Rev up your engines and prepare to be a little confused, because this week brings us the release of the Top Racer Collection from QuByte Interactive. Wait ... Top Racer? If you don't recognize the game from that name, then it's probably because this series is better known in the West by its former title – Top Gear. Now we're getting a pretty cool collection featuring the original Top Gear, Top Gear 2 and Top Gear 3000, as well as a new game called “Crossroads” that mashes together some of the best elements, tracks and cars from the other installments. This upcoming collection will also feature a number of cool quality of life improvements, filters for a nostalgic experience, brand-new modes and even online multiplayer support. Don't be thrown by the different name, because this is actually a really cool package that is a great buy for fans of these classic racers.

With the full release just a few days away, I wondered what the critics thought of the Top Gear games back in the day. Were they actually worth playing? To answer that question, I decided to flip through the pages of Super NES Buyer's Guide, GamePro, Super Play and more classic magazines to see what the critics said back when these games first came out. Get ready to race across the world and universe in this Top Racer episode of QuByte Classics Review Crew.


If you watch a lot of 16-bit retrospectives, then you might think that racing games on the Super Nintendo started and stopped with F-Zero and Super Mario Kart. But while Nintendo's own line-up of racers may have hogged the spotlight, true genre fans will point to Rock ‘n Roll Racing, Super Off-Road and even Biker Mice from Mars as great alternatives. One of the best 16-bit racing games of all time is Top Gear from Gremlin Interactive, a brilliant speedster that not only offered up some of the most competitive multiplayer fun on the system, but also launched a long-running series that spanned thirteen different games and continued all the way up to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The 1992 original was a more grounded racer than what Nintendo was pumping out, giving gamers an impressive selection of tracks and vehicles, all while keeping the two-player fun front and center. These days it's considered an all-time classic, but what did the critics say when Top Gear first came out?

When it comes to the reviews, there's a real divide between the critics who loved it, liked it and thought it was just okay. Let's start with the lowest score, which in this case comes from Super NES Buyer's Guide. Giving it an average score of 6.3 out of 10, you saw that the critics didn't agree on this one. Mike went as low as a 5, complaining that “I hate the use of a split-screen when you are only playing a one-player game. Secondly, the Mode 7 is barely scratched in this cart. There is nothing exciting or stimulating enough to instill a sense of awe here. However, your brake lights go on. Oh ya!” Dude liked it a bit more, giving it a 7: “Top Gear is a pretty good racing game if you're looking for a 16-bit Rad Racer. The graphics are smooth and the gameplay is very good. There are a number of tracks and cars to choose from and the hop-up options are interesting. Real racers use manual.”

While that 6.3 out of 10 was definitely low, Super NES Buyer's Guide was not the only magazine to not be fully won over by this first installment. Nintendo Power, for example, couldn't go any higher than a 3.7 out of 5. Similarly, Super Play gave it a 76%, making it the magazine's 263rd highest scoring Super NES game of all time. And then there's GamePro, who gave it a 4 out of 5 and concluded that “Top Gear is one of the hottest racing games ever! The pace never slows and the tracks dish out enough variety to hold even the most die hard, speed king's interest. The computer opponents provide a solid challenge. The game has some super cool background music. Gamesters, start your engines.”

Now, when it comes to the top scores, you saw the British press falling all over themselves giving it high marks. For example, you saw N-Force give the game a 91% in their second issue. Mean Machines went one tick higher, giving this first Top Gear a score of 92%. Julian explained that “when you play it on your own, Top Gear is a challenging and enjoyable racing game with plenty on offer to keep you occupied. With two-players, though, it really comes into its own and provides some of the best simultaneous head-to-head driving action I've experienced on console. The sheer amount of cars and the twisting courses make for intense competition, with much sideswiping, cutting up and ramming in evidence. It's truly brilliant fun.”

As you can tell, the reviews are all over the place, but generally positive. The general consensus is somewhere between love and like, especially if you play the game with friends. That aspect of the game may not be as novel these days, but Top Gear still remains a great game that is fun to revisit.

After making a big splash with the first game, Gremlin Interactive returned with a sequel only sixteen months later -- Top Gear 2. Although it was still using the same graphics and gameplay from the company's Lotus trilogy, there were a lot of big changes made that should please the more negative critics. A good example of that was the way the game looked. While the first game maintained a split-screen view even in the single-player mode, this sequel fills up the entire screen. It also refined the gameplay and offered a lot of new tracks to race on. The emphasis here was in bigger and better. But did that approach work?

The answer to that question definitely depends on which magazine you read at the time. For example, if you read Edge back in 1993, then you would have seen them give Top Gear 2 the lowest score – 6 out of 10. “This type of game has been around for almost a decade now – Pitstop 2 on the C64 was one of the first. Since then, it has been copied and imitated to death. And Top Gear 2 is the game that stayed on for the funeral. So, just another sequel. It's nothing new. It won't take the world by storm. Things have moved on from this, surely?”

Although low, this isn't that far off from where Electronic Gaming Monthly's review crew landed when they gave the game an average score of 6.6 out of 10. This is also right in line with the 3.4 out of 5 we saw from Nintendo Power. And then there was Super Play, which was right there in the middle with a 74%, down slightly from the 76% they gave the first game. “The original Top Gear looked a bit old fashioned even when it first came out, and it'd be lucky to get over 70% if it were reviewed now. The sequel is slightly more sophisticated, and has more features, but still looks a little behind the times. It's damned good fun to play, though. The excellent road gives a great sensation of speed, and the two-player mode is especially good fun. But perceptive players will soon spot that all you're really doing is keeping your thumb on the accelerator while weaving from side to side for hour after hour, which will induce boredom before too long.”

If you're a fan of Top Gear 2 that is shocked by the low scores, don't worry, there were still a bunch of magazines that liked the game. SNES Force, for instance, gave the game a solid 84%. Game Players also liked the game quite a bit, going one tick higher with an 85%. And then there's GamePro, who may have enjoyed the first game, but loved the follow-up. Giving Top Gear 2 a perfect 5 out of 5, they finished their review by issuing this warning: “Indianapolis 500-style, hardcore circuit racing fans may want to steer clear, ‘cause Top Gear 2 is just a joyride. What a joy it is, though! There aren't mega improvements over the last version, but who cares? This sequel is stylin'.”

Despite the slightly lower review scores, I have a hunch that many Top Gear fans liked this sequel as much as the original game, if not more. It fixes a lot of the problems people had with that first Top Gear, all while adding just enough to the package to feel like a proper sequel. This is a fun little racer to go back and rediscover.

After two mostly grounded entries, the Top Gear series was about to go someplace it had never gone before – the future. Top Gear 3000 was a futuristic sequel that seemingly bucked a lot of what people liked about the first two games. It was also the third and final Super NES installment, coming out at a time when everybody's focus was on Ridge Racer, Daytona USA and other 32-bit racers. Perhaps that's the reason why it got pretty much no critical coverage in the magazines that reviewed the first two games. In fact, of the ten publications that reviewed the previous titles, only two opted to review Top Gear 3000. Let's see what they thought of this time jump.

When it comes to the reviews, Nintendo Power gave the lower of the two scores. Coming in with a 3.1 out of 5, they appreciated the four-player action, the easy controls and the blazing speed. They also liked the 3D terrain and jumps. However, they were let down by the challenge, which, like Top Gear 2, “isn't that great.” They also note that “you don't have funky characters as in Rock ‘n Roll Racing” and “you don't have the great soundtrack, either.” They also suggested that the game came out a year before its actual release, but we'll just chalk that up to a typo.

GamePro wasn't as disappointed with this futuristic racing game as Nintendo Power. That said, it's clear from their 4 out of 5 score that they didn't like it as much as the previous game, which they gave a perfect 5 out of 5. “Adjustable difficulty and smoothly handling cars that are easy to win with make this cart a good choice for drivers who don't yet have their license. Top Gear 3000 isn't at the top of the winner's list, but it's running fine.”

Between these two reviews and the fact that nobody else chose to cover it, Top Gear 3000 is definitely the lesser of the Super NES trilogy. By shifting so far away from what made the first two games great, Gremlin gave us a polarizing sequel that isn't as fondly remembered. Give it a play in the new Top Racer Collection to see if you agree.