Race Drivin'

All of this just works. ― Todd Howard

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Race Drivin'
And you thought the home console ports of Hard Drivin' were bad! Now they made the same mistakes again with the sequel!
Genre(s): Racing Platform(s): Arcade Super Nintendo Entertainment System Amiga Game Boy Sega Genesis Sega Saturn Release: August 10, 1990 Developer(s): Atari Games Argonaut Software Polygames Time Warner Interactive Publisher(s): Atari Games THQ Tengen Series: Hard Drivin' Predecessor: Hard Drivin' Successor: Hard Drivin' II - Drive Harder

Race Drivin' is a 3D racing game released in 1990 for the arcades and ported to several home consoles the following years. A Sega 32x version was planned, but it was canceled. It is the sequel to Hard Drivin', which was released one year prior. It was ported to the PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox as a part of Midway Arcade Treasures 3.

Why It Sucks

NOTE: These mostly apply to the home console versions.

1. The home console ports have inferior, unattractive, and flat graphics with very blocky 3D models and very low polygon counts.
2. Horrible controls. The car swerves all over the place and will often go off-road.
3. Horrific framerate, especially in the SNES and Genesis versions, where it sometimes goes into single digit frames per second.
4. Awful, repetitive music.
5. Dull sound effects.
6. The SNES version is the worst version of the game. The car can touch pretty much anything, and it will instantly crash. The demo also shows the computer-controlled player driving very well, despite the slippery controls.
7. Half of the screen is taken up by the HUD and other useless details.
   • ...Though this was probably to increase the already low frame rate.
8. Numerous bugs and glitches.
9. The home console ports of this game had not improved from the first game's home console ports.

Redeeming Qualities

1. At least it actually has multiple tracks to race on.
2. The Sega Saturn version is surprisingly great in comparison to other versions.
3. The Game Boy version is visually impressive, despite the low framerate.

Reception

Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Genesis version a 4.6 out of 10, describing it as "another so-so entry in the driving scene", due to its very choppy scrolling.

The SNES version has been critically panned and is considered by many to be the worst racing game on the system. It received a 35 out of 100 by Super Play.

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