One of the most popular things to talk about in the modern gaming scene is the idea of 'Impossible Ports': games which try to punch WAY above the limits of a systems hardware to deliver games that should have no business running on them at all. Popular examples include the Switch port of DOOM 2016, the GBA port of Driv3r, the Sega Saturn port of QUAKE, and so on. But one of the earliest and most ambitious examples of this is the OG Game Boy port of Race Drivin' by Argonaut Software.
For those not in the know, Race Drivin' (also known as Hard Drivin') is an arcade driving sim by Atari, famous for being one of the first racing games with real time 3D graphics and realistic physics. The game was considered revolutionary and cutting edge at the time, and as a result, attempts to port it to home consoles were either lackluster (the choppy Sega Genesis port) downright disastrous (the SNES port, which runs like a slideshow) or ambitious but doomed ventures (in the case of the cancelled NES port that was surprisingly well handled for what it was). Those systems were barely able to handle the game, but for some odd reason, Atari still felt the need to bring the game to the absolute last place it should have belonged: on a tiny green-tinted handheld that was even less powerful than it's console brethetin and was already behind the likes of the Atari Lynx and Sega Game Gear. Fortunately, they picked up and coming developer Argonaut Software (the minds behind the original Star Fox game and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos), who rose to the challenge and somehow pulled off the impossible--doing a direct port of a 3D arcade game to the Game Boy. And believe it or not, they not only made it work, it actually runs BETTER than the SNES port.
Upon booting up the game and picking your car and course of choice (three each) and start playing, your first impression might be that it might be a reformulated dumbed down portable version of the arcade game. But the surprise comes right when you start driving and you find out that the environment not only moves in full 3D, but is also surprisingly smooth (especially when played on an OG Game Boy as intended). Nothing got cut from the arcade game, the physics are the same, and even the famous giant loop de loops are here! The Superstunt course in particular, where you get to race across an entire mountain, is extremely impressive. Bear in mind that the game had NO enhancement chips (i.e. the Super FX chip here) either--just extremely skilled programming work by John Mullin.
So with all that huzzah about the amazing technical presentation, does that make Race Drivin' on GB fun to play? The answer is...barely. Mind you, the game is far from unplayable. The controls and track design are perfectly fine, and the game gives you the option to drive with either Manual or Auto controls (you press Up or Down to shift on the former). But let's be honest here: the game is more of a glorified tech demo and quick fix romp than a full fledged game. The only goal is to race the clock in each stage as long as possible for a high score. No other play modes or options, no multiplayer, hardly any CPU opponents to race against, it's a "What you see is what you get" type of game. It's impressive that they went out of their way to make this work so well at all, but once you master the courses, you've experienced everything that the game has to offer, and that can be done in roughly an hour of play. It's good for short pick up and play bursts, but its very unlikely you'll be hooked for hours on end. This made sense for an arcade game, but even an OG Game Boy game could have used a few extra gameplay thrills to entice you further. And on top of that, this game can look ROUGH when blown up big, as I've seen when playing it on my Gamecube Game Boy Player. The sound design isnt very impressive either--theres almost no music, only some rather shrill white noise sound design.
While an interesting conversation piece for retrogamers and a testament to what can be done with limited hardware in the hands of a skilled programmer given the time it was made, Race Drivin' on Game Boy is more of a historical curiosity than a game that you'd actually want to play for fun 32 years later.
Race Drivin' (1992, Game Boy)
- VideoGameCritic
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Re: Race Drivin' (1992, Game Boy)
Thank you for the insight! This is the fascinating stuff that retrogaming is made of.
I actually want to review this now.
I actually want to review this now.
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Re: Race Drivin' (1992, Game Boy)
Game Boy Race Drivin' vs ZX Spectrum Hard Drivin' for the winner of the most "you were so busy thinking if you could, you didn't think if you should" port ever. I do have a soft spot for the bad Genesis/Mega Drive version, though.