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The Lowdown
Pros: Feels fast, gran turismo steering wheel support, best arcade
translation of the game
Cons: Few tracks, few cars, few reasons to keep playing it
 Purchase
at Play-Asia
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Before Gran Turismo, Ridge Racer, but not before Rad Racer lies Virtua
Racing. Virtua Racing was Sega's first "Virtua" game and the one of the
few games at that time to use polygons. When Virtua Racing came out
everyone wanted to try it out at the arcades. The shiny red cabinet held
the best racing simulator at the time. Eventually ports to consoles were
made, a poor one for the Genesis and a slightly better one for the ill
fated 32X. It seemed that Virtua Racing would remain all, but a memory
of what racing games were like. Not the case, due to Sega re-releasing
the ten year old game back on the PS2.
Virtua Racing is like any other racing game before it or after it.
Your goal is to make it to the finish line as fast as possible. To do
this you have to avoid hitting the walls of the track, go through
corners as sharp as possible and fly past the computer controlled
drivers. You have the option of picking from either automatic or a
manual transmission. Pros of racing games tend to choose manual since
you have a higher top speed over automatic. Shifting gears is simple,
just use the shoulder buttons to shift or downshift. The mechanics are
simpler than say Gran Turismo, there is no handbrake and it doesn't feel
realistic. Yet, the game does feel fast. Much faster than the console
versions, which were plagued with slowdown.
Virtua Racing only offers three tracks to conquer. One is a standard
race track with a few extra turns, which is the easiest. The second
track has a few more turns, while the final track is full of twists.
None of these tracks are as well designed like racing games by today's
standards, but they get the job done. All of the tracks have checkpoints
to pass if you pass through the checkpoints time is extended on your
clock. If your clock runs out the game is over, no matter how close you
are to finishing the race. While this is a standard arcade set up, its
annoying for home gamers. If you really want to master a track you'll
find yourself restarting a race more times than you would like to. Since
there are only three tracks to conquer having to play the same tracks
over and over does add some replay value, but also adds a lot of gamer
frustration. If you choose to play Grand Prix mode you can unlock a
couple more cars, but these cars are minor unlocks compared to secrets
in today's games.
The graphics in Virtua Racing were top notch at the time. This game
was in full 3D a feat rarely seen. Sure the people had cubes for heads
and rectangles for arms and the trees are really just giant triangular
prisms, but it was cool at the time. Effects like seeing little
triangles of grass come up when you skimmed over the green area were
great. One of the coolest features was there were different views you
could switch to while racing. Compare this game to any PS2 racing game,
heck even any PS1 racing game and its going to pale in comparison.
However, Virtua Racing -Flat Out- plays on nostalgia if you've ever
played it before. Audio-wise the game is mostly quiet except for the
constant roar of the engine. There is some music when you select stages
or get a time extension, but you'll rather put a CD on while playing.
Maybe I remember Virtua Racing more fondly because of its technical
innovation at the time or maybe racing games have evolved so much that
Virtua Racing just isn't fun anymore. Either way Virtua Racing -Flat
Out- is a better diversion between games than a game that you're going
to spend a long time with. It's priced around US$20 in Japan and US$30
at most import store so if you loved the game in the past it wont break
the bank. Some new additions to the game is support for the steering
wheel and an increased frame rate. Without a doubt this is the best
version of Virtua Racing shy of the actual arcade cabinet.
Import Friendly?
The menus are primarily in English, figuring out the controls is
rather simple.
US Bound?
The Sega Ages series is slated to have a US release, but there
aren't details beyond that.
Overall
For $20-$30 Virtua Racing -Flat Out- is a good diversion, if you
have fond memories of the game. However, it doesn't have the depth of
current racing games.
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