Top Gear Rally

Top Gear Rally
Cover art of Top Gear Rally
Developer(s)	Boss Game Studios (Nintendo 64) Vision Works (Game Boy Color) Tantalus Interactive (Game Boy Advance)
Publisher(s)	Nintendo 64 JP: Kemco NA: Midway Games EU: Kemco Game Boy Color JP: Kemco NA: Vatical Entertainment EU: Kemco Game Boy Advance JP: Kemco NA: Nintendo EU: Kemco
Series	Top Gear
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance
Release	Nintendo 64 NA: October 1997 EU: November 1997 JP: December 5, 1997 Game Boy Color NA: March 25, 1999[1] JP: April 23, 1999 EU: 1999 Game Boy Advance JP: July 25, 2003 NA: October 28, 2003 EU: October 31, 2003
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Top Gear Rally is a rally game for the Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance. The Game Boy Color version was released under the name Top Gear Pocket, although the European release uses the original name; the Game Boy Advance version was released in Japan under the game Top Gear Rally SP. It features five tracks. It has a feature that allows the user to give their virtual cars custom paint jobs. Although the name stayed the same, the developers changed between consoles. As a result, the games are very different depending on the platform, but they often have similar features such as the paint shop.

Game versions

Nintendo 64

On the Nintendo 64, Top Gear Rally features a realistic physics model with functioning suspension. At the time, this was an impressive new gameplay development. Road surfaces, including their imperfections, were accurately modeled to give the player the feeling of actually driving a car.

The performance of each vehicle in the game was unique. Not only with respect to engine power, but also areas such as tire grip, suspension stiffness, steering tightness, and between different drive-trains such as front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and four-wheel drive. The game also features the possibility of damaging the vehicles, although the damage does not affect performance.

The game's graphics were considered quite advanced for a home console system, being better than the PlayStation's then-available offerings. Smooth, non-pixelated, texture-mapped surfaces, highly detailed cars, and complex environments were displayed at a generally smooth frame rate. However, the number of on-screen vehicles couldn't exceed three without game speed being impaired.

Because neither Kemco or Boss Games Studios had licenses to use the real car names, the car names are somewhat disguised within the game. One can identify the cars either by looks or by the fact that the disguised names are often reminiscent of the real names.

The game features a soundtrack consisting of music with roots in the trance genre. The electronic XM music was composed by Barry Leitch, who also worked on the prior Top Gear games for the Super NES.

A noted game-play flaw with the Nintendo 64 version of the game is that it is possible for the player to gain an immense advantage over the computer players by riding the rails on the sides of the road in most tracks. The rails don't slow the car down nearly as much as normal cornering or drifting, allowing the player to maintain top speed even through very sharp turns. Boss Games' later N64 title, World Driver Championship, did not have this oversight.

Music

The Japanese and European releases of Top Gear Rally had a different title tune than the North American version. The Japanese and European releases used hardcore dance music while the North American version was more mild and dramatic, produced by Barry Leitch.

Windows

Top Gear Rally was also ported to the PC and released in 1999 as Boss Rally.

Game Boy Advance

The Game Boy Advance version has 3D graphics considered impressive for the system.^[2] It was released in 2003.

Reception

Reception

Review scores Publication Score GBA GBC N64 AllGame N/A [3] [4] Edge N/A N/A 7/10[5] EGM N/A N/A 7.5/10[6] Eurogamer 5/10[7] N/A N/A Famitsu 30/40[8] N/A N/A Game Informer 8/10[9] 6/10[10] 8/10[11] GamePro N/A N/A [12] GameSpot 8.3/10[2] 5.3/10[13] 6.2/10[14] GameSpy [15] N/A N/A Hyper N/A N/A 87%[16] IGN 8/10[17] 7/10[1] 8.4/10[18] Nintendo Power 3.7/5[19] 5.1/10[20] 7.5/10[21] Aggregate scores GameRankings 77%[22] 63%[23] 76%[24] Metacritic 78/100[25] N/A N/A

The Game Boy Advance version received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.^[25] In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of one seven, two eights, and one seven for a total of 30 out of 40.^[8]

Sequels

• Top Gear Rally 2
• Top Gear Overdrive

References

External links

• Top Gear Rally (Nintendo 64) at MobyGames
• Top Gear Pocket at MobyGames
• Top Gear Rally (Game Boy Advance) at MobyGames