Street Racer Collection Review

Myself and MPV Graham spent a lot of time playing Street Racer in our youth. Along with our brothers (depending on which house we were at), we knew most of the tracks like the back of our hands and the best characters to use to speed to victory (Helmut for the win in my book). So, when I noticed there was a collection of Street Racer games recently released, I had to give the nostalgia bone a tickle and check it out. For olds like us, there is certainly still some charm here, but the games are definitely showing their age now and, as such, it’s a tricky recommendation for newer players.

The collection comprises four Street Racer titles; the 16-bit Mega Drive and SNES versions, a Game Boy version, and DOS (which is identical to the Sega Saturn, although this isn’t technically included here). It’s quite interesting to see the differences and how each format handled their respective versions of the title. The 16-bit games are the most identical of course, with the only really noticeable difference to my eyes being a slightly more muted colour palette on the SNES. Modes, characters and tracks remain the same, and both feel identical to play. 

The Mega Drive version was the one we spent a lot of time playing back in the mid-90’s, and so I jumped in there first. It’s been a long time, but I was pleasantly surprised how much of the roster and track design I still remembered, as well as the general flow of gameplay and the power and item use. Picking Helmut (of course) saw me using his saw blades and flight to try and best the AI racers as I used to. However, Street Racer is a lot harder than I remember on the medium difficulty, and the first few races saw me firmly in 8th place repeatedly. 

Due to the limitations of the original hardware, tracks are all on flat planes. So, in order to make them interesting, original developer Vivid Image uses a lot of wiggly layouts and sharp corners that more often than not are obfuscated by the edges of the screen. This not only hides the track but also item pick-ups and other racers, and playing any course for the first time is a game of hopes and prayers as we repeatedly careen off the track or into solid walls. Again, as an old player, I found it slightly quicker to relearn the track’s quirks, but I can only imagine how a new player would fare here. 

Making use of the powers is key, but learning what each character’s unique abilities are is a case of trial and error, as well as luck while racing, because they can miss as often as they hit for no real reason. 

There is at least a good amount of content to play with. Up to four players can play in split screen through the championships, quick races, or one of the two sports: Soccer and Rumble. The former is a pretty poor attempt at a free for all goal scoring bonanza that feels as bad to play as the 2D sprites look in action in this mode. A 16-bit Rocket League this is not. Rumble is better, where we attempt to hit other players out of an arena in order to be the last man standing, but both modes are more novelties than essential parts of the package.

While the learning curve can be tough, there is still some charm to playing the 16-bit Street Racer’s today. The characters are all unique (even though some questionable stereotypes show their age), the tracks are well designed and generally enjoyable to play, and with a group of willing friends I can see this at least giving everyone a good time for a few hours. 

The DOS version is a far more polished take on the game, offering full 3D tracks for the 2D sprites to race on which, due to a more zoomed out camera, are far easier to navigate and make sense of. Some of the tracks are very short, mind you – something we assume was a technical limitation – and a lap can be less than 10 seconds. It also feels somewhat slower in action, partly due to not having the 16-bit parallax tracks making our eyes melt, but this is generally a good thing as it keeps the chaos in the realm of the weapons and racers and not the hardware limitations. Rumble mode is included here (although we lose Soccer) and is a better, top down game that is far more fun to play. We did play a good amount of this back in the day too (via the Saturn) and generally prefer this version of Street Racer. 

The Game Boy version though… I imagine on actual hardware, back in the 90’s, it was a cool experience. Lord knows we got some cool ports (for the time) of other games that do not hold up today, but the Game Boy version of Street Racer is something else. By default, we have a grey colour palette, and the mess of black pixels on screen make it all but impossible to see what is happening. Thankfully the tracks and characters are identical to the 16-bit versions, so muscle memory can be utilised, but hoo boy is it a terrible-looking game. There are a variety of palettes to choose from, with green being the most eyeball-friendly to me, but none of them make the game particularly enjoyable to look at or play. It’s a neat curiosity, but one that is best left alone after a race or two.

This package can be encapsulated by that phrase: neat curiosity. For older players like me, it’s been good to revisit a game I hadn’t thought about or played in years – and for what it’s worth, I still enjoyed my time with the 16-bit and DOS version. I look forward to meeting MPV Graham in person soon so we can do proper split screen (there’s no online play, sadly), and even getting some of the others in to see what they reckon. But there’s no doubt that if you’re not familiar with any of the original games, this can be an obtuse racer that shows its age with its technical limitations, only really coming into its own with the DOS version.

That there’s no archive or museum-type content to look through is a shame, as I’m sure there could have been an interesting documentary aspect here with interviews, or even just a gallery of concept art or snippets from magazines or something. We do get the option to rewind our gameplay (except in the DOS version) to rectify mistakes, as well as a cheat menu, but that’s about it for modern perks.

Conclusion

Overall, it’s been good to play these classic racers again. Nostalgia is doing some heavy lifting though, and if you’re not familiar with Street Racer then I would hazard a guess that you won’t quite see what the fuss is about. A lack of archival content, as well as some other versions of the game, is a shame but if you’re into retro gaming and fancy a fun – if challenging – racer, then this collection is worth a look.