Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing

"Isn't actually too bad"

As there is next to no information on Gamefaqs about this game, I thought I would add some into my review:

This game is licenced after the now retired Nigel Mansell, champion F1 Racing Car driver during the 80s and early 90s. It was released in 1993 by Gremlin Software and I ended up with it as a gift from my friend's SNES collection as he was retiring it.

In writing this review, I first sat down with this game again. I was about to be all too critical when I realised this game, despite its dreadful presentation is quite a simple and enjoyable arcade racer, if only to pass the time.

The graphics are pretty poor for 1993 when the SNES was shown to be capable of much, much more. The sense of speed, is, actually, quite good and so it should be going at the f1 normal speeds of 250-310km/h. The popup is dreadful, the trackside features dreary. The gloves and steering wheel along the bottom of the screen indication which way you're turing are a nice touch.

The sound in this game sucks quite badly. You have your generic 80s sounding midi menu music and your engine sound effects, like a buzzing annoying bee that won't go away. That is unless you turn the volume right down. That's better. And that's it.

This game is better without music - there was a far superior Gameboy (Monchorome) version out around the same time - superior because it was portable and that the graphics were crisp and clear and quite good for what the GB was capable of. This feels like a spruced up version of that game - two buttons required (accelerate and brake). The shoulder buttons are used to change gears and the d-pad to steer.

All in all, this game doesn't take long to beat, and not much longer to master. It is highly linear, like real F1 so there are no short-cut routes anywhere. The selection of courses are faithful, mainly, to their real thing and there are quite a few of these included with the game. Unfortunately, most of these are quite dull with a long straight, a windy bit and a couple of shorter straights thrown in for good measure. It sure makes for a good race in real life, but not in this arcadeesque console port.

I can enjoy this game even now in short stretches, but it is outdated both in its graphics and sound: it is something to be bought by collectors only as for the rest, it will only sit in a dusty drawer.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/10/02, Updated 12/10/02