Were Racing Games Good Before the PS2 Era?

[deceptionfalls]

Is it just me or like, there was pretty much no good racing games in the 16-bit era, and in the 32-bit era we got a couple good ones, but the genre itself only really took off in the PS2 era when hardware became way more powerful? Like, in the PS1 era we had Gran Turismo 1 & 2, Rage Racer and R4, and maybe Need for Speed III if we include some 'okay' games, but I can barely think of good racing games for the Genesis or the SNES, maybe OutRun and Mario Kart.

Compare it to what we got in the PS2 days: Ridge Racer V, Gran Turismo 3 & 4, Need for Speed Underground 1 & 2, Most Wanted, Flatout, Burnout 3, Midnight Club 2 & 3 and the list goes on and on.

Maybe I'm just not well acquainted with these older catalogues but I do think there's fewer good racing games in comparison to other genres like Shooters which pretty much had their golden era in the 16 and 32-bit era.

Am I forgetting some classics? Please enlighten me!

 

[JoystickV2]

Well, F-Zero X and F-Zero X Expansion Kit were amazing racing games on the N64. Even today I love playing through those games xD
Besides them, I really like CTR as well, it's a really fun Mario Kart-like on the PS1, and my family loved Wipeout on PS1 too.
AND LAMBORGHINI: AMERICAN CHALLENGE ON THE SNES! I love that game to this day, the soundtrack slaps and it made me a Lamborghini fan xD

 

[Clippy]

That's Road Rash

 

[rootCompute]

Top Gear on SNES is fantastic! Arcade style racers are mostly what you're going to get pre-PS1 era, and there's so many good ones from back then. Too many to list

 

[solidbatman]

Daytona USA stuff from Sega was pretty good~

 

[UnDubious]

IMO the jump to 3D did a lot for racing games, as the sense of speed and physics generally wasn't there with 2D racing games that used sprite scaling. But that didn't happen in the PS2 era, it started in the early '90s, with the first good 3D racer being Virtua Racing. So I can't agree with that premise.
I always liked the Genesis Road Rash trilogy, though, and still do.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

16bit era we have the Top Gear and its sequel Top Gear 3000 also there’s the Road Rash series plus some SEGA Genesis/MegaDrive racing games.

 

[Akiba]

You forgot we had peak racing on PS1 with Racing Lagoon

 

[csanjuro]

Death Rally is lots of fun

 

[Cris_Agev]

Yes, you forgot Collin McRae 1 & 2 for PS1.

 

[Ferik]

Diddy Kong Racing anyone?

 

[Carlnshake Carlnshake]

Diddy Kong Racing anyone?

Mario Kart Snes, even further back

 

[job32]

F-Zero and Wipeout were decent Sci-fi racers. Colin Mc'Rae Raleigh was good. Not huge into racing games, myself.

 

[solnK!]

The sega rally games were great

 

[Aeggy]

Ridge Racer Type 4

 

[EcchiL0verMan]

Diddy Kong Racing anyone?

in my honest opinion, the only racing game that beats anything the PlayStation 2 racing genre put out and has more replay value

 

[Morgana Veil]

Well, good is subjective. But most of the 16-32 bit era racing games, as I have found, are meh at best. You have a few notable exceptions like Mario Kart, F-Zero, and such.
But out of 100 racing games during that time, three might be good

 

[Tonberry]

Is it just me or like, there was pretty much no good racing games in the 16-bit era, and in the 32-bit era we got a couple good ones, but the genre itself only really took off in the PS2 era when hardware became way more powerful? Like, in the PS1 era we had Gran Turismo 1 & 2, Rage Racer and R4, and maybe Need for Speed III if we include some 'okay' games, but I can barely think of good racing games for the Genesis or the SNES, maybe OutRun and Mario Kart.

Compare it to what we got in the PS2 days: Ridge Racer V, Gran Turismo 3 & 4, Need for Speed Underground 1 & 2, Most Wanted, Flatout, Burnout 3, Midnight Club 2 & 3 and the list goes on and on.

Maybe I'm just not well acquainted with these older catalogues but I do think there's fewer good racing games in comparison to other genres like Shooters which pretty much had their golden era in the 16 and 32-bit era.

Am I forgetting some classics? Please enlighten me!

Overall I’d say they sure got a lot more playable when you started using the triggers to accelerate. But they weren’t all bad before then ofc.

 

[nyka]

I sorta blame Gran Turisomo for shifting dev's focus away from "fun racing game" to "authentic car sim" which...while that's fun for the hardcore car nerds...as far as games go I'll take Daytona USA any day or Ridge Racer !

 

[Morgana Veil]

I sorta blame Gran Turisomo for shifting dev's focus away from "fun racing game" to "authentic car sim" which...while that's fun for the hardcore car nerds...as far as games go I'll take Daytona USA any day or Ridge Racer !

Honestly I agree. Though I would rather play Burnout than a realistic racing game.
As much as I hate the music in Paradise City, I love the game

 

[AkiraSO4]

Gran Turismo 2, Ridge Racer Type 4, Crash Team Racing, Moto Racer 2, if you wanted good racing games in the PS1 era, you could find them for sure.

 

[Boo Man]

Well, F-Zero X and F-Zero X Expansion Kit were amazing racing games on the N64. Even today I love playing through those games xD
Besides them, I really like CTR as well, it's a really fun Mario Kart-like on the PS1, and my family loved Wipeout on PS1 too.
AND LAMBORGHINI: AMERICAN CHALLENGE ON THE SNES! I love that game to this day, the soundtrack slaps and it made me a Lamborghini fan xD

i remember playing Lamborghini on windows 95
then got a PS1 a few years later with Grand Turismo
that was a big step up for racing games XD

 

[GundamJehutyKai]

As stated in other posts, there are quite a few really good racing games in the 32/64bit era, with Colin McRae rally, (especially) ridge Racer type 4, Wipeout 2097 & wip3out on PS1 Daytona USA & sega rally on Saturn. F-Zero X & Waverace 64 on N64...

And if you want to go back even further, there's Super Hang-On and the Original Outrun. There are lots I'm missing but I have to confess that I'm not all that big on racing games compared to other genres.

 

[Cu1tur3D_Gam3R]

The first Gran Turismo was a game changer for the PS1. I wouldn't be as much of a car guy, if it wasn't for this game & then some.

 

[Heidegger22]

Collin McRae 1&2, as previously stated, handled beautifully. Same goes for the first two Gran Turismo games. Road Rash is still wildly fun to play, even the contentious Road Rash 3D has aged surprisingly well. Wipeout and Rollcage were great racers from Psygnosis.
Obviously my choices are PS1 biased. However, overall, I do agree with you. The PS2 is when racing games reached their full potential.

Post automatically merged: Today at 3:26 AM

Another few I forgot, Cool Boarders and Sled Storm. Snow racing worked pretty well on PS1.