If there's one thing I always loved since I was a toddler was cars. Cars, cars, cars, cars, cars!
The sleekness of metal, the lovely paintjobs, the sound of roaring engines... its lovely. Collecting diecast toy cars was one thing (especially when they're made of sheer metal like how real cars used to be), but car-based video games are basically living all of those fantasies come to life.
There's billions of Car games out there, but if I had to pick my favorites, I'd have to go with the following:
NEED FOR SPEED: PORSCHE UNLEASHED
Better known as NEED FOR SPEED 5, its the game that gave me a strange love for Porsches altogether. If a racing game with licensed cars had a Porsche in it (911 or better), I'd do everything to unlock and drive it. Thankfully, this one is just all Porsches from the beginning all the way to 2000 (the game's release year). This one's the best, but its surely missing something that a previous game had. And that is...
NEED FOR SPEED: HIGH STAKES
Better known as ROAD CHALLENGE (or Over Drivin' IV), this one has everything I enjoyed about Porsche Unleashed, but harkens back to Hot Pursuit in terms of gameplay. Despite being less graphically detailed or variety-based like Porsche, High Stakes makes up for it with sleek level design, a large car variety, and the police! Both High Stakes and Porsche Unleashed would be topped by later games in the series, but I'll stop here before it all becomes a Need for Speed list.
GRAN TURISMO 3: A-Spec
Ahh... Gran Turismo 3. My very first PS2 game ever, and what a way to start things off too. It's more of a simulation racer, but its got loads of cars, a lot of tournaments, and the music is kickin'! I don't play this often because I stink at simulation racers, but when I replay it, I just get lost in it for hours.
MIDTOWN MADNESS 2
If Gran Turismo 3 was my first PS2 game, then Midtown Madness 2 was my first RACING game. I spent days upon days on my Windows 98 playing this. The open world aspect was the best part of the game for me, even if there wasn't much to do outside of big jumps and running from the police. Racing was pretty great too, but circuits felt passé. Unordered racing, now THAT'S racing. In fact, if you look at it closely... the game actually looks familiar. Didn't Angel Studios make a Midtown Madness 3? I think they did, they just called it...
MIDNIGHT CLUB: STREET RACING
That's right! Midtown Madness got a sequel in the likes of Midnight Club. And while there WAS a Midtown Madness 3, it was made by a different developer and was exclusive to only the Xbox. I could easily put the entire Midnight Club series here because they all have something great about its racing. And while Angel Studios would later become Rockstar San Diego and create the wonderful Red Dead Redemption series... I really-really want another Midnight Club. If EA can still shell out Need for Speed, Rockstar should have a new Midnight Club alongside it.
Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild
Hey when I said favorite racing games, I never said it would JUST be cars, y'know. Splashdown lets you ride Sea-Doos across weird colorful race tracks that seem ordinary at first... but it all trails off into traveling through time, weird magical portals, loudmouth characters, and a upgrades, upgrades, upgrades! The water racing feels great. And if you're familiar with Nintendo's Wave Racer, then imagine that but a little more wild.
Mario Kart Double Dash
If you are a Nintendo player, you are obligated to own and prefer at least one Mario Kart video game. That's a law. This is my obligated preference. Moving on.
ATV OFFROAD FURY
Rainbow Studios (makers of Splashdown) are two for two here. And while I admittedly didn't play this one as much, the amount of hours I did spend with it (during the PS2's "I was just born" phase), it's pretty great. I should try the sequels.
Sonic Rivals
Two Runners battle-race to the goal of every level. Sonic tries to save his friends (and Eggman) from being turned into cards by EGGMAN NEGA. Silver is somehow retconned to being from an alternate dimension rather than from the future (so '06 is de-canonized??). Metal Sonic is a playable racer. They made a sequel which I should have bought. Next!
Sonic Riders
Sonic Riders is underrated. Sonic Riders is underrated. Sonic Riders is underrated. Sonic Riders is underrated. Sonic Free Riders on Kinect sucks ass. Sonic Riders is underrated. Sonic Riders needs a new "NON-MOTION CONTROLLED" game, SEGA. PLEASE!
Full Auto
Gosh, remember when the Xbox 360 was just released? It was the hip, new console that crushed the PS3... for a short time. And SEGA's Full Auto was one of the games that roped me in. Auto-combat + Racing? I couldn't ask for more! I was already familiar with the Burnout series, so this was basically Burnout with GUNS (And the ability to rewind time to fix your past crashes)! I just wish SEGA revived these games... and didn't make Full Auto 2 a PS3/PSP exclusive.
Hot Wheels: Turbo Racing
HOT WHEELS! BEAT THAT!
Interstate '76
Activision.... PLEASE REMAKE THIS GAME. I love it too much to only buy it on GOG. Just keep the control scheme, make it PC-exclusive, but make the graphics and physics more refined. Oh and remake Vigilante 8, please.
NASCAR 2000
Now, I know what you're thinking. Toon... Nascar? Really...? And to that I say, "What? It's racing. And racing is racing no matter where you're driving. Just like Madden 2000, Nascar 2000 is my favorite EA Sports game. In fact, if I wanted something more stupid, I'd play NASCAR RUMBLE, which basically if you took actual NASCAR RACERS and put them in a Mario Kart setting with Power-Ups. Which reminds me of...
BLUR
Remember the guys who made Project Gotham Racing? Activision did them dirty. Which is a shame because BLUR deserves A LOT of respect. What makes this worse is that we both lost out on a sequel that was in development AND the game's no longer available to purchase on Steam. If you're lucky to find a physical copy somewhere, that's your only chance to play it...
All of Crash Bandicoot's Racing Games... but mostly Nitro Kart
If Super Mario has consistently great kart racers, Crash Bandicoot has just the same. Okay, so Nitro Kart is CTR again and a little undercooked in some places, and Tag Team Racing is basically The Simpsons: Hit & Run's driving mechanics with lackluster tracks. But you know what? Who cares? There's something maniacally fun and stupid about all of them that it makes their faults look poultry in comparison. Besides, the best Crash Racing game available now is Nitro-Fueled, the celebration of 20+ years of Crash with a wide selection of maps, characters, SPYRO, and tracks from Nitro Kart as well! I just wish they didn't remove the gravity sections of some of the Nitro Kart tracks. They stood out and were loads of fun before Mario Kart 8 stole its idea. Yeah, I said it.
Toy Story Racer/Muppets Racemania
Ahhh, Traveller's Tales. Before you gave us the red bricked shower of Lego game upon lego game, you were always a game studio I actually looked forward to in terms of video games. So many licenses under your belt, and you always had a certain feel that while or underappreciated, always seemed to warm my heart. TTGames made two strangely fun racers in the form of Toy Story Racer and Muppets Racemania. The feel of the driving karts and the way the camera shakes while your turning about always was funny. Oh, and the music (especially in Racemania) is like earworms. Hey, game developers... hire Andy Blythe and Marten Joustra for your music. PLEASE! They made some eclectic earworms of music, and need to be utilized often more.
Burnout 3: Takedown & Burnout Revenge
The BEST Burnout AND the Upgraded/Better, but not as loved sequel (Think Spider-Man 2 to Ultimate Spider-Man if you need help with that analogy).
I don't think I have anything to say about these two. Burnout is an amazing arcade racing series. But I have... one question. Why, in all that is good and holy in this world did EA think it was a good idea to only remaster Burnout Paradise? Now don't get me wrong, Paradise is awesome and is everything an open-world Burnout should be. But, I was hoping we'd get a remaster of the games that put the series on the map better than Burnout 1 or 2 combined. I mean, Burnout LEGENDS on PSP was basically all of the tracks from the "at-the-time" trilogy of games packaged into one. We should've had at least a Burnout Legends 2 or a remaster of both B3 and B4: Revenge so people could experience that high-blooded, Crashbreakin', high-octane action again.
SPY HUNTER (PS2)
Back when Midway used to exist, and made a bunch of Big, Dumb, Hilarious mistakes... they actually made a few revivals of their arcade hits instead of just re-releasing their arcade hits for modern consoles (as was the style of the time). Spy Hunter is a reboot done right, and it shows. From the badass intro to some sweet, sexy spy music during levels. It basically made you feel like you were in a lot of the driving elements of classic (pre-Daniel Craig) James Bond films. The gadgets, level structures and enemies were complete callbacks to the classic arcade game, and even acts as a proper sequel to the old coin-op, which you don't see all too often. While the story mostly takes second-fiddle to the gameplay, that's okay because the game itself keeps you on your toes.
Now that Warner Bros. owns Midway and almost all of their games, now would be the perfect time to see a remaster, or a new entry, to the Spy Hunter game series. We DID get a sorta-reboot of the PS2 classic by (omg) Traveller's Tales, and while its good... its kinda short. By the time you really get into it, its already over. I wish Spy Hunter 3DS/Vita was a console game... at least a console game you'd get on the eShop or Xbox Arcade. Give it a sleek, spy story, focus on car-based action, and you're good to go!
The first PS2 game was amazing and immersive, which is more than I could say to Spy Hunter 2 or Nowhere to Run. SH 2 is good (and made by Angel Studio, omg), and while its louder and prouder than the original, its kinda lacking in the immersion. You do fight some crazy bosses like a plane, a train, and tougher cars, drive faster, and wreak more havoc. But for a sequel, it feels somewhat lesser than what came before. As for Nowhere to Run, its basically if you made the driving lesser while focusing on third-person shooting action with The Rock. Nowhere ot Run is average and certainly the worst of the trilogy (the driving's good), and feels like a thrown together movie licensed game... which is hilarious since Nowhere to Run actually was supposed to coincide with a Spy Hunter Movie featuring The Rock. I still hope this movie will happen because we got Midway's RAMPAGE as a movie (which I DID like!), and Mortal Kombat is getting a brand new film. If Spy Hunter finally gets made, I'll be giddier than a kid at the candy store! Heck, if Warner Bros. revives Midway as a brand altogether, that'd be just as good. Lucasfilm Games is back, so my hope is still alive for the future.
Phew! That's a lot of racers. I'd add more, but I think I'd cloud this list before you guys could share your thoughts.
What's your favorite racing game? Do you even like racing games at all? Do you even like cars? Tell me all about it, and even share photos of your favorite stuff. Or just tell me the kind of car you like, I'm dying to know.