Top Gear - Super Nintendo - Intro and night, desert and grassland race track gameplay [1080p 60fps]
6Nope not the BBC TV series starring people such as Matt LeBlanc, Chris Evans, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May. No this is the Kemco racing series of the same name, however as both were concurrent series at one point there may have been some form of rights deal for the use of the name.
Developed by Gremlin Graphics the series appears to have been part licensed to Kemco by Gremlin Graphics and gameplay appears based on the Lotus Turbo challenge engine. The music is also remix tunes from the Lotus Turbo challenge, it's not clear if it is a part port / remake of one of the games in the series or just using the same core engine. Racing games weren't the SNES / SFC strong point and while there are a couple of great Nintendo racers like F-Zero and Super Mario Kart, asides from Blizzard's Rock'n Roll Racing there isn't that much else, that's worth buying. Apart from Top Gear and it's two sequels TG2 & TG3000. As racing games go on the SNES this is the closest you can get to Sega's Outrun on a Nintendo platform.
The racing is fast, smooth, responsive and the difficulty is solidly balanced so you don't have the A.I. chasing you down all the time the moment you get into the lead. However it's still good enough that if you start making mistakes all over the place it will leave you in the dust. The graphics engine for the first game presents the game in split screen even in single player. Not everyone may like this approach but it's nice to see where your main rival is in the race. Visually it's an impressive looking game with plenty of well drawn sprites.
The soundtrack is also is top notch and there are some great music tracks that a company each race. One of the better racers on the system and only really let down by the lack of options and gameplay mode with only a campaign mode and no form of single races or practice mode. Overall a very good racer and one SNES racing fans should play.
Also known as: トップレーサー (Japanese) TOPGEAR (Alternative box spelling) Top Racer (Japanese name in English)
Release: 1992
Developer: Gremlin Graphics / グレムリン
Publisher: Kemco / ケムコ
Format: Super Nintendo (SNES) / Super Famicom (SFC) / スーパーファミコン
Kemco and Gremlin has never re-released Top Gear on any other format.
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All footage in this video is captured directly from a NTSC Super Nintendo console, via an Elgato Game Capture HD60 Pro using a RGB Scart to HDMI upscaler.