Favorite Arcade Racers

[kamikazekeeg]

With the release of Cruis'n Blast today, it reminded me of how lacking the arcade racer genre is nowadays.  Can find tons of realistic racing games with Dirt, Forza, The Crew, Gran Turismo, but for me, I don't really like those games, realistic physics and maps are mostly just boring to me, so what are some of your favorite arcade styled racing games?  And by that, I would include Kart racers, but basically it's just games where realism isn't really a huge factor and it's usually about crazy action, or added combat, or just ridiculous nonsense going on.

For me, my love of this kind of stuff started with the Nintendo 64.  Diddy Kong Racing, Mario Kart 64, Beetle Adventure Racing, Star Wars Episode 1 Racing, Rush 2049, and there's others, though the big standouts for me was definitely DKR, Mario Kart, and Rush 2049.  I spent a lot of time in Rush 2049 just trying to do the craziest stunts lol

Not much for me on Playstation 1 in particular, can't think of any racing games in particular I played, much the same for the original Xbox, but on PS2 (And by extension Xbox for multiplatform, but I had way more games for PS2), it was mostly the Burnout games, and then maybe Smuggler's Run.

After that it would be 360/PC era stuff would be like Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed (A game at the time I thought was better than Mario Kart) and Split-Second.  Burnout continued with Paradise, but it wasn't crazy like the earlier games were.  Blur I think was another around the same time as Split/Second.

That's probably generally it for me, there's plenty I left out like Wave Race 64, or Hydro Thunder...OH, I do have a racing game I loved on PS1 and it was Jet Moto.  It's funny, but the thing I remember most from this game, was that it had Mountain Dew advertisements in it lol

I haven't played an arcade racer in awhile, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe when that came out probably being the last one.  I was super disappointed in how that Team Sonic Racing turned out, it doesn't look good.  My dream game would be for Sumo Digital to get to do either a brand Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed, a Diddy Kong Racing Remake or Sequel (Or heck, just give me an updated port like Episode 1 Racing lol), or to have them do like a brand new racing that's similar to All-Stars Racing Transformed, but it's just a Nintendo branded one.  Like Mario Kart is technically that at this point, but I want it to have way more characters that aren't like 90% Mario related.

[dhaabi]

With the release of Cruis'n Blast today, it reminded me of how lacking the arcade racer genre is nowadays.  Can find tons of realistic racing games with Dirt, Forza, The Crew, Gran Turismo, but for me, I don't really like those games, realistic physics and maps are mostly just boring to me, so what are some of your favorite arcade styled racing games?

Is the genre lacking, though? While many current arcade racing-style games have moved on to adopting a more realistic look, plenty titles within the genre were available this past generation. Danger Zone, Danger Zone 2, Dangerous Driving, Gravel, Grip: Combat Racing, Micro Machines: World Series, Onrush, Trackmania Turbo, and Wipeout: Omega Collection all released, although only Micro Machines and Trackmania Turbo would perhaps be the only two titles listed that may interest you, in part to their lack of realistic graphics.

The timing of this post is coincidental to my current gaming sessions, though. I rarely play any racing games of any kind but had recently been wanting to revisit Burnout 3: Takedown after having not really played it in over 15 years, so I finally set up the PlayStation 2 a few hours ago to play. It's as much fun as I had rememberd it, for sure.

[kamikazekeeg]

With the release of Cruis'n Blast today, it reminded me of how lacking the arcade racer genre is nowadays.  Can find tons of realistic racing games with Dirt, Forza, The Crew, Gran Turismo, but for me, I don't really like those games, realistic physics and maps are mostly just boring to me, so what are some of your favorite arcade styled racing games?

Is the genre lacking, though? While many current arcade racing-style games have moved on to adopting a more realistic look, plenty titles within the genre were available this past generation. Danger Zone, Danger Zone 2, Dangerous Driving, Gravel, Grip: Combat Racing, Micro Machines: World Series, Onrush, Trackmania Turbo, and Wipeout: Omega Collection all released, although only Micro Machines and Trackmania Turbo would perhaps be the only two titles listed that may interest you, in part to their lack of realistic graphics.

The timing of this post is coincidental to my current gaming sessions, though. I rarely play any racing games of any kind but had recently been wanting to revisit Burnout 3: Takedown after having not really played it in over 15 years, so I finally set up the PlayStation 2 a few hours ago to play. It's as much fun as I had rememberd it, for sure.

I might be just be acting 100% unfair here, but I've not heard of any of those games other than Onrush, which I didn't think was very good and I believe it bombed, and Wipeout I know for being Wipeout, but that is just a compilation of a PS3 and a Vita game.  Trackmania doesn't really do anything for me from what I'm seeing, same for Micro Machines as I never liked that top down racing setup.

Not that I'm an expert in the genre at all, but I'd say the genre is lacking general, there's some here and there, but not nearly as much as they use to be and there's not a whole lot of high profile ones other than maybe like...Crash Team Racing and Team Sonic Racing, but that one seemed like a huge step back from Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed to me, and while I am generally counting the kart racer games into this "arcade racer" banner, they are also kind of their own specific genre.  Like Mario Kart is very different from say a Split/Second, Burnout, or even a Cruis'n Blast.

Off the top of my head, I think recently the only other arcade racer I noticed was that Hot Wheels game that got brought up around here recently that has some real nice visuals, and is kinda neat to have Hot Wheels cars and track, but it didn't overly impress from a general gameplay point of view.  Most of the novelty sorta just seemed to be "Hey, you are driving Hot Wheels cars".

[kashell]

Hydro Thunder is my favorite.

[syljoly]

OutRun 2 / OutRun 2006 are absolute gems in that category!

[BallPtPenTheif]

Super Sprint and Super Off-Road are probably my favorite arcade racers of all time. Pay-to-win design aside, they're just solid performing over-the-top race games that still stand the test of time.

[telly]

I have a soft spot for Star Wars Racer Arcade myself

[bikingjahuty]

The Cruis'n series was definitely my jam back in the day. I owned USA and World on my N64, and also used to play a USA machine at an old Pizza Hut I used to go to in the 90s. There was also a sit down World machine at a sports bar my dad used to go to and between it and Golden Tee 98 I used to play them all the time. I never played Exotica a ton for whatever reason and only remember playing the arcade version a handful of times.


Other than that I also enjoyed Ferrari F355 Challenge at my local Dave and Busters, mostly because of the 6 speed gated shifter on that machine.

[Cartagia]

I just played Horizon Chase Turbo a couple of months ago, and it was a total blast.  Racing games are something I played a lot more of when I was a kid that I haven't really touched since maybe Burnout 3.  I forgot how much fun they can be.

[telekill]

Crusin was always really fun and I've been trying to find a copy of Blast all over town but no one has it. Expanding my search today.

Hydro Thunder was also a lot of fun.

As for the genre specifically and outside the arcade... it's my favorite racing genre. Favorites include...
 - Ridge Racer
 - Destruction Derby
 - Jet Moto
 - Need for Speed
 - Motorstorm
 - Wreckfest
 - Burnout

On my search for Blast yesterday, I did manage to snag a complete copy of Jet Moto 2 (PS1) for a buck. Had done nostalgia races with my son last night.

[undertakerprime]

Arcade-style racers are the only type of racing game I can tolerate, and even then it’s only a few, since I don’t really like games like Mario Kart.

Probably the most fun I’ve had with a racing game is OutRun 2 on Xbox. The Crazy Taxi series is fun too, and I liked the Cruisin’ series on N64. I’ve seen video of Cruisin’ Blast and it looks right up my alley; neon colors, wild action, tracks with all kinds of crazy stuff going on, and a shit ton of unlockables.

[tripredacus]

Daytona USA for me, but as for the arcade game itself I kind of out-grew it. I learned this about 10 years ago when a friend picked up a twin and I got to help playtest it. It had some weird issues on player 2 like cars flying off the track and then spazzing out. Anyways, the chair doesn't go back far enough at my adult size to properly do the slide turn (hit my knee on cabinet) so I probably won't get to play it again.

[telekill]

Daytona USA for me, but as for the arcade game itself I kind of out-grew it. I learned this about 10 years ago when a friend picked up a twin and I got to help playtest it. It had some weird issues on player 2 like cars flying off the track and then spazzing out. Anyways, the chair doesn't go back far enough at my adult size to properly do the slide turn (hit my knee on cabinet) so I probably won't get to play it again.

Forgot about Daytona. Loved that game. Hopefully Sega makes another at some point.

[badATchaos]

Hydro Thunder is my favorite.

Dude yeah! Same.
I also like the Mario Kart arcade games too. They're not the best but its kinda interesting to see Mario kart made by a different developer.

[telekill]

Very strange. No store within a 25 minute drive has a copy of this game. Most that I've talked with don't expect their delivery of the launch editions for another two weeks. I feel bad for those that preordered.