Spirit of Speed 1937

[lastcallgames]

It was bound to happen. As soon as I expressed hope that the next game would be better, the bottom of the barrel happens.

Maybe not the bottom, because it's not as bad as Roadsters, IMHO, but still, very very low.

Spirit of Speed 1937 takes place, as you can guess, in 1937, for reasons I cannot fathom. Period games are totally ok, but a RACING game, in the Great Depression? Why?

The menu is fine, the music during it (and not during gameplay) is probably the highlight of the experience. One thing you'll realize during gameplay is the distinct lack of options you have. In Championship mode, you can't change cars, and in no races can you edit the number of laps (some races I saw went over 30), meaning that it will get really boring really fast.

The graphics are best described as bad in a special way. They're technically superior to most lazy PS1 ports, but still ugly in every way. The audio is boring. Very boring. All you hear is the whirr of your engine, and maybe another engine. There's no crash sound, no crowd, no nothing.

The gameplay is atrocious. Touchy controls, forced manual reverse (video games had figured before that holding down brake is the way to reverse in video games, until this and Roadsters decided "pffft, fuck that!"), and sheer boredom make this the least enjoyable game I've played in a while.

Let me summarize this into one sentence. This game was so bad, Acclaim didn't want their name on it, that's why they pretended LJN still existed and published the game. It's atrocious, and is the second worst game on the system. The game gets a 2/10, just because it's slightly better than Roadsters.

[mazonemayu]

added
thx

[jjmcnasty]

This game is frustrating because it could be a fun idea for a game, if it looked and played like test drive le mans it would be fun.

[lastcallgames]

Ok, who thinks they're funny?

[FinedrivE]

Have not gotten a chance to hang out with this one. I may conduct an experiment and record someone playing it after I've hyped it up as the best game ever.

Also someone has listed a copy on Ebay as "Rare". There is Japanese copy going for 70 bucks new. That is more than Marvel Vs Capcom 2.

[lastcallgames]

Maybe Japan was smart and threw all the copies into a volcano where they belong.

[FinedrivE]

Maybe Japan was smart and threw all the copies into a volcano where they belong.

A very likely outcome.