-culture subgenre, one I really quite dislike. The previously fun but not spectacular (sorry, with jet-cars with turbo boosters I'd have liked it more...
) NFS series drove off that cliff too, sadly. So we lost SF Rush and Hydro Thunder and Need for Speed: High Stakes and got... SRS, Need for Speed Underground, and the abomination (aka LA "Rush")? Now that's a really, really bad trade. So yes, I really, really miss the great variety of great futuristic and arcadish racing games that we had in the late '90s and early years of this decade, that's for sure. It could come back, somehow, but it's pretty obviously out of style.
I mean... the PS3 has like two futuristic racing games, the Wii three or four, the X360 about that many, the PSP or DS not much more... and few of those are AAA quality. Meanwhile the semi-sim stuff with actual cars and tuner games are all over the place, rarely actually interesting me. I love arcade-style racing games, but aside from some of the ones I've mentioned here, the progression over the course of this decade in the genre has been pretty sad.
camineet said:
Hit the nail on the head.
And guys, please stop mentioning the PC version of Sega Rally Revo. It is a horrible port with regards to the controller options, and other than the 360 controller, doesn't support ANY analog controllers or wheels. It's not even worth mentioning.
And I doubt I would like Motorstorm PR, since it doesn't even support any steering wheels, which is appalling in this day and age.
Pseudo_Sam
Survives without air, food, or water
My friend, there is but one game that will change the way you view racers. It is a game of such unbridled speed and recklessness that even the most jaded of gamers would look upon it in awe and say, "Truly, my eyes have have been shown that which is good. Go forth and play, my children, for today our savior has been brought to us in a veil of awesomeness. 'Tis the true king, risen again from the depths to claim the throne of excitingest racing game ever."
What is this gem, this magnificent beast of a game? My friend, it is none other than Excite Truck. Yes, this oft-ignored beauty is that which you seek, an incredible racer better than all who stand before it. Don't be fooled the kindergarten-pastel boxart; this is no clearance bin garbage. Indeed, the cover serves only to test us; to see which of us is capable of seeing past the brutish exterior and into the sweet, mouth-watering innards.
Obviously, you have failed to notice Excite Truck. My usual course of action in such cases would be to tie you by your ankles over a frothing pit of bears, deprived of food and hungry for blood. However, I will make an exception in your case. It is imperative at this stage that Excite Truck be recognized for the pure work of genius that it is; in this way, we can hope for a sequel to descend from the heavens. That is the one true goal. Nothing else matters now.
And so, your task is simple: Buy Excite Truck. Play it until your eyes bleed. Take your love for the game and share it with the world, as I do. I am but a disciple of our one true master, the game who's sheer excitingness will unite this world. All wars will end, all hate will diminish as we stand, transfixed by the blinding brilliance of Excite Truck. We can save the Earth, my friend. Together, we can start a revolution that will not stop until all have seen the light.
What is this gem, this magnificent beast of a game? My friend, it is none other than Excite Truck. Yes, this oft-ignored beauty is that which you seek, an incredible racer better than all who stand before it. Don't be fooled the kindergarten-pastel boxart; this is no clearance bin garbage. Indeed, the cover serves only to test us; to see which of us is capable of seeing past the brutish exterior and into the sweet, mouth-watering innards.
Obviously, you have failed to notice Excite Truck. My usual course of action in such cases would be to tie you by your ankles over a frothing pit of bears, deprived of food and hungry for blood. However, I will make an exception in your case. It is imperative at this stage that Excite Truck be recognized for the pure work of genius that it is; in this way, we can hope for a sequel to descend from the heavens. That is the one true goal. Nothing else matters now.
And so, your task is simple: Buy Excite Truck. Play it until your eyes bleed. Take your love for the game and share it with the world, as I do. I am but a disciple of our one true master, the game who's sheer excitingness will unite this world. All wars will end, all hate will diminish as we stand, transfixed by the blinding brilliance of Excite Truck. We can save the Earth, my friend. Together, we can start a revolution that will not stop until all have seen the light.
Excite truck is the only game that satisfied my need for pure ridiculous old school arcade action. That game is so over the top and easy to play but tough to master. I love that game.
People that are mentioning things like grid are missing the point I think. I guess it is an arcade racer but it doesn't have the feel of a weird cheesy over the top old school racer like I think the OP is talking about.
edit: oh I see he doesn't like excite truck. hell I don't know then.. that is the only one for me of the last few years.
People that are mentioning things like grid are missing the point I think. I guess it is an arcade racer but it doesn't have the feel of a weird cheesy over the top old school racer like I think the OP is talking about.
edit: oh I see he doesn't like excite truck. hell I don't know then.. that is the only one for me of the last few years.
jibblypop said:
AT least you understand what I mean by "arcade racer". Some of the games mentioned are just...odd.
Maybe I am just living in the past and will never get to relive those days except when I bust out the Dreamcast. Motorstorm, Excite Truck, Wipeout HD...they just are not the same. Extreme G is one I did forget about. Who owns that IP now anyway?
PowerSmell
Member
camineet said:
The shortage of actual arcade racers is debatable, but the real shortage is of ports of arcade racers. Another problem is that most of the current so-called arcade-racers on console games deviate too much from arcade racer philosophy and standards of quality, maybe so that they can offer what gamers precieve as value, Sega Rally Revo ("you can't even paint on the cars!") and Excite Truck ("not enough modes!") had reviewers mention that the games don't have much value, as if it's not enough value to be a good racing game with good courses, you need the racing game equivalent of filler (loads of throw away unlockables, usually). For example, many games have a large number of cars and courses, but there isn't much balance or care put into the selection or design of the courses.
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
Hear, hear.A Black Falcon said:San Francisco Rush 2049: Best racing game ever made
San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing: Also still in the top five
LA Rush: Abysmal garbage
And this is why LA Rush has to be considered one of the worst games ever made.
But yes, I agree -- Midway's collapse and exit from the racing game market dealt a crippling blow to the awesome style of over-the-top racing game they had pretty much perfected. It's not Midway's current collapse that matters here so much as their shutdown of arcade development in 2000-2001 that did the damage. It didn't have to kill the genre as nearly completely as it seems to have, though, but sadly that happened. There have been a few here and there, but not nearly enough.
Other blows to the field include Acclaim's closure in 2004 (they had of course made the great Extreme-G series, which peaked with its last release, the all-time great XGRA, aka "my favorite racing game of last gen", as well as Re-Volt (a really, really good game on the PC and DC) and some others), Kalisto, makers of 4-Wheel Thunder on DC and Ultim@te Race Pro on PC, went out of business, that we haven't got a F-Zero game yet this gen or even seen a major one announced since Sega did F-Zero AX/GX, that Psygnosis died and the studio that succeeded them spent several years just making PSP games... they have made three good Wipeout games this gen, but only Wipeout. Where's Rollcage III, for instance/ I liked Rollcage at least as much as Wipeout, actually, as much as I love Wipeout. And why did that PS2 port of one of the PSP games never happen... oh well. There's plenty more too -- Lucasarts abandoning futuristic racing after making two of them ( Episode I Racer (PC/N64/DC) and Racer Revenge (PS2)), for example. Few teams seem to have stepped in to fill in those gaps.
Recent stuff mentioned here and worth looking at:
-Excite Truck (Wii) -- one of the generation's best racing games!
-Cruis'n (Wii) -- if you liked the old Cruis'n games or The Fast and the Furious in the arcade and find it cheap, it's worth getting.
-Wipeout HD (PS3) -- it's Wipeout. Enough said.
-TrackMania series (PC) -- some of the best current stuff in the genre
-Outrun 2/2006 (PC/Xbox/PS2) -- great fun simple arcade racing...
Other current-gen stuff to look up:
-Speed Racer (PS2/Wii) -- heard it's good, I'm looking for this one...
-Fatal Inertia (X360/PS3 PSN) -- yeah, disc on X360 but download on PS3. Cool looking futuristic racing game, it'd be on my list for either console.
-Wipeout Pulse and Wipeout Pure (PSP) -- it's Wipeout, see above...
Plus go back to last gen and play XGRA if you didn't.
But yes, overall I absolutely agree with the thesis, and in fact would say that the problem started last gen. The N64/PSX generation was, it seems to me, a peaking of the field of arcade/futuristic racing games, a peaking that faded last gen. Sure, the last-gen consoles had good racing games... but aside from DC ports of games also available on N64 like Hydro Thunder or Rush 2049 and a few rare titles like F-Zero X and GX or XG3 and XGRA, there just weren't as many. Burnout did add something for a while, but then that series seems to have stumbled a bit too... maybe not as much as some of these others, though. Overall Midway's absence was the most sorely felt, but other studios turned away from the genre too, turning to modern-day-vehicle-based stuff and a heavy focus on the tuner-culture subgenre, one I really quite dislike. The previously fun but not spectacular (sorry, with jet-cars with turbo boosters I'd have liked it more...
So yes, I really, really miss the great variety of great futuristic and arcadish racing games that we had in the late '90s and early years of this decade, that's for sure. It could come back, somehow, but it's pretty obviously out of style.
I mean... the PS3 has like two futuristic racing games, the Wii three or four, the X360 about that many, the PSP or DS not much more... and few of those are AAA quality. Meanwhile the semi-sim stuff with actual cars and tuner games are all over the place, rarely actually interesting me. I love arcade-style racing games, but aside from some of the ones I've mentioned here, the progression over the course of this decade in the genre has been pretty sad.
I think the big problem with Cruis'n Wii is that the tire screeching sound randomly plays at the worst possible time and drones on for ten seconds. It got annoying as hell, and I eventually ditched it and went back to playing it in the arcades.
If Fast and the Furious Drift gets ported to the Wii, I hope some more TLC is put into the game so it doesn't feel rushed.
A Black Falcon
Member
twinturbo2 said:
Yeah, they really need to add more stuff, like was done in the N64 versions of Cruis'n World and Cruis'n Exotica. Cruis'n Wii is a backtrack to the Cruis'n USA style of straight arcade port with only two player splitscreen (both of the others had four player modes) and no added features or modes, and I agree, it's unfortunate and makes the game really short. With Cruis'n Exotica the only problem was that the game was so simple that you'd probably get bored before you unlocked everything... it had a lot of added stuff, like the altered tracks (each track had four new courses based on remixes of its geometry -- a short course, a long course, a lap race course, and a drag race), new graphics modes (they make the screen look all screwy... funny stuff.
), four player support...Yeah, that's why I said "if you find it cheap". I agree, because of the lack of features it's definitely not worth full price. And yes, if Drift does get ported, I'd hope for more... but even so, despite its lack of content Cruis'n actually isn't a bad game and definitely got unfairly maligned. The graphics aren't nearly as bad as that stupid "car vault" screen, etc... oh well. I would like to see Raw Thrills' other two F&TF racing games get home ports, certainly.
But above all, what I really want is a new Rush. I just find the Rush games so spectacularly great... the first two (Rush/Rush the Rock and Rush 2) are quite difficult, but amazingly good games for sure. The more I play the first Rush game the more I get frustrated at how bad I still am, but also the more I love it... Rush 2049 I find much easier and perhaps more fun, and I really, really love the wings (so I would say that Rush 2049 N64/DC > Rush 2049 arcade), but the originals hold their own too... it's somewhat tragic that this will likely never happen.
And then there's Hydro Thunder, one of the best and most fun arcade games ever, 4-Wheel Thunder, a tough but fun game, and more... yeah, I miss Midway racing games.
Fun Factor
Formerly FTWer
Pseudo_Sam said:
Too bad Excite Truck had the most shitty piss bad handling this side of Driving Emotion Type-S :/
IMHO Arcade racing = good unrealistically tight handling, which Excite Tuck does not even come close to.
twinturbo2
butthurt Heat fan
Like I said, I'd love to see a good port of F&F Drift, but Super Bikes (the other one you're thinking of), well, it wouldn't be the same without the plastic motorcycle thing to ride on.A Black Falcon said:Yeah, they really need to add more stuff, like was done in the N64 versions of Cruis'n World and Cruis'n Exotica. Cruis'n Wii is a backtrack to the Cruis'n USA style of straight arcade port with only two player splitscreen (both of the others had four player modes) and no added features or modes, and I agree, it's unfortunate and makes the game really short. With Cruis'n Exotica the only problem was that the game was so simple that you'd probably get bored before you unlocked everything... it had a lot of added stuff, like the altered tracks (each track had four new courses based on remixes of its geometry -- a short course, a long course, a lap race course, and a drag race), new graphics modes (they make the screen look all screwy... funny stuff.
Yeah, that's why I said "if you find it cheap". I agree, because of the lack of features it's definitely not worth full price. And yes, if Drift does get ported, I'd hope for more... but even so, despite its lack of content Cruis'n actually isn't a bad game and definitely got unfairly maligned. The graphics aren't nearly as bad as that stupid "car vault" screen, etc... oh well. I would like to see Raw Thrills' other two F&TF racing games get home ports, certainly.
But above all, what I really want is a new Rush. I just find the Rush games so spectacularly great... the first two (Rush/Rush the Rock and Rush 2) are quite difficult, but amazingly good games for sure. The more I play the first Rush game the more I get frustrated at how bad I still am, but also the more I love it... Rush 2049 I find much easier and perhaps more fun, and I really, really love the wings (so I would say that Rush 2049 N64/DC > Rush 2049 arcade), but the originals hold their own too... it's somewhat tragic that this will likely never happen.
And then there's Hydro Thunder, one of the best and most fun arcade games ever, 4-Wheel Thunder, a tough but fun game, and more... yeah, I miss Midway racing games.
The problem with the N64 version of Cruis'n Exotica was it didn't look as good as the arcade version, which is almost certainly due to the arcade version running hardware that was much more powerful than the N64.
And yes to a new Rush game, although I think Rush 2049 arcade > Rush 2049 console. IMHO, of course.
megashock5
Member
I still wish Sega would release an anthology of their old arcade racers. Not just Daytona and Rally, but Super GT, Indy 500 and ManxTT, etc.
How hard could it be to port these? MK wheel support for the Wii version (as an option) could be fun.
How hard could it be to port these? MK wheel support for the Wii version (as an option) could be fun.