Final Lap Twin

"A nonlinear, innovative, good racing game..."

First off, this game is very old and I doubt that anyone will be able to actualy get this game. I was able to get this game because my cousin use to own a Turbograpix 16, and he had quite a collection of games. I wasn't very excited about this game(mainly cause I've never heard of it), but when I played it, I became more interested in this type of game. This is a very good game(for its day at least) to play. There are alot ofmodes of play, one is a F1 racing game, another is a F3000 mode, and the last is a Quest mode. The first two modes are just some plain racing games. F1 is much like F3000 only with faster cars, but I'll go more into this later on. Quest mode is like a RPG mixed with racing, absolutely the most novel thing I've ever seen(played?). Its pretty cool and I think Squaresoft is toying with this type of idea with their game Racing Lagoon. But, anyway, on with the review!!

Graphics:

Well, the graphics here look like crap by todays standards, but if I were to review this game a few years back, then they would still be crap, he he. I guess Namco learned from this game cuz. There are actually alot different sprites in this...card thing game. Most of the graphic drawings, or whatever they are called, are well drawn and colorful. In the F1/F3000 modes the car models are simple, basic, and did I say simple? They only have like...10 frames of animation. The good thing about the simple and basic car models is that the Turbo Graphix can put 4 or 5 cars at once on screen. The models aren't very different also, only car color distinguishes different car types. The tracks, while there are alot to choose from, are hardly distinguishable from eachother in terms of terrain and background. In Quest mode this is mostly the same thing in car model and tracks, but the part where you walk around from town to town. The terrain in which you walk on is somewhat varied, having desert, grass, roads, etc. The individual towns have some good graphics in them, although you can't really go into houses and shops. There are no special effects which kinda sucks. A really nice tool in Quest mode is the NPC generator, it takes hair, face, and body models and randomly mixes them up to create different NPCs. You never run into the same character, which is a blessing. Some are pretty funny too, for example, there is this one guy I think he is in the later part, he has these whack sunglasses, a bigass underbite that makes him look like someone beat him with a stick, and he wears a business suit. He he, well to sum up the graphics...lets just say that it will probably not match up to Shen Mue or anything like that.

Sound:

Not alot of sound in this game, the developers probably took out alot of sound to make the racing and Quest mode. In F1/F3000 modes, you just have engine, crashing and tire sounds for sound effects. The music is pretty repetitive, and absolutely average. It doesn't give you the desire for racing, its just there. The sound effects in Quest mode are the same with a few additions, a bunch of random noises that indicate text popping up. The music during racing is different, but I really couldn't tell, I just knew it was different. There are a couple of different tracks, one when you talk to daddy, and another when you talk to bad guys. The map music is just one track going over, and over and over again. No other music track make Qubit unhappy.

Gameplay:

Ahhh, this is where the game really gets it thing going. The control is simple, and responsive. I(yes I, but I thInk It means one) controls gas, II(two) controls brakes, and the directional pad is for steering and shifting gears. F1/F3000 modes also have more modes in them as well, 1player Grand Prix, 1player Test, 2player Grand Prix, Test and Match. Grand Prix is a set of 8 races for points, logically the most points wins the Grand Prix. This mode is good to help you practice for Quest mode and get the feel of the controls. The race cars control easily. This is not a really fun mode to play and pales in comparison with Quest mode. Test is just what it is, to test the playable tracks, there are around 10 tracks to choose from. The tracks aren't particularly challenging, and not very fun either. Match is just like GP but only two players are present, you and another random(surely gruesome) player. You can set the number of races and change your names as well. In the F1/F3000 modes you get a total number of 8 cars. For Quest mode, this is the best part of Final Lap Twin no doubt. You pick a name and your Daddy will tell you how you have to be the World Champion. After a bit of chitty chat you get some dough, and are sent on your way. Then you just race your way through the world. It may not sound much but you got alot of stuff to get and find. The stuff you get upgrade tires, engines, wings(yeah they make you fly), and body. The way the developers use these items are pretty innovative, the most innovative is with the body. The body is used to escape from battl..I mean races, the better the body the better you can avoid races. Best of all the bad guys are avoided in style, they start screaming obsenities at you!! No, they really just make up some lame excuse. Now, some bad things. The upgrades, while there are alot, they are too damn expensive, I mean $50,000(!!!!) for a set of freakin' tires??? I could buy a BMW for the price of that and get better performance. I ain't kidding about this either. OH yeah I bought that BMW as well. The races are pretty difficult also, and you'll only want to race when you want money(which is what everyone wants). The bosses come in the form of racers(Namco:uh, surprise!!), and are very hard. I got this really cool way of killing them too!! Which brings me to another thing, this game is nonlinear and you can beat any boss any time, provided you don't get left in the dust. This is not exactly very novel or anything like that, but it makes the game more fun to play.

Pros:

Damn fun Quest mode, funny looking characters, really usable car upgrades in Quest mode, good control.

Cons:

Pretty bad looking graphics, lack of sound and music, unrealisticly expensive upgrades in Quest mode.

Conclusion:

Overall, this is a very good game. It have excellent gameplay, but really bad graphics and sound. The Quest mode is a deep(but no where close to FF3) single player experience. 2 player mode is somewhat fun. -Qubit

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99