Handheld racing games where you drive into the screen

[Apollo Chungus]

I'm currently working on reviews for most of the Sonic the Hedgehog games released for the Master System and Game Gear, which includes looking at the Sonic Drift games. However, I want to tackle those games from the best possible perspective in order to understand and properly evaluate them, and I think the best way of doing that is by playing its contemporaries.

Now, while Sonic Drift is a fairly obvious attempt to cash-in on the success of Mario Kart, it doesn't really look or play much like Mario Kart or any of the other racing games made in that style (e.g. Power Rangers Zeo: Battle Racers or Konami Krazy Racers). If anything, it looks a bit more like those psuedo-3D/Super Scaler games where you drive into the screen, and I'm fairly sure that there's a fair few racing games games in that style made for 8-bit handheld systems. It's those games I'd like to play, since I feel that it would give me a better understanding of Sonic Drift's quality; instead of comparing it to a game that, premise aside, it doesn't really have a whole lot in common with in terms of gameplay.

However, I'm not sure where to start, so I'd like your help in finding any games that visually resemble this:




(Sorry about the size of the image, but I wanted to find something on short notice.)

I'd preferably like recommendations of games for the Game Boy, Game Gear and other 8-bit handheld systems of the day, so I can get a better idea of the games surrounding Sonic Drift. If you can suggest any, that would be really awesome. Thank you, and have a good day!

-Apollo Chungus

[dsparil]

There's F-1 Race for the Gameboy. Jeremy Parish covered it recently on YouTube. That's the only other one I can think of.

[🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀]

Aug 1, 2018 11:59:00 GMT -5 dsparil said:

There's F-1 Race for the Gameboy. Jeremy Parish covered it recently on YouTube. That's the only other one I can think of.

That's what I was gonna mention too.

I'm not too sure if the Sonic Drift games deserve this kind of scrutiny (I mean, they're fine, but also just kinda forgettable cash-ins), but it'll be interesting to read since I really only compared them to Mario Kart when I played them earlier this year (and they do not look good in that comparison...).

[Jungyin]

I recall playing a behind the back motorcycle racing game on my uncle's Game Gear (and sucking at it), can't remember the name though. There was a port of Race Drivin' for the Game Boy as well, but I don't think it's really comparable to these pseudo-3D racing games.

Edit: I remembered there was also a port of Chase HQ on the Game Boy.

[ommadawnyawn2]

It's not quite the same thing as the method used to "animate" the terrain is different I think, but Road Rash is probably the most impressive 8-bit game of this type and it was on GG as well.

[ReyVGM]

GBC

Top Gear Pocket 1 & 2
Chase HQ
Wacky Racers
Cruis'n Exotica
Harley Davidson: Race Across America
Looney Tunes Racing
Pocket Racing
Taxi 2

etc.

[ommadawnyawn2]

Oh yeah, Wacky Races is pretty impressive too.

[windfisch]

V-Rally for the GB/GBC is one of the smoother looking games of that kind, especially compared to other non-color GB titles.

One of the most impressive example from the early nineties has to be STUN Runner for the Lynx. It replaces the polygonal models of the arcade original with scaling sprites, which works surprisingly well.

Some other noteworthy games - even if they're not all that great:

• Out Run (GG)
  
• Monaco GP games (GG)
• GP Rider (GG)
• Road Rash (GG, GB)
• Checkered Flag (Lynx)
• Lamboghini American Challenge (GB)
  

I think the Sonic Drift games are okay: looking neat, but pretty shallow gameplay. My guess is that those were made primarily for younger children (like Tails Sky Patrol, for example). On the other, hand most other contemporary handheld racing games weren't that deep either.

[jorpho]

For some reason Nigel Mansell's World Championship comes to mind. I recall reading about that in Nintendo Power back in the day.

[KGRAMR]

There's a reason why this one is a favorite on E-JagFest and much better than the Atari Jaguar sequel, which is also called Checkered Flag for some weird reason...