Developer:

Publisher:

Genre:

Players:

Release Date:

Graphics-9.2: The graphics on Sega Touring Car is awesome! When I first heard about the game being announced, I thought there was no chance that the graphics would even come close to being that great. In fact, I expected it to be a little worse than Sega Rally considering how much nicer and cleaner it was in the arcades than Sega Rally. But Tetsuya Mizuguchi and company have outdone themselves and managed to make a game with graphics that come super-close to the arcade with minimal draw-in, pop-up, clipping, and loss of animation frames. Of course, occasionally the animation does drop a little from the usual 30fps but it is rare and hardly affects the flow of the game. A great bang up job by AM Annex here.

Sound-10: I can't believe how closely the sound in this game matches the arcade! All of the sounds are duplicated very nicely and sound super clean. The music is also very well done, I don't know which Japanese group did it, I believe it was Avex Trax(?) who did some of the musical score. In any case, it's so awesome I think I may import the Sega Touring Car soundtrack and maybe pick up a copy of Avex Trax's album. A great job done here.

Control without 3D Control Pad-6.0: The controls without the 3D digital/analog control pad really isn't that great. I couldn't stand using the tap-tap method of driving while playing with the pad. So much in fact that I actually stopped the system, dug out my 3D digital/analog control pad just to play using the analog controller. If you have a regular pack-in controller it's not really too bad, but I would still recommend getting a 3D digital/analog controller.

Control with 3D Control Pad-10: While playing the game with the 3D digital/analog controller, it's just simply wonderful! The amount of control you get while using it is just so great, that if you do have both a regular pack-in controller and 3D digital/analog controller, I recommend trying the game using both. I'm sure everyone who does will agree that the 3D digital/analog controller gives more effective response and feels more natural in use than the standard Saturn controller. Like I said above, if you don't already have a 3D digital/analog controller yet, go and buy one. It's worth it for this game!

Challenge-9.0: Not too hard, and not too easy, it's sure to challenge driving game fans of all levels of experience. Beat the game using all the modes in Arcade or Saturn mode? Go to the other mode and beat the tracks there too. There's plenty here to challenge almost everyone, from beginner to experienced drivers.

FunFactor-9.5: Yes, there are the Arcade side and Saturn side modes of play, plus 3 tracks, extra modes, and unique differences between the 2 sides, plus a few nifty secrets to discover packed into one nicely presented package and you've got a hell of a killer driving game. There's enough in here to please any driving game fan, plus if you still need more challenge and have a Saturn Netlink modem you can dial up Sega of Japan's Sega Touring Car homepage(http://www.sega.co.jp/stc/) and enter to be a part of the worldwide tournament that starts on Dec.24, 1997 for 24 hrs. only. The competition starts at 7:00 p.m. Pacific and all the participants need is a copy of this game, a Saturn, and a Netlink modem to play and send your best times. What a great idea, and a neat way to give players all over the world a reason to master this game! It's things like this which boost the funfactor up, and give players more incentive to master this game and be the best Touring Car racer in the world.(Not to mention have bragging rights for a super long time!)

Overall-9.8: With the nice graphics, great sounds, wonderful music, and awesome controls(with 3D digital/analog controller), plus the extras like the new modes, tracks and cars that are unlocked after beating the standard tracks; this game is sure to please for a damn long time. I can't think of a reason not to pick up this great game, unless you despise driving game a lot!! And I don't know many gamers who despise Sega racing games that much.

--Start Review: Sega Touring Car--

If you liked Virtua Racing back when it was released in the arcades, Daytona USA, Sega Rally, Sega Touring Car(obviously since this game was in the arcades too), Manx TT, and Super GT, and you bought all the racing games Sega has released to the home systems and loved them..... You'll love the Saturn version of Sega Touring Car. This game takes all the best elements of Sega's past driving game glories and wrapped them together in a totally complete package. And that's not all, to make this game even more enticing to driving game fanatics, they've got a worldwide competition that starts on Dec. 24, 1997 at 7:00 pm Pacific that opens up a special Global Net Event track available only on that day! During this time for 24 hours, all competitors need to participate is a Saturn, Netlink modem, and a copy of STC to play. If you want, you can sit in front of the Saturn and TV for hours and keep playing until you get a time you're satisfied with and register that to the ranking board. If you win(no US residents can win any prizes, just bragging rights), you can win prizes from Sega plus the bragging rights as the best STC racer in the world!! What a great way to get everyone in the world in a little friendly competition for the best STC racer in the world. But other than that, the game also has very nice clean graphics, great sounds, wonderful controls, and awesome music by a group named Avex Trax(?). It's all so great and adds to what is already a wonderful racing game. If you've already read my rating above, you'll know what all the good points are for this game in my opinion personally. So now I'm going to get into the game's bad points from here on to the end of the review. First of all and this is the most minor complaint, the game sucks using just a regular Saturn pack-in controller. The tap-tap method of driving used a lot in Daytona USA just doesn't cut it in this game and the digital controls just don't afford much flexibility in steering your car. If you really want to have the most awesome control on your car you NEED to have the 3D digital/analog controller. Without it, power sliding and steering becomes a real chore and makes the car harder to steer with precision. You need to be able to exercise total control on the cars in STC because this game has very realistic car physics that are just as unforgiving as driving in a real tournament(I wouldn't know what its like to compete in the real thing but I'm sure there's a very small amount of room for error.). Screw up badly enough and you'll just have to start all over again from the start. My other complaint is that the analog control on the game doesn't kick in until you switch to digital mode and then back to analog once when you first start the game. My copy requires me to do this and will not work unless I it once. If I just boot the Saturn on analog mode and try to use it, the car won't move until I move the switch back and forth once. After that though, I don't need to do it again unless I power down the Saturn and play it again later. My other quibble is that Sega of America should've found a way to enable the US players a way to win prizes rather than just having their rankings up their on Sega of Japan's ranking board. What's the fun in competing if you can't win anything? Sure the bragging rights are awful nice, but why would you want to waste your time perfecting your track times if there is nothing to get in return for all the practice? I'm sure a lot of players won't like the fact that they're wasting time in a competition for nothing when they could be doing something else. But that's also minor. Other than these minor complaints, I must say that this game satisfies my need for a good driving game. I've waited a long time for this game to come, and now that it's here I'm glad I bought it. It's just a great game that every racing fanatic needs to buy.