MegaRace 1 Review
MegaRace is a humorous, battle racing game with pretty funny FMVs. I first played MegaRace on the 3DO many, many years ago. I remember MegaRace being incredible for its time, it had FMV, race tracks with loops and corkscrews, the first time I ever saw it.
Mega Race 1 is the same MegaRace I played back in the day. It is not a port, but it's a pre-packaged DOS-BOX version of the game you can buy on Steam. I got it on sale for only 50 cents, but it's normally a few dollars. I think it's pretty cool to be able to support the developers of MegaRace.
Basic MegaRace GamePlay
MegaRace 1 is a bit different from standard racing games. Instead of trying to come in first place, your goal is to destroy all other racers before your thrill gauge runs out. You are basically a contestant on a virtual show who's job is to destroy vicious gang members and their vehicles. You have a weapon to shoot them with that runs out of energy (which can be recharged on some courses) or you can ram them, but ramming them will damage yourself as well.
The courses are covered in different things that affect your car, which are color coded, either white or a darker color. White ones are buffs and colored ones are debuffs. The various buffs/debufs are:
1. Booster or forced braking
2. Increase or decrease in points
3. Increase or decrease in energy (used to fire weapons)
4. Weapon upgrade or downgrade
5. Missile pick up
6. Rails (locks your car into the path on the course)
7. Shield to protect you from damage
8. Radar Jam which stops you from seeing the other vehicles on the course
9. Binding Zone which makes the screen wobble
10. Inverts your controls
11. Fails all panel indicators for a little bit
12. Skidding which makes your car slippery
14. Skidding turn which causes you to spin in a 360
As you can see, not only do you have to keep the viewers entertained and destroy enemy vehicles, you have to avoid obstacles on the course while aiming for things that will help you. MegaRace is old, and MegaRace 1 is just the same game running in DOS-BOX. For a game this old, it's not about the game play being great, it's about whether it holds up or not. I think it still does, it's fun still, it definitely shows its age, considering there are sequels to the game it's no surprise.
Mega Race 1 Graphics
The original MegaRace and MegaRace 1 both have a lot of pre-rendered CG, it really feels nostalgic to play it. Maybe it's nostalgia goggles for me because I did play the original MegaRace a very long time ago. But there's just something about it.The cars are just sprites, so you'll see them have abrupt changes when you turn. It's not a big deal, honestly.
The backgrounds are really good looking for their time.
The Star Of The Show
Lance Boyle is in charge of the FMV sequences between races, and he is definitely the highlight of the game. You are basically in a futuristic dystopia, and Lance Boyle fills the role amazingly. I still had times I had a good laugh at what he said. And the dystopian, "we're here to entertain you no matter what" jokes are great. At one point, they joke about building a multi-billion dollar race track in the wastelands and mention how the people there were complaining. It's great, Lance Boyle is amazing as the host of the MegaRace show. And it's old, so it has that innocent type of humor that doesn't rely on memes or politics.
MegaRace still managed to bring a smile to my face after all these years. Most of it was Lance Boyle, but the difficulty is still there and the game was still pretty fun for its age. If you are into retro games and you're looking for something that was a pioneer in racing games and FMVs, you should not pass up MegaRace 1.
wondergamer June 28th, 2021
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