#30 - Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing

Ranking No. 01? Yeah right!

My apologies in advance for this relatively short and bland review. How I long for every review to be witty and action-packed, with delicious wordplay pouring off of the virtual page! Alas, games like Al Unser Jr's Turbo Racing make such a feat impossible. It's boring. There's no other words to describe it, unless I want to go overboard and say it's "egregiously boring" which makes me sound like a critical twat. Simply saying "it's boring" is kind of boring, though, so instead of being boring or being a critical twat, I'll just call this game "boredom a-go-go" for its desire to be a fun racing game, yet failure to be one in every aspect.

Perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps it's not boring and I just lack the F1 spirit. I don't know. What I do know is that it's as close to a racing sim as you're likely to get on the wee Nintendo, and on this simple machine, such a thing is not very fun. You have a couple different modes: Time Trial Mode A, Mode B, and World Grand Prix Championship Beyond Thunderdome. The latter is where you hope to spend most of your time, since it's, you know, the game. But you will have to practice some in the Time Trial Modes because it's near impossible to beat the times of your competition. Practice, practice, practice and then... you probably won't win. That's where I have a hard time with this game: the obnoxious difficulty. The point of a racing sim is to make the game appear difficult, until you practice enough and a once unconquerable challenge becomes doable (see Gran Turismo). Practicing with your car has to be fun and give you a sense of accomplishment. In a game like this, though, where your sim options are incredibly slim-to-none, you're at the (lack of) mercy of the game developers.

The overall blah-ness of the game is kind of a shame, because the technical components of the game aren't that bad. The graphics could use a little work, but they get the job done; extra point for the day-to-night switch as you progress in your races. Music is OK, and since you get to pick from four different styles, you're bound to find one that suits you. Steering your car feels fairly natural, but such a thing really doesn't matter in the end since it's so difficult to win.  There are so many other fine racing games available for the Nintendo - RC Pro Am, Road Blasters - that I can't even begin to recommend this mediocre game.

D

The man that made this game possible. Take a bow, Al!