Battle of the Ports

[Yakumo]

This week on Battle of the Ports we are going to take a look at one of the earlier cart racers which first appeared on the Super Nintendo. This is Street Racer.

[Team Andromeda]

This week on Battle of the Ports we are going to take a look at one of the earlier cart racers which first appeared on the Super Nintendo. This is Street Racer.

It used to wind me up a little, in how all the gaming press were so quick to highlight when the PS outdid the Saturn, never so quick when it was the other time around. The Saturn version kills the PS version with more 3D polygons, environment reflections, 3D clouds with transparency effects and also running at a Higher Res with a better frame rate.

So the Saturn version is by far the best, that said I found to the game to be rather crap, other than the fun one got in the Multiplayer area and also the fact that it supported 8 players.

[JazzFunk]

Suuuuuperrrrrb vid mate but (SHUDDERS) in no way was Street Racer SNES better than SMK. I'd agree it was mega-impressive, tho. Very, very full of the best type of Euro slickness.

I had the Saturn version, too. I don't like Street Racer much but I do remember it looking really inventively impressive and playing really well.

[Leon Retro]

Suuuuuperrrrrb vid mate but (SHUDDERS) in no way was Street Racer SNES better than SMK. I'd agree it was mega-impressive, tho. Very, very full of the best type of Euro slickness.

Street Racer on the SNES looks all shiny and inviting -- but once you play it, you realise it's quite depressingly bad. There's something about the perspective that really spoils the experience. SMK got things 100% bang on, so any alternative should have at least got the perspective right. Maybe Street Racer really needed a DSP chip like SMK.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I have the Saturn version of Street Racer and my goodness it is truly terrible. It may be the best port of the lot, but the game comically bad. The field of view is so close it feels like everything is right up against your face, and the lack of any sort of sliding mechanic makes it feel very stiff to play. To add to the pain, the character design and music are awful, and the tracks are stuffed full of right angles which make the shallow FOV even more distracting. To me, this is a 1/10 game, maybe 2/10 if I was feeling generous. It's easily the worst of all of the kart racers of the 16 and 32-bit generations.

The original Mario Kart is in my opinion a near perfect kart racer by comparison. Sublime controls, superb course design, and great music. It's a masterpiece.

[Leon Retro]

The field of view is so close it feels like everything is right up against your face, and the lack of any sort of sliding mechanic makes it feel very stiff to play.

That's what brings the game down. It's like the developer merely observed SMK, rather than played and appreciated its strengths. They also had F-Zero as a great example of a Mode 7 racer that works well.

To add to the pain, the character design and music are awful,

I've always thought it's quite a nice looking SNES game, with vibrant colourful graphics. The overall design -- from the logo, presentation, and character design -- has a nice charm(especially for those who appreciate old school British style) about it.

But obviously, the range of characters might feel a bit generic to some. It's certainly not greatly inventive in the design department.

The original Mario Kart is in my opinion a near perfect kart racer by comparison. Sublime controls, superb course design, and great music. It's a masterpiece.

Yeah, it's perfect. Still a joy to play today. It's a karting game that actually feels like go-karting, because of the tight courses feeling quite intense to play. It's a shame the SNES didn't get a sequel with far more content -- and maybe using a Super FX chip to boost the graphics.

[Neon Ignition]

Another +1 for Super Mario Kart being a better game than Street Racer though both have been several times over beaten by later Kart games

[S3M]

This week on Battle of the Ports we are going to take a look at one of the earlier cart racers which first appeared on the Super Nintendo. This is Street Racer.

Decent video, but as the other say I wasn't a fan of Street Rcaer myself despite having it on quite a few systems much preferred Super Mario Kart myself. I'm guessing you didn't emulate the CD Audio correctly for the PC version, which is par of the course for *cough* dodgy PC ISO downloads *cough* as the game is normally looking for the CD and requires the image burned to disc.

[Leon Retro]

though both have been several times over beaten by later Kart games

I would say SMK is so distinct with what it offers gameplay wise, that the only similar title in the series is Super Circuit on the GBA. Both feel like proper go-karting experiences to a good degree.

Mario Kart 64 with its wide, long tracks felt completely different. Other karting games from the 32-bit era onwards tended to copy the MK64 formula. You only got SMK style karting games on the GBA, such as Konami Krazy Racers, which is really good.

So when I go back to SMK, I appreciate the qualities that still make it a really fun karting experience. I don't have to compare it to MK64, Double Dash, MK8 etc...

[_SD_]

I remember all the Street Racer magazine adverts more than the game itself. Something just looked a little off about it though. I know I have played it briefly, it was round a mate’s house on a CD-R...

[Yakumo]

It's Booze Time!

[Cepp]

The Atari 2600 port of Tapper is one of the best games on the system. Super impressive and a lot of fun.

[dataDave]

I was never much a fan of SMK either, but after pouring so much time into MK8 decided to go back for a revisit. I'm glad I did because I can appreciate it's qualities a lot more now. An astonishing game which is by pretty much all accounts perfect. What I like most is how each of the Mode7 track surfaces handle differently. That tech was awesome for giving 3D feel.

[Kotatsu Neko]

It's Booze Time!

Tapper makes a fun appearance in Wreck it Ralph 2. A reference which will be entirely lost on virtually everyone who watches that movie, but I'm glad its there. Too bad the rest of the movie has little to do with video games. (it's mostly about YouTube, bizarrely)

[Mayhem]

Btw you don't need to run all the way back to the start of the bar... you can tap up/down and go to the next counter automatically. I didn't realise this until many years after first playing it.