"Sweeter Than Two Jars Of Honey and a Snickers Bar"

In every racing game I've played, I've learned about exceptional ways to cut corners across the grass, or to find little extras that allow me shave seconds off of a lap time, or to just barely beat that completely unfair computer player that always comes in first and always by a margin of twenty seconds or more. Then one day, I stumbled upon Top Gear Overdrive. This game not only lets you cheat, but its encourages you too. Many of the tracks can be won by straight skillful driving. Then there are the tracks that take two, or even three shortcuts to beat. And I took everyone of them.

Gameplay 7/10
This is a racing game. It has exactly what you want. And that's fast cars, decent control and tracks that are drivable but not like hitting the freeway to Nashville. Top Gear Overdrive delivers in all counts, giving a decent fairly easy to control setup. You have an accelerator, a brake, a horn, an emergency brake, and a steering wheel. You can view the car from the default third person view, or one of the obligatory inside the car, nothing but road, type camera views. The camera's not's picky, and it surely doesn't obstruct or add to the difficulty of the game. Its a camera, you see yourself, there's not much more to be said. The controls are what you expect from a racing game, tight steering at low speeds, loose and unresponsive at higher speeds, especially depending on which car you may drive. And there are many fun cars to drive, though most are street cars with different names. They range from what looks like a Miata to a Lamborghini, as well as a Hummer type vehicle, and several other cars I won't give away. The cars also have customizable features, like being able to max out its speed, turning, etc To get cars, you win races. To win races, you find shortcuts and you cheat like never before. Of course, the computer will join you in cheating, and well, that makes things a lot harder than you would expect. You'll spend a lot of time memorizing the course, making sure of delicate timing it takes to speed outta tunnels and not crash. Crashing will become common, since when leaving many shortcuts you have a short period of time to change course, which if not utilized, will result in you being barbecued.

Graphics 8/10
This game definitely has some of the sharper graphics of its kind. I played it with an expansion pack and was blown away by the detail on the car. The car's color can be one of myriads picked from a color chart similar to one you'd find on an art program like Macromedia Freehand. The cars are sharp, and don't show ton of pixellation or polygon edge. The backgrounds run fluently, and rarely do you get any frame rate slowdown. My only gripe was the lack of creative explosions, basically your car turns dull black and you see fire. Whoo. Its as gripping and stunning as a carrot being refrigerated. Other than that, the graphics are pretty good, and are thoroughly enjoyable.

Replayability 7/10
I played this game twice after I got it, and then I sold it. I kick myself repeatedly over that to this day, and that's because it had a multiplayer. And when you have two friends who know all the shortcuts, this game really becomes fun. After a while, both players will be attacking each other and the track in fierce competitive animosity like no other. Nothing is more fun than reveling in your opponents defeat, and my friends and I all reveled for days at a time. Also once you unlock all the cars, you can go back through each track in each car. What you'll notice in going over old tracks is that the competition is now stiffer, and there is at least two cars that are as good as yours. This adds greatly to the replay.

Overall 8/10
Top Gear Overdrive will bring you a good deal of fun and racing excitement. I can't promise white-knuckled action, but I can say that satisfaction is highly guaranteed. You'll spend a good deal of time playing this game. Like I said I sold this game to get NBA Live 2000, but I've regretted it for the last two or three years since. No racing game for the N64 I've owned since has even began to live up to this one, and I've been helpless in finding another copy of the game anywhere. If you have a copy, or even if you have one available for purchasing, feel free to spend whatever amount the asking, for the game is worth every penny of it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/18/03, Updated 03/18/03