QUByte Interactive has announced that their upcoming collection of the Top Racer series has been pushed back from its January 11 release date, to the new target of March 7. In the meantime, a demo that includes three tracks will be available on Steam starting January 11.
I knew these games as Top Gear. It was hard not to look at it as a kid since the cover features a car (possibly) driving away from an explosion. It was similar to Race Drivin’ in terms of its eye-catching cover, but unlike Race Drivin’, Top Gear is actually a decent series.
Created by Gremlin Games Studios, the series started out on 16-bit consoles as racing games that use a raster effect to depict a 3D-like road. It distinguishes itself from games like Out Run by having tracks that actually circle back on themselves, which was uncommon for the particular sub-genre. It also had more of a tournament racing feel with pitstops and ongoing rankings. It also had split-screen multi-player, kind of like Outrunners on Genesis, but not as terrible.
Though Top Gear 2 was ported to other platforms, the series stayed faithful to Nintendo platforms for a long time. After three games on the SNES, the series shifted to N64, with Boss Studios and Midway handling Top Gear Rally.
Top Racer Collection assembles Top Racer (Gear), Top Racer 2, and Top Racer 3000 into one package. On top of that, they’re including Top Racer Crossroads, which is a new title that features four new cars, including one that is plainly the Ferrari Testarossa featured in Out Run. I can dig it.
Top Racer Collection launches March 7, 2024 for PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
