Super Monaco GP

"One of the most famous racers around"

Super monaco grand prix is a racing game from the early nineties and it enjoyed great success. For a game of its time it was quite realistic, you could join better teams with better cars by beating a rival and you had to visit the pit stop after having taken too much damage. Recently I read some articles about this game being so damn hard, when I had it i finished the championship mode within 2 weeks and it wasn't that hard and a lot of fun.

Game overview:

With selecting playing championship mode you start for minarae which resembles a yellow F1 jordan car a bit, its quite an average car and whats also realistic is that you simply can't win a race with this car just like a minardi would never win a GP in real life. Usually I got around 5th or 6th place with this team (with racing faultless). The catch in this mode is that you have to challenge a stronger car/team.. I started to challenge Tyrant and won.. now i could win some GP's with some luck. Then i challenged the madonna and won.. now you have the fastest car and you can compete with the top and thus becoming world champion.

This is also very realistic, to truly finish the game you have to prolong your championship by becoming the best again. You think ''well now I am with the strongest team anyway so i can't lose'' you would be right but now there is a new brazillian mystery driver in the league (which looks alot like ayrton senna btw) and he slaughters you the first 2 races (I think you cant win this) So maddonna drops you like trash.. :( The challenge here is getting to the top again and finally take the championship again.. brilliant mode imho.

Then there is the Super monaco grand prix mode which is the arcade version of this game. This mode is just 1 track (monaco ..doh?) and the handling + speed is way less realistic (read easier) than in championship mode. Its easily the best looking track in the game (this mode is all focused on this track alone) and its just the arcade experience which is nice if the championship mode is somewhat too annoying for you... I can't tell much about this mode as its just 1 race for the highscore like in old arcade times. Still, Ace stuff.

Pro's

+ actually 2 games in 1
+ realistic WC mode
+ easy playable arcade mode
+ old school fun
+ I actually liked some music

Con's

- Opponent Cars all 1 colour
- maybe too old school now
- passwords are annoying to write down

7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/07/03, Updated 06/07/03