Top Gear Rally

About This Game

Gameplay

Top Gear Rally is a racing game where players must drive cars on tracks that combine both road and off-road surfaces. Tracks are relatively open and may include hidden shortcuts, and each of them can be played in sunny, nocturnal, foggy, rainy, or snowy conditions. Before starting a race, players can custom paint their car, select different tire grips, adjust the suspension stiffness and steering sensitivity, and choose either a manual or automatic transmission. The acceleration, top speed, drivetrain, and engine placement of each car are different. These factors, along with the road and weather conditions, affect the handling of each car significantly. For example, the engine placement often determines how a car lands after a jump, while four-wheel drive cars have more grip on gravel tracks. Although cars can be damaged, their performance is not affected. The game comprises four gameplay modes: Championship, Arcade, Time Attack, and Practice. In Championship mode, a single player must complete six seasons of two to four races in different weather conditions, with each race requiring the player to overtake 19 opponents controlled by the game's artificial intelligence.

History

Top Gear Rally was developed by Boss Game Studios as a follow-up to Kemco's original Top Gear game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Development of the game started in July 1996, after the company created a non-interactive demonstration that featured two- and four-wheel drive vehicles racing through different driving conditions. The demonstration was enough to convince Nintendo of America that Boss could develop a game for the Nintendo 64 console. Although the demonstration was developed on Silicon Graphics workstations that were more powerful than the Nintendo 64 and included vehicles that were modeled in 15,000 polygons, Boss was confident that their finished game would be very similar, stating that technical aspects such as lighting effects could be ported easily.