Top Gear 2

"The best racing game for the SNES"

Top Gear II, the sequel to Top Gear. (Bet you didn't see that one coming.) This game excels over the original in every way. It is in my opinion one of the top 3 racing games for the SNES. Race by your self or a buddy through 16 countries of driving fun.

Graphics: 8

Certainly better than the original. I don't think they used all of the SNES capabilities for this game but hey, graphics don't make a great game.

Sound: 8

I still sometimes hum the main theme. But there isn't a lot of music in the game so its kind of repetitive. The sound effects are alright. Nothing too major. You hit the nitro button and you hear ''Vrooooooooom'' and when you crash its always that damn sound that I hate because I used to crash a lot.

Gameplay: 10

Ahhh gameplay, the twig and berries for almost every game. And this game is no exception. Driving isn't easy in this game. You must use your skills to try and get to 1st place and try not to, or almost try not to, hit any obstacles that come in your way. Swerve from side to side. You see, theres something sort of like Hit Points in this game. Now every time you hit something, your Hit Points decrease and you will go slower. You start off at green, then as you get hit it turns to dark green, red and finally black. But to get to black you have to hit something about 20 times. So please try and not get hit. Very original idea indeed.

To win a race, you must finish the race somewhere between 1st and 10th place. Anything less you must start the country again. But don't worry, each country is only 3 or 4 races. Every time you win a race, that is to say get in some where between 1st and 10th place, you get money. And with this money you can upgrade your car before any race. When yo start off, your car kind of sucks. As you win races, you should spend your money wisely on upgrading your car. Eventually you'll get all the upgrades. And for a paint job so you can change the color of your car is 100% free!

And theres even a 2 player mode. With this you and a friend can beat this game together. And its much easier with a friend because only one of you has to finish the race.

Replayability: 8

There are other ways to win the game besides the first time. You could change the difficulty higher or try upgrading differently. There is a lot of replayability here.

Play Time: 9

For beginners, this game can take any where from 12 to 24 hours. Don't worry, every time you beat a country you get a password so you can start to game again from where you left off.

Finally

This game is a classic racing game. If there is one racing game you should play for the SNES, its this one... or Mario Kart. Just try this game out for a while, you'll probably like it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/20/03