Retro Arena: Arcade Racers

[Leon Retro]

Turbo - 1981
Pole Position - 1982
OutRun - 1986
Super Hang-On - 1987
Power Drift - 1988
Virtua Racing - 1992
Ridge Racer - 1993
Daytona USA - 1993
Sega Rally - 1994
Rave Racer 1995
Manx TT - 1995
Scud Race - 1996
Sega Rally 2 - 1998
Daytona USA 2 - 1998
Star Wars Racer - 2000
OutRun 2 - 2003

A collection of classic arcade racers. Choose 3 that you like the most.

[samanosuke]

This one’s easy!

Outrun - the greatest, bar none

Daytona - the number of £1’s I pumped into this, playing link up with mates. Still great even today.

Sega Rally - best rally game ever.

Honourable mentions:

Pole Position - amazing for the time and still give it a spin whenever I’m up at Arcade Club.

Ridge Racer - the music, the psychedelic colours, the power slides. Awesome game, only let down by its single track.

Hang On - that attract music blaring out across the arcade...

[Leon Retro]

Outrun - the greatest, bar none

There's still something special about it that keeps me coming back for more.

Sega Rally - best rally game ever.

It was easily my favourite rally game in the 90s. The later RalliSport games are my favourite though.

Ridge Racer - the music, the psychedelic colours, the power slides. Awesome game, only let down by its single track.
.

I still love playing it on the PlayStation. I wish Namco would release a compilation of their 90s racers.

[ZipZap]

Yes, Outrun all the way! I loved it when I was a kid and I still love it today. During my last visit to Arcade Club I beat my previous high score on actual hardware, reaching just over 36 million. Still a bit off the top scores on that machine (around 45 million), but I've come closer on the Switch and I'm getting better!

Second place would be Outrun 2 SP, but it has to be the SP version. The scoring system they added is great and add loads of depth over Outrun 2. The way you can manipulate the traffic to your advantage means there's so much you can pack into each run.

Third place is probably Daytona. Whilst I love Outrun 2, getting around the tracks is fairly simple. Daytona requires a lot more practice and getting a good time on Seaside Street Galaxy took ages. It has a different feel to the two Outrun games, with opponents bashing into you, and on the sit-down version with force feedback, you really feel those impacts!

[Team Andromeda]

1) OutRun - The best racing game ever made and the gameplay never age. Its as good to play now as back in 86 (it was also the game that made me love SEGA)

2) Power Drift - Playing the full dexlux coin up was like being on and playing in a rollercoster ride

3) Super Hang On - Much like Outrun , the game and its gameplay doesn't seem to age

[Super Monkey Balls]

I have concluded this is impossible.

[Leon Retro]

Yes, Outrun all the way! I loved it when I was a kid and I still love it today. During my last visit to Arcade Club I beat my previous high score on actual hardware, reaching just over 36 million. Still a bit off the top scores on that machine (around 45 million), but I've come closer on the Switch and I'm getting better!

It's cool that you're still striving to get better and better at it.

Second place would be Outrun 2 SP, but it has to be the SP version. The scoring system they added is great and add loads of depth over Outrun 2. The way you can manipulate the traffic to your advantage means there's so much you can pack into each run.

It's fine to choose any iteration.

1) OutRun - The best racing game ever made and the gameplay never age. Its as good to play now as back in 86 (it was also the game that made me love SEGA)

I thought you would have chosen OutRun 2. I like the original just as much, so it's hard to choose between them. I think I'd go for #2 because there's something more satisfying about how it feels and plays. The retro brilliance of the original is very enticing though.

I have concluded this is impossible.

[Team Andromeda]

I thought you would have chosen OutRun 2. I like the original just as much, so it's hard to choose between them.

I liked Outrun 2006 (coast to coast) more than Outrun 2 myself. The orignal game is better than both mind, it just doesn't seem to age. I also loved Daytona USA and that must be the coin up I've ever put the most money into, but its really started to age for me and just isn't as much fun as SEGA sprite based racers imo, and of coruse SEGA's sprite based racers mostly has increabile hydraulic cab's too

[beecee]

3. Outrun
2. Daytona
1. Scud race.

[ZipZap]

It's cool that you're still striving to get better and better at it.

It's a fairly recent thing, inspired by regular trips to Arcade Club and the excellent Switch port, but I'm loving it at the minute!

I was at Play Expo Manchester last week and got talking to Jason Bradbury from the Gadget Show about it. He ended up filming me play the game which he put on his Instagram and has since had over 10,000 views!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxHStL1lQfh/

It was a pretty awful run, I crashed twice and finished with only 2 seconds remaining

[Asura]

Got to be Virtua Racing. I love all of them, and have a nostalgia for Daytona in particular, because it was the first Saturn game I played on Christmas morning when I got it, but Virtua Racing just has to win because of what it meant to me at the time.

I'd played 3D games before. Tower of Babel and Mercenary on the Amiga, for example. However, Virtua Racing was the first 3D game I ever played which made me realise that 3D games were going to come to dominate gaming in the future. Up until then, 3D games were usually quite strategic, often-plodding experiences, or they were "propped up" by being 3D (such as Hard Drivin') but Virtua Racing was like this harmonious mixture of 3D and gameplay that made use of it. It didn't hurt that seeing a ferris wheel go by while driving an F1 car matched what I saw on TV at the Japanese F1 Grand Prix, so it was also the first 3D game in which I saw something I truly recognised from real life.

By today's standards, it's quite crude, but it's just such an important game, because I'm willing to bet there were plenty of people who had very similar thoughts to my own.

[Atticus]

1. Ridge Racer. I remember my first credit on this; big, loud, sit-down cab ... I remember exiting the first tunnel and drifting quite by accident, such a great feeling controlling and coming out of the slide. I was hooked in less than a minute of playing. It's the original and best. The cars, the colours, the circuit and its variants, and of course the music. It's the perfect arcade game*

* unless you're looking for multi-player thrills, then it's got to be ...

2. Daytona USA. First time I saw this game just rolling in an arcade I couldn't believe how solid and weighty it looked. Couple that with the cab hydraulics and a few mates and it's the perfect arcade game*

* unless you prefer racing against the clock and on gravel and stuff, then it's ...

3. Sega Rally. The feeling of barely any grip followed by loads of grip as the surface changes is handled so well. I loved the frantic nature of wrestling the steering wheel while going up and down the gearbox. It made you feel like a rally driver.

Kudos to all three home versions too. They all played amazing on a std controller.

[vanpeebles]

Outrun, Powerdrift and Scud Race

[_SD_]

Rally 2, Daytona and the legendary Outrun 2

[trev1976]

Umm surely chase hq is missing , that's by far my favourite. I also liked outrun 2 , sega rally and scud race.