#176 Stunt Car Racer

Posted: 28th May 2014 by Jeroen in Games
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336th played so far

Stunt_Car_Racer_CoverartGenre: Driving
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 1989
Developer: Microstyle
Publisher: Microprose/Microplay

Now is the time for us to make another random pick from the slowly shrinking list of games. After a few re-rolls (since we still do not have access to every game on this list) we happen across a racing game from the designer of the incredibly unusual The Sentinel. How the same person came up with these drastically different concepts… I have no clue. Just speaks to his creativity.

Our Thoughts

If I were to describe the feeling of the race tracks in terms of other racing games I would start with a mixture of ‘Rainbow Road’ from Mario Kart and a number of the Micro Machines courses. Every single race track takes place on an elevated race track where a crane is needed to get you up onto the tracks. In a similar fashion to a limited number of racing games you are on a course that is not at all fenced off… so it is really rather easy to fall off at a number of opportunities. This is still a fairly novel concept for a game that has pretty standard (and blocky) looking cars since there are not any real life races where there is such a blatant lack of safety.

If you manage to stay on the track you still have the issues of your car taking damage. These courses are not exactly level so you will find yourself being launched off of jumps and hills and have to taking your acceleration and landing so that you take the minimum damage, no small task when the game (playable here) has somewhat sluggish controls.

The big complaint I have is the graphics. For a game released in 1989 they are pretty appalling. Your opponent is essentially a box on ‘wheels’ and everywhere you drive is pretty monotone. If you compare this to other racing games out at the time such as Power Drift it is pretty startling how bad they are. Then again sacrifices sometimes have to be made in the name of innovation. It feels like the focus was on supporting a lot of platforms – a number of which couldn’t do what the platforms we think of as belonging in 1989 could do.

Small confession: In my younger years, we (me and plenty of friends) loved and were addicted to a game called Stunts, aka 4D Sports Driving. About a year newer than this (and looking decidedly better) it similarly focused on stunt racing, with less jumps and more loops and corkscrews, as well as a track editor. The main reason I mentioned that, however, is that for some reason I keep confusing that game with Stunt Car Racer. To be honest, the newer game feels a few steps above, although I suppose the physics of Stunt Car Racer are more accurate.

Final Thoughts

This game falls firmly in the ‘good concept and core gameplay, but incredibly dated’ category. It doesn’t look that great – when it feels like it should look better – but the game handles amazingly, with a good feel for physics and some interesting courses. It’s also fairly tough – but then again, there’s not necessarily anything wrong with that.