The Video Game Critic

My friend Brent who is a big F1 racing fan talked me into watching the movie Senna, a documentary about the life of famous racing champion Ayrton Senna, who died during a race in 1994.  I loved the movie - watched it twice.  I highly recommend it.

Anyway it's given me a new appreciation for F1 racing which frankly I didn't know much about.  Now I feel like going back and giving the F1 games I reviewed another look.  There's actually a Genesis game called Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP 2.

The new Formula 1 season starts this month.  Any fans out there?

I like it when I randomly catch it on (sometimes early Saturday mornings), and appreciated it after I saw Rush, another movie based on a famous duel in the 70s between two F1 racers.

I think it's awesome how the modern races have that aspect where they can store up energy and use a "turbo boost" at certain points of the race--can't remember what it's called at the moment. Not as cool as a mushroom a la Mario Kart, but still cool nevertheless.

Voor - thanks for the reply.  Brent also recommended the movie Rush so I guess I'll need to push that up my Netflix queue.

The Australian Gran Prix kicks off the F1 season on March 14, so I'll try to catch that.

Have you seen Grand Prix starring James Garner? It's the quintessential Formula One movie. As for the sport itself, I never miss a race and usually only miss a handful of practice 2 and qualifying sessions on NBC Sports during the course of a season. 

I know that you're not asking for game suggestions, but judging by what you've reviewed, you're missing some classic F1 console games of the 16 bit era that should appeal to you (Back before F1 games started to incorporate a lot of realism as their 3D capabilities grew, which is something you usually seem less than enthralled with).

Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing in both its Genesis and SuperNes forms is an excellent sprite scaler in the style of the Super Monaco GP franchise. And Domark's Formula One for the Genesis, featuring one of the best 3D engines of its time, should also scratch your itch for some classic F1 action (And there's also a Euro exclusive sequel to this one, if you own a Retron 5 which can play PAL MegaDrive games).

I love the 16 bit renditions of the national anthem for the respective country that you selected in Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing during the podium ceremony after winning a race.

Always thought that was a very nice touch. I love little details like that where the developer goes above and beyond the call of duty.

[QUOTE=Voor]I think it's awesome how the modern races have that aspect where they can store up energy and use a "turbo boost" at certain points of the race--can't remember what it's called at the moment. [/QUOTE]

KERS, or Kinetic Energy Recovery System. As you know, it stores up otherwise wasted energy during braking into a bank of batteries, which can be fed into the transmission when the driver activates his boost button on a straightaway.

Leo,
Thanks for your insight!  Sounds like you have a real passion for this. Haven't seen Gran Prix but watched "1" on NBC Sports and that was awesome.  I have Rush in my Netflix queue.

I will definitely track down Nigel Mansell's World Championship.  If you think I should re-review any of my F1 games please let me know.  I feel like I have a better perspective now.
VGC