VRH15

Ford Racing 2 is a marked improvement from its predecessor, and it is probably one of the best licensed racing game of its generation. However, this game has some glaring flaws that brought it down somewhat. Positives: -The biggest positive from this game is the amount of Ford vehicles each player can drive on this game. Players can afford all of them through Ford Challenge, and there are a total of more or less 30 cars to collect. The variety is really impressive too, ranging from ordinary ones like the F150 and Crown Victoria, to cars that are rarely depicted in racing game nowadays such as the Indigo Concept and GT90. Overall, the car roster is the main standout of this game and easily the strongest aspect of this game. -The graphics is also fairly decent as well. While it doesn't come close to GT3 and so forth, it looks good enough for players to look at. The same goes for the physics, which is catered towards a simcade approach. It is competent enough for players to have fun with the game, though not as detailed as what Need For Speed is doing in that era. Negatives: -The progression in this game is not great. Essentially, Ford Racing 2 has two career modes: Ford Challenge and Ford Collection. The former is a selection of challenges players need to do to unlock the cars, while the latter is all about choosing any event the player wants to do. The premise is promising, but the way it is executed in this game is lackluster. Ford Challenge is interesting at first, but it gets really frustating sometimes as some later events will put any players' patience to the test. Ford Collection is more of the same, but worse. Ford Collection is basically a checklist of event types needed to be completed on only sixteen tracks, which is quite low for a racing game. As a result, Ford Collection is really tedious and repetitive to complete, which brought this game down a lot. -There is also a noticeable amount of input lag on the controls as well. While it isn't game breaking, it can be really annoying for certain event types that requires precision and agility. This contributes to how some of the challenges and event types can become frustating at times, simply because the input lag. -The soundtrack isn't anything special. There are three genres on this game: House, Rock, and Funk. While the Funk soundtrack is really good, the remaining two genres are fairly generic and forgettable. -The track list is not good. While there are one or two good ones, most of them are just forgettable. The fact that this game only has 16 tracks is also not good. Verdict: Overall, Ford Racing 2 is the best game of the Ford Racing franchise and probably one of the best licensed racing game of its generation. However, it is only decent with some major flaws such as the terrible progression and annoying input lag, as well as lacking in terms of content. In fact, had this game not had an interesting car roster from its license, then it would have been utterly forgettable. The Ford license is the only thing that saves this game, as it gives the game a certain charm and personality not seen in modern times. However, it is still decent enough for any racing game fans to try it out at least once in their library.

Wipeout XL, or Wipeout 2097 in Europe, is one of the best games on the original Playstation and one of the best in the Anti Gravity racing genre. The Good: The visual design is top notch, and in some ways are better than the original Wipeout. Each track and craft has their own distinct look to them and it's really cool to see. The soundtrack is also really great to listen. While the first game's soundtrack is iconic, XL's soundtrack is also just as great. Choosing which one is better is more of personal preference than most. What XL improves massively upon the original game though is the handling and difficulty. Each craft in XL now handles much more responsively, helped by the fact that collisions are more forgiveable and there are more weapons to use at the track. The difficulty is also improved upon, in that there are no more tracks that can frustate any players in the game. Now, it is dependent on the player's skill to beat the game with their choice of craft. While it is still really hard, it is more fair than the previous game. The unlockables are also a treat. There is the usual bonus tracks, but there is also two new challenges to tackle through and a secret craft that is only achievable once all the challenges and races are completed. These content are really nice addition and spice things up a bit. The Bad: If I have to critique one aspect of the game, is that XL's content is a little sparse. Sure you get all new tracks, but the actual track count is barely more than the previous game. The teams are also the same as in the original game, though there is a secret fifth team once the game is completed. This can make the game feeling a little bit repetitive at the later stages of the game, but your mileage may vary. Verdict: Overall, Wipeout XL is a huge improvement over the original game and stands as one of the best games to have on the original Playstation. The lack of content is the only thing that is stopping this game from reaching a 10, because everything else in the game is just great. Definitely worth checking out for anyone that is a fan of Anti Gravity racing genre and racing in general.

Motor Trend Presents Lotus Challenge is an average racing game that has some neat ideas, but ultimately brought down by some key areas. The Good: The main selling point of Lotus Challenge is, well, Challenge Mode. This mode allows you to play as two characters: Jack and Zoe. Their story routes are fairly different from one another, though the beginning, middle, and end are similar nonetheless. This mode has some fun ideas such as car soccer and bowling, as well as doing stunts for a film production. Overall, this mode is good fun and is a breeze to get by, though not especially challenging. The variety is also something that is worthy of praise. There is a surprising amount of event types to go through in Challenge mode, and this extends to the car roster as well. Starting from the earliest Lotus cars all the way to the F1 cars, there is no shortage of cars to play around. The same would go to the tracks themselves. From racing through Tokyo Expressway, Lotus Test Track at Hethel, and even a village called Bellingham, there is a good track list in this game. The soundtrack is also a nice collection of drum n bass, though they are only a few of them and kind of repeat themselves on longer races. The Bad: There are quite a lot to discuss here. For starters, the graphics are fairly okay for a 2001 game, with reasonably detailed car models and tracks. It is unremarkable though, and the lack of an artstyle makes this game forgettable to look at. The physics also leave something to be desired. While the cars are controllable, they sort of feel a bit weightless sometimes and are hard to countersteer without driving aids. There are also some unresponsiveness in the input controls, which makes driving some of the cars more frustating than necessary. Finally, this game has no distinct feeling to it. Even though the ideas were nice, it was executed in a way that almost made it feel like a budget title at worst. Overall, Motor Trend Presents Lotus Challenge is an average licensed game that squanders its potential and ends up being middling. While Challenge Mode and the variety of content will entertain players for a while, they would ended up putting the game off due to its mediocrity.

This is just a DLC, not a full-blown game. It doesn't need to be ranked this highly up on the list.

It is just an average freestyle game, with features and graphics that are unremarkable compared to its competitors. It should not be ranked this high up on the user score.

Once the player gets past the novelty of riding a snowmobile for the first time, the novelty wears off real fast. This game is honestly mediocre in every aspect, from graphics to gameplay. While snowmobile games are very rare these days, this is definitely one of the games of all time.

This game is quite simply the most influential racing game to have ever been made. While it has been trumped by GT2 and GT4 in terms of content and gameplay, there is no racing game that helped define the genre quite like GT1.

This is easily the best Gran Turismo game and one of the best racing games of all time. It pushes the PS2 to its absolute limit, had an extensive car list, and probably the best career mode in any racing game.

This is just a DLC for true Nintendo fans. Other than that, it's an expensive and pointless addition to MK8.

It's an okay NFS Underground clone, just way too horny tbh. How is this game higher than both NFS Underground games is baffling to say the least.

This is a nice DLC and all, but in no way should it be this high up on the racing game list over far more deserving games.

Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero, or Shutokou Battle Zero in Japan, is one of those games where the premise undersells the game. The car list is honestly very good, filled with the classics like NSX and Skyline accompanied with the obscure ones. The rival list is also really good, as this is the first game that Genki put a lot of effort into making each rivals' biographies unique and interesting. In addition, the bosses are also some of the best in the series as they provided a fair challenge, and some of them can even give unsuspecting players a tough fight such as the final bosses of the game. The graphics is also pretty decent for a game that was initially a Dreamcast game before being ported to PS2 due to the Dreamcast being on its last legs. The physics is also very good, as it was surprisingly intuitive for an arcade style of handling for this game. The sense of speed and atmosphere is also brilliant, as if the player really are street racers vying for glory on the Shutokou highway. There are some issues with this game though. One of the rivals essentially forces you to travel a long distance on the highway, which brought the game's pacing down a little bit. In addition, the localisation for the American version is poor, as it leaves out a lot of information and personality in the rivals' biographies from the original Japanese version. Therefore, it is recommended to play the Japanese version, as the story is more detailed and the biographies are more complex. Overall, TXR0 is a great game and easily one of the most underrated racing games for the PS2. It has a lot of content, as well as having a good progression as well. In addition, the physics and graphics are really good, couple with great atmosphere and sense of speed as well. Just make sure to play the original Japanese version though, which is called Shutokou Battle 0. Nevertheless, TXR0 is an underrated gem that any racing game enthusiast should check at least once.

This game is the best game that Genki has ever made, whether it was Shutokou Battle or Kaido Battle. The car and track list are honestly some of the best that has been conceived in a racing game. It is because it encapsulates the Touge Racing aspect very well, in addition to introducing a lot of cars and tracks never seen before or since in a racing game. The physics also deserves a major praise, as it is a proper sim-cade that is well executed and a lot of fun while also somewhat realistic. The BBS and rivals are also really great, as they are interesting to read and quite enjoyable as well. The weather system has been improved as well, and the addition of a tool to change the weather at will is also a nice change of pace. However, even Genki's best game isn't without faults. The game is a bit easier than previous entries, largely due to how the A.I. are not as difficult and more prone to making mistakes as in the previous games. The tuning can be a bit more difficult to pull off, as some cars are incapable of tuning such as the special cars. But all of these aren't nearly enough to bring TXRD2 down with it. Overall, Tokyo Xtreme Racer Drift 2, or Kaido Battle: Touge no Densetsu in Japan, is an underrated masterpiece that any true car enthusiast must check at least once. The amount of content and variety this game offers, along with good graphics and even better physics, makes this game one of the best racing games for the PS2.

This game is quite good for Genki's first attempt at a game centered around Touge racing game. Good physics, lots of interesting cars to drive, creative features like sponsors and day/night system, and aplenty of rivals with varied biographies to go up against. However, this has been neutered by how some higher-end upgrades locked behind sponsors, a huge difficulty spike in some races, and awkward camera placement. It is recommended to play the original Japanese version, as it has more content and better soundtrack than the American version.

This game is a lot of fun to be honest. The graphics have improved from Zero and there is more features this time around. For starters, there is a livery editor that is clunky but welcoming nonetheless. The car roster is also interesting as they are licensed this time around and had a lot of cool cars, though the downside is that the car count and variety has taken a slight step back. Customization also improved upon Zero, giving the player more variety to choose form. There is also two more maps new to this game aside from Tokyo, which are Nagoya and Osaka. Each of them had their own unique chracteristics and challenges, which keeps the gameplay fresh for some time. Once the player goes onto each of the three cities, there is a lot to uncover. The new game engine that Genki introduced in TXR Drift, which has been actually released before TXR3 in Japan, brought along some new changes. There is now a new weather system, which can affect the grip and visibility on the road. Though this system is rudimentary, it does add complexity on racing through the highways and brought some nice visual effects from the bosses. Speaking of the rivals, there are now 600 rivals to challenge and each of them came with their own unique biographies. While some of them can be a bit generic, most of the rivals are a good enough challenge for the players throughout the game. However, there are some issues with this game that brought it down somewhat. The physics are lacking in grip and are quite floaty, which can lead to players smashing into the barriers quite often. This is exacerberated in the rainy conditions, where there is basically no grip and makes the races again certain rivals more frustrating than necessary. The A.I. is also flawed, seeing that they do wall grinding at certain corners and uneven with some rivals. Not helping matters is that the environment do look a bit flat and there is no variety in traffic vehicles, as well as the generic soundtrack. As a result, players will find the later stages of the game a bit repetitive and tedious. This is not helped by how some rivals have certain requirements that makes little sense, more so in the American version. The localisation is also not good, as the translation of the biographies are not faithful and making some rivals quite literally impossible to beat due to their requirements being money-related. Not helping matters is that progression in this game is surprisingly slow, as most players will spent most of their time grinding for enough cash to upgrade their vehicle and the payout from rivals being really small. Overall, TXR3 is a game that has potential, but was never capitalized. While the car roster and additional features are very good, this has been countered by a downgrade in physics, as well as other stuff that bring the game down. However, it is an underrated racing game that everyone should try at least once. Make sure to play the original Japanese version though.