Racing games

Racing games

Before the cars, the camera. Where a racing game puts the viewpoint decides almost everything about how it plays — what you can see coming, how far ahead you can think, whether you are steering or timing. The six titles on this shelf use three camera positions, and picking the position you like is a far better filter than picking a thumbnail with a car you recognise on it.

Camera above: a whole circuit at once

One of the two Speed Racer titles floats the view over an oval track and shows you the entire lap. A red car and a blue car chase each other around it, the top corners report each car's speed in kilometres per hour — 139 against 133 in the run we watched — and a lap clock runs in the centre. Seeing the whole circuit means the contest is decided on corner entry, because you can see the corner long before you reach it. Crazy Car works from a similar height.

Camera behind: four lanes coming at you

The other Speed Racer removes the circuit entirely. Four vertical lanes flow toward you, your car sits low on the screen, four arrow buttons occupy the bottom corners, and a score and countdown run along the top. Nothing is visible in advance except the traffic immediately ahead, so the game is about choosing gaps rather than carrying speed through a bend.

Worth knowing before you go hunting: a third title, Cars, uses this same layout down to the placement of the buttons, differing mainly in the colour of the roadside shrubbery — and it is filed on the arcade shelf, not this one. If you enjoy this camera and want more of it, that is where the extra one is; you will not find it in the list above however long you look.

Camera side-on: the hill and the fuel gauge

Car Physics races nobody. The view lies flat against the scene, a six-wheeled armoured truck climbs red dirt hills, a fuel bar and a nitro bar sit in the top-left corner, a rev dial with a red needle sits at the bottom, and coins are laid out in rows along the slopes. You control only left and right, shifting the vehicle's weight.

This is the one title on the shelf with two ways to lose: turn over, or run the tank dry halfway up. Holding right the whole time is the fastest route to a somersault. That second failure state quietly changes the goal from fast to efficient, which is a different game hiding under the same label.

Two titles, one name, no relation

The library carries two entries called Speed Racer, spelled identically. Nothing indicates that one is a sequel to the other, and the sections above are what we found when we opened both: one is a circuit seen from above, the other is lane traffic seen from behind. They share a name and nothing else, so choose by the description rather than by assuming the second is a newer first.

Controls, and how this differs from traffic games

Every title here draws its controls onto the screen, on both the left and the right, so a mouse click or a thumb works immediately and no keyboard is required. On this shelf you drive one car and the demand is on your reflexes. On the driving shelf you drive nothing — you decide which other cars are allowed to move, and the demand is on your patience. Two very different afternoons.

Choosing a car game

How many racing games are on the shelf?

Six, counted by the category filter itself rather than by which label a game lists first — which matters here, because one of the six also appears under action and sports.

Are there motorbikes or trucks?

No motorbikes. Everything on this shelf is a car, with the single exception of the six-wheeled armoured vehicle in the hill-climb title.

Which one suits a complete beginner?

The lane-traffic camera. One decision at a time, no cornering technique to acquire, and the buttons are already on screen. Leave the hill climb for later, since managing fuel is a habit rather than a reflex.

Why does one of these also show up under sports?

Because the lane-dodging title carries three labels at once — this shelf, action and sports. Racing against a clock is one of the things the word sport means, so we leave the supplier's labels intact rather than trimming them for tidiness.