Review: Top Racer Collection (Switch)
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)Racing game fans whoâve been around since the SNES era are likely to be familiar with the Top Gear series. Developed by Gremlin Graphics (later Gremlin Interactive) as the SNES equivalent of its Lotus games on other consoles, itâs the closest Nintendoâs 16-bit system got to its own version of Segaâs classic arcade game Out Run.
Now Top Gear and its sequel are back â though not by that name â in Top Racer Collection and while their return will no doubt be a joy for the grizzled veterans who remember it from back in the day, those discovering them for the first time may be better suited to the more modern equivalents which hold up a little better.
First things first, thereâs no mention of the Top Gear name here anywhere. Presumably to avoid issues with the BBC and its Top Gear TV show â after all, copyright lawyers are even more trigger-happy these days than they were in the â90s â the three games on offer here instead have their Japanese titles of Top Racer, Top Racer 2, and Top Racer 3000. And yes, we know there are actually four games in this compilation but weâll get to that.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
All three games have a similar concept: pick a car, start at the back of a grid of racers, and try to navigate your way through the sea of vehicles to reach the front by the end of the final lap. Longer tracks have you running out of fuel, which is dealt with by pitting out or running over on-track elements, depending on the game.
In case it wasnât clear by its title, itâs Top Gear 3000 â sorry, Top Racer 3000 â which offers the biggest changes, because it ditches the modern locations in favour of a futuristic setting with tracks set across 12 fictional planets and has you driving cars that go at speeds of up to 330mph (but which still look suspiciously like cars from 1000 years earlier). That aside, though, once youâve mastered one of the games you donât need to adopt a wildly different set of skills to master the others, since theyâre pretty similar.
This new compilation gets around the lack of Top Gear branding (not to mention the first gameâs annoyingly abstract main menu) by presenting its own bespoke menu system which replaces those of the original games. You select your campaign, quick race, or time trial modes, pick a car, choose your transmission, and enter your name all through this new menu, and only switch to the emulator when the race is about to start. Itâs somewhat jarring and not without some oddly unnecessary loading screens at times, but it at least works.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
What doesnât work at the moment, however, is the gameâs online mode. Although itâs possible to create and join rooms for online multiplayer races, neither option has proved successful for us so far and as such we havenât been able to test a single online race. Of course, this may change once the game is actually released, but weâre now seven years into the Switchâs life, and developers are still insistent on spending time and resources adding online modes to games that frankly donât need them and arenât guaranteed to sell enough copies to make proper use of them.
Given that the games use emulation, there are a few basic options regarding screen size and filters youâd usually expect from similar compilations, but there are some issues here. The âOriginalâ size option, which multiplies the original gameâs screen resolution by a whole number to avoid shimmering while scrolling, looks absolutely tiny when playing on handheld mode, meaning the only practical option there is to make it fit the screen vertically (though thankfully there isnât much shimmering to be found here). The CRT filter is also a strange one because it adds a weird wobble effect to the picture that looks more like youâre watching the game on an old VHS tape than actually playing it on an old TV.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked)
Another issue â albeit one thatâs no fault of the compilation itself â is that every game on offer here has a choppy frame rate. When you turn on your boost and hit extremely high speeds, the scenery doesnât really fly past you, it sort of slideshows past you. It can make controlling these sections a little difficult, but this was an issue with the original games, too, so itâs not like the emulation is the problem â itâs simply accurate to a fault.
One aspect of blame that can be levelled on the compilation, however, is the claim that it features four games. As well as the three Top Racer games, it also includes Top Racer Crossroads, which publisher QUByte has previously claimed is âbrand newâ. Frankly, this is 661 horsepowers of nonsense. Crossroads is merely a ROM hack of the first game, with the car sprites replaced by four different ones from the Horizon Chase series. The tracks are identical, the music is identical, itâs the same game.
Which brings us to our main recommendation. To be clear, this review reads mainly negative because anyone familiar with the original games will already know the enjoyment to be had there. Theyâre still good games in their own right, and nothing here changes that. If you buy this compilation, youâll have a fun time with it. Itâs just that many of the things that have been added â the odd menus, the pointless online mode, the subpar filter options, the decision to put a fake nose and glasses on the first game and pretend itâs a new fourth one â are disappointments.
Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)
If youâre a fan of the originals and just want an excuse to play them on your Switch, this is still worth a look because we can assure you that the gameplay itself hasnât been messed with. The games you loved on the SNES are still the same games here, and there’s still a lot of enjoyable racing action here.
Anyone else who doesnât have those nostalgic ties with the series, however, would probably be better off buying Horizon Chase Turbo, which is the spiritual successor to the Top Gear series. It costs the same price and offers exactly the same sort of gameplay, but the music (which was made by the same composer) is so much catchier, it runs so much smoother, and it looks so much better.
Conclusion
Top Racer Collection is a solid compilation for fans of the Top Gear trilogy on SNES, but the originals’ lower frame rate can really affect the action at high speeds. Nostalgics will find that everything is as it should be, and there’s still plenty of fun to be had, but those without emotional ties to the series will want to go for the newer, better model instead and buy Horizon Chase Turbo.
