OpenTube

23 Year Old Top-Down Racer Still Beats All the New Ones

Ted Meat

171,217 views

Top-Down Racing Games, one of my favorite gaming genres! It's just great to have a little break from work, kick off you shoes, do a little season of thrill and then continue on like nothing ever happened.

In the past someone made a great game that set the bar for the next games. Then someone did it again. But now it has stagnated. We get these nice and pretty top-down racing games, built on Unity, Unreal Engine or similar but they don't really feel like driving. At least if you compare them to GeneRally 1. Still the all-time best top-down racer. Imho at least. It's 23 years old. Shouldn't be the best anymore. Oh and it was free!

It seems there are no more innovators, pioneers and pace setters that re-define a genre. Expect for Niels! Check out his Arcade Physics Test! Something like this should be the benchmark for all new arcade games!

Download link:
https://www.overtake.gg/downloads/ams...
(You also need Automobilista, available on Steam)

Video by Niels: Released: AMS1 Arcade Physics Test 0.1, gi...

You can download GeneRally 1 here, it's free!
https://gene-rally.com/

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00:00 - Top-Down Arcade Racing Games are FUN!
00:53 - What's wrong with modern top-down games?
01:16 - Is GeneRally 1 still the best?
02:11 - Is GeneRally 2 any good?
03:10 - Circuit Superstars cuteness
03:25 - Formula Legends handling issues
03:37 - Turbo Sliders Unlimited Gameplay
04:16 - Slicks'N'Slide gameplay
04:48 - Rally Sport Gameplay
05:00 - Development curve of top-down racing games
06:14 - Arcade physics test by Niels (Automobilista)

20 Comments

@TedMeat Creator 11 months ago Pinned

A LOT of comments about your favorite top-down racers I failed to mention on the video. Keep'em coming! Some day there will be a sequel to this video, where I'll put YOUR favorite top-down racers on that graph of mine :D

@krisclarke3000 1 year ago

Micro Machines 2 - the battle for the sponge in the kitchen sink level was legendary!

@c64customs 1 year ago

Nice video and I agree with most of it. Except, I wouldn't consider a chase view racing game as a top down racer

@GPLaps 1 year ago

One of the things i loved about Generally too was being able to make tracks and cars/modify the physics. So much fun making fictional tracks that i'd constantly "upgrade" after each race

good times

@kahyland 1 year ago

Rock N Roll Racing deserves a mention here. A true classic and still fun today.

@hippocrates72 1 year ago

1:36 Gene Rally (2002)

@liberatumplox625 1 year ago

Skidmarks and Super Off Road Racer were great, but an honorable mention has to go to that Pro AM game on the Gameboy.

@ChuvaLemos 1 year ago

Ignition was a great top down racing game. Played so many hours.

@bmillwood6666 11 months ago

Super Off Road remake is all we need!!!

@myshoesrule 10 months ago

F1 Circus MD on the SEGA MegaDrive back in 1991 was incredible (and back when F1 was also incredible!). The early save function on the cartridge enabling fastest laps to be saved was a modern miracle

@bonjournaste 1 year ago

MicroMachines 64 was a killer, super underrated game, especially when playing 4 player. Really great physics, really good sense of speed, power ups were really great, but not over-used, and could interact with different surfaces like sliding in milk, or getting stuck in jam and tracking it over the surface.

@hippocrates72 1 year ago

You did not mention the ancestor:
Super Sprint (1986 Atari - arcade)

@mateojuanitogan 6 months ago (edited)

Totally agree! You missed my favorite, however: GRITS Racing. But, well, I'm biased since I wrote it. I built it several years back specifically to take down Slicks 'N' Slide (and GeneRally) by putting a massive amount of work into building a full-on car simulator in a 2D physics engine (4-speed tranny, all-wheel drive, all-wheel steering, etc)... and better audio... and more chaos. And, yes, the physics are hot... but, well, the game has yet to find an audience and I should maybe do it different.

@yksnidog 1 year ago

8:30 I love the air balloon like engine sound. So unbelievable cute.

@ncodedbpm 11 months ago

Remember Off-Road, the arcade game? The one with the wheel, and the nitro? I loved that game.

@how2pick4name 1 year ago

Micro Machines was fun as well.

@dc3d1 1 year ago

About a year ago I changed my game, which was originally planned as a top-down car game (imagine GTA2 in 3D), but I switched to a ground level perspective/follow cam after realizing that the player interest was much higher that way. The top-down camera is still in the game (part of the camera mode cycle) though and I still really love the top down view. it gives a more classic feel that I didn't want to lose.. Driving through tunnels is still a bit problematic with the top down cam mode, but nothing some shader magic won't be able to fix in the future ;)

@chrish931 11 months ago

Danny Sullivan Indycar and Ivan Stewarts Super Off Road arcade versions were my two favorite top down racers.

@markg55 1 year ago

Some of these games I'd call chase cam arcade racers, to my mind the thing that makes a proper top down racer is where the camera is somewhat fixed rather than always behind the car, so it's a bit like driving an RC car. Also the Mashed series deserves an honourable mention.