Top Gear Overdrive

Description

NINTENDO 64Review Sometimes, certain games are given a ratings boost on a particular system due to lack of competition in the genre. While Top Gear Overdrive may benefit somewhat from this phenomenon, it also deserves the praise. Sure, hardcore fans of driving simulations will find nothing of interest here, but casual motorheads will appreciate Top Gear Overdrive's liberal emphasis on speed and powersliding. Just don't expect these rally cars to handle like the real thing. The fact is, Top Gear Overdrive is a fine racer for the Nintendo 64, if players are willing and can overlook a few annoyances. There are plenty of features to admire in Top Gear Overdrive: one- to four-player championship mode, one- to four-player vs. mode, the ability to buy upgrades, hidden shortcuts, Rumble Pak support, EEPROM for saving records, the list goes on and on. There are a total of 14 cars, and they all obligingly look like cars on the street today. When players first begin, only two cars are available (the Eclipse and the '98 Beetle) for use. During the course of the championship, players collect money placed strategically on the track o purchase better vehicles. Other chassis types also include a Jeep Wrangler, a Chevrolet Camaro, the popular Dodge Viper, the oversized Hummer, and exotic cars such as a Ferrari F-40 or the McLaren F-1. While it was easy to differentiate the performance of one car from another in Top Gear Overdrive, the line-up seemed to lack a certain distinction that gives each car a subtle flavor of its own. This may have something to do with Top Gear Overdrive's physics engine that uses jumping as a technique to securing faster lap times or a higher position. As a result, most of the cars are light and can pull pretty spectacular hang-time. Top Gear Overdrive has six tracks that are given variety by mirroring, deriving, and reversing. Since this is a rally race, the tracks are appropriately longer by design and give the game a more endurance aspect. The biggest problem with Top Gear Rally's single or multiplayer championship mode is that players must win from track to track to unlock the other tracks. This becomes particularly annoying in multiplayer championship mode, where choosing the track you want to race is really half the fun. Since most of the AI racers drive like drones and act like fodder for your passing, four-player championships are a real blast. While there is noticeable slowdown during four-player races, the frame rate never bogs down to unplayable depths. This really helps keep the pace of the game in the vs. modes. The heart of every racing game is how the car responds to your controls. Without a fine balance of control and physics, a driving game has already lost what it set out to accomplish. Top Gear Overdrive uses the Nintendo 64 analog stick to steer and also uses the standard button affair like most other racers (with the exception of the Z-trigger used to activate nitro for a speed boost). Unfortunately, the controls with the analog stick are horribly sensitive. New players will find themselves fighting just to stay on the road for the first 20 minutes. An option to adjust joystick sensitivity is all that's needed here. Most of Top Gear Overdrive's feeling of chaotic control stems from the fact that some of the cars are frighteningly fast (and light), giving players the sensation of skipping on asphalt. Since cars can't be controlled in the air, this equates to a significant amount of time spent wrestling with the car just to stay in the competition. After spending some time with the controls, though, players will find Top Gear Overdrive highly playable, but lacking in refinement. Slamming your car into walls and obstacles causes damage to the vehicle. Depending on the location and force of the impact, cars will grind, spinout, or explode based on how much damage it's already sustained. Having cars take damage was a nice idea but the developers have forgotten to include the actual damage meter onscreen, so

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UPC Number: 74164800505

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