Retro Arena: Dreamcast Racers

[Leon Retro]

Sega Rally 2 - 1999

F355 Challenge - 2000

Le Mans 24 Hours - 2000

Sega GT - 2000

4 Wheel Thunder - 2000

Tokyo Highway Challenge 2 - 2000

Metropolis Street Racer - 2000

Daytona USA 2001 - 2000

Which one do you like the most?

[ZipZap]

Considering Sega's brilliant racing history, I think racing games on the DC were a bit lacking.

I quite enjoyed F355 at the time, but I haven't played it in years, so I'm not sure how well it stands up. I guess that's probably the high point. Daytona was good, but as had been mentioned in the dedicated thread, it's not really as good as the arcade game (despite the graphical upgrade). I thought MSR was ok at the time, but is there much reason to play it today instead of one of the Project Gotham games? (I'm not an expert, maybe there is?). Sega Rally 2 was quite a poor conversion and I thought 4 Wheel Thunder and Le Mans were pretty bad at the time (I remember people suggesting Le Mans would be a Gran Turismo 3 killer!?).

My favourite Dreamcast racers would probably be Outrun on the Yu Suzuki pack/Shenmue 2, or the mighty Re-Volt! (the best console version of a game I love!)

It's a shame that the teased port of Scud Race never happened, or that the DC wasn't around long enough for the Outrun 2 exclusive! (I always wonder how well it would've been able to handle it)

[Leon Retro]

I quite enjoyed F355 at the time, but I haven't played it in years, so I'm not sure how well it stands up.

I thought it was brilliant back in the day The graphics were pretty amazing for the time, and I enjoyed the demanding realism of how it played. I often go back to it and think it still looks really nice. But the feel of the car annoys me more than it did years ago.

Daytona was good, but as had been mentioned in the dedicated thread, it's not really as good as the arcade game (despite the graphical upgrade).

I still think it's a great looking game, but the way the car feels to control always pains me. It's a game I've always wanted to love, but it never fails to leave me feeling frustrated.

I thought 4 Wheel Thunder and Le Mans were pretty bad at the time (I remember people suggesting Le Mans would be a Gran Turismo 3 killer!?).

I thought Le Mans looked stunning back in the day- and how fast it ran felt great. So overall, I thought it was a very good racer. 4 Wheel Thunder was a fun arcade-style racer with good graphics. I haven't played them for a while, so it will be interesting to see what I think of them these days.

It's a shame that the teased port of Scud Race never happened,

Yeah, a massive shame. I can imagine how awesome it could have been. And I'm sure I would still be going back to it.

[DeathAdder]

Metropolis Street Racer. Nothing else comes close to it.

[Colin]

It would be a toss up between F355 and MSR, though MSR would edge it due to being more forgiving. I remember when MSR was released I had to go on a long drive to get it from a little shop as getting new releases had become tough locally, totally worth it. Played it again a few weeks ago, thought it still looked great and played well.

[Atticus]

It is a bit of a dreary line-up. I'd say F355 from that lot. Once the J-metal was turned off it was a decent game ... only downside was it lacked any real feeling of speed.

Great shame Scud Race and Daytona 2 were never ported.

[Leon Retro]

Played it again a few weeks ago, thought it still looked great and played well.

Creating this thread really brought home to me the fact that the Dreamcast only really got one, or maybe two waves of games. Most games for the system came out in 2000 - with nearly all the system's racers being released during that year.

When you look at other systems, such as the PS2, the first wave games are mostly really technically poor compared to later games. So over a 5 year period, developers always learn to push hardware further and further. That didn't happen with the Dreamcast, so we can only imagine what developers could have done with the tech if the machine had had a normal 5 year life span.

We never really got to see the machine pushed to the limits, so it can only be judged on the games released over a relatively short period of time. Even Shenmue was released in 1999, so can be considered a first wave title.

A game like MSR really highlights how special the tech is, even if it may not be everyone's cup of tea. F355 Challenge also shows how capable the Dreamcast is. I will always have a soft spot for F355, simply because I remember thinking the graphics were incredible back in 2000, and I spent months and months trying to get good at it.

It is a bit of a dreary line-up. I'd say F355 from that lot. Once the J-metal was turned off it was a decent game ... only downside was it lacked any real feeling of speed.

I wouldn't say they are dreary games. I got quite a lot of fun out of all of them back in the day, so at the time they all looked good and played well. By today's standards, some of them feel quite clunky to play, but a few are still worth playing. Daytona 2001 is the only one that I'd call broken and a waste of time.

Great shame Scud Race and Daytona 2 were never ported.

Yeah, Sega should have created a Sega Arcade Racers compilation with Virtua Racing, Daytona, Daytona 2, and Scud Race. That would have made Sega fans cry with joy. Myself included.

[Anpanman]

Couldn't get on with F355, I imported from Tronix and found the handling really bad, put me off buying a Ferrari if I ever won the lottery.

MSR was a joy, loved it. Some really fantastic tracks.

Never played Le Mans which I regret as I believe it was very good.

[Asura]

Watching videos of MSR has really changed my perspective on it. I was never too big a fan, but I enjoyed playing it because it just looked so fantastic, it totally blew me away. These days it still looks okay but the wow factor is gone. It looks sterile.

[Leon Retro]

Couldn't get on with F355, I imported from Tronix and found the handling really bad, put me off buying a Ferrari if I ever won the lottery.

The handling feels a bit strange and annoying in a way, but I soon got used to it. There was something about the demanding difficulty of the game that kept me coming back for more. I remember getting quite good at it after a few weeks and months.

Never played Le Mans which I regret as I believe it was very good.

Le Mans was a special game at the time; the graphics and effects were really impressive, and it ran fast and smooth. I haven't played it for quite a while, but I think the racing action might still be fun.

These days it still looks okay but the wow factor is gone. It looks sterile.

A lot of racers from that period now look quite drab and lifeless. The low resolution and lack of environmental effects can really make them look dull and uninviting.

But on the other hand, '90s arcade racers can still look really inviting with their bright colours and lively game worlds. Games that aimed for a realistic look tend to look cold and drab these days.

Although, it's easy to see why MSR would have seemed amazing back in 2000.

[Team Andromeda]

Sega Rally II That game was amazing and featured the best course design seen in a racer at that time and then it would be MSR, which was stunning to look at and great controls and the music was ace too

[Leon Retro]

Sega Rally II That game was amazing and featured the best course design seen in a racer at that time

I remember thinking the graphics were nice, and it played quite well, but it didn't grab me in the same way the original had on the Saturn. I think the feel of Sega Rally gelled with me more.

and then it would be MSR, which was stunning to look at and great controls and the music was ace too

Yeah, it was a stunning game, and a lot of fun to play. The radio stations were also nice feature. The overall game felt like a very professional product made by people who wanted to show off the hardware.

[Anpanman]

Just remembered I imported Sega GT as well, but it was pap as was the VMU game as well.

[Dogg Thang]

Trickstyle!

No, really, for me it’s MSR by a long shot but also with the disclaimer that there are a good few on the list I haven’t played so, in all honesty, I can’t compare. But MSR was something special. It felt really good. If I remember correctly (I might not) it was a time when the feel of racers was evolving, still transitioning from the twitchier PS1 digital days to the smoother analogue type feel of later racers and, to me, MSR felt like a modern racer. It felt better, smoother and worked so well with the controls. And it looked amazing.

[dvdx2]

Just remembered I imported Sega GT as well, but it was pap as was the VMU game as well.

I remember getting it from VGI - it was the game that nearly ruined them...

‘However, in early 2000 problems arose when Sega GT came out. It seemed that in a period of a month, our world just turned upside down. We'd started increasing our trade sales again due to our rival no longer selling imports and it became apparent we'd become the ones to come to. Unfortunately Sega GT was the first game which signaled our rival's return to distributing imports. As they were much larger than us and also sold UK releases, a lot of people just bought from them instead. We got 400 copies of Sega GT and expected to sell them all pretty quickly. But most of our trade sales had disappeared or been reduced to a fraction of what they would have been, so we only sold about 100. It then got a score of 5 in Edge magazine, which is what most of the Dreamcast customers seemed to be reading at that time, a score which killed the sales of the game for us. We were left with about 280 copies of a game which had cost us about £40 per copy.

Further adding to that problem was the release of Bio-Hazard Code Veronica which had been released just before Sega GT. I can't remember what the issue was (no RGB compatibility or something?) but something messed our sales up and we'd been left with about 100 surplus copies of that game. And around the same time we also had Virtua Striker and Virtua Athlete, of which we'd also over-ordered by 100pcs. I think altogether we were suddenly overstocked by about 550 games and were down by about 22 thousand pounds. We'd been wiped out more or less in a month’