Sports Car GT
Score: 80% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: EA Games Developer: Westwood Pacific Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Racing
Graphics & Sound: I found the graphics for Sports Car GT to be average, my opinion possibly having been tainted by a recent binge of Need for Speed: High Stakes. The cars did look pretty good -- except when your car takes damage; the polygonal pieces that go flyin’ look kind of fake. The sound effects are pretty good, though. You can actually “feel” the growl of the engines. The background music is minimalistic house type stuff just there to keep things going. It is very ambient and barely noticeable.
Gameplay: Sports Car GT is a racing game, of course. You are given a choice of playing through a Season, honing your skills in Arcade mode or trying to beat your previous “best times” in Time Trial. In Season mode, you work your way up the ranks playing on various speedways across the country, hopefully earning cash from placing in the top three spots. You start with $50,000 to buy your first car (we should all be so lucky). You can blow it all on an expensive car or buy cheap and upgrade. You have to win races (and make cash) to buy better cars. In Arcade mode, you can choose whichever car you want, the track you want, the number of laps you want, etc., and just drive until you drop. In addition to these modes and Time Trial, you can play various two-player modes such as Head to Head (play a buddy), Pace Car (you and your buddy try to beat an expert computer driver), and Pink Slip mode (lose the race, lose your car).
Difficulty: Well, it’s mainly a matter of finding the right car for the job (and for you). If you grab up that killer Mosler Raptor for tearin’ up the road and you are on a winding track, you’ll spend most of the race in 6th Position, eating the walls. Not fun. Choose wisely.
Game Mechanics: Sports Car GT is pretty standard fare for controls, although it doesn’t support Dual Shock/Analog, which was VERY disappointing. In this day and age, I don’t see why any game would not support it, especially a driving game. You have a number of ways you can mod your car as far as improving performance, but I was dismayed that you couldn’t alter its physical appearance. What’s the fun of soupin’ up your car and not being able to paint it orange if you want? Also, Pink Slip mode is very similar to Need for Speed: High Stakes in that losing the race means your opponent gets YOUR car added to their memory card and it gets deleted from yours. Catch is, you must select a vehicle that your opponent doesn’t have on his card already. That way, if you lose, he gets a totally new car! To be really honest, it just seems like Sports Car GT never really gets outta the chute. I feel like the game was done an injustice by not following through with features that could have markedly improved the game. It’s almost as if Sports Car GT was minimalized so as not to steal the thunder from NFS: High Stakes. It’s not that it’s bad, it just could have been better.
-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins
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