Games' Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Players, Pawns, and Power-Ups

30. Shifting Gears

232 30 Shifting Gears It is easy to think “racing games” involve cars of some type speeding around some form of track. While many racing games across the history of video games do conform to that expectation, there is a lot more variety to racing games than some might assume. From cars to motorcycles to futuristic vehicles, racing games pit a player’s reflexes against computerized opponents, other players, and the game’s virtual environment in an attempt to be the first one across the finish line. Racing games often break ground in the forms of hardware and design and can be the most accessible forms of video games to players of all ages and experience. 1. EXCITEBIKE If you had a Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985, chances are you owned this popular motocross racing game. The game was simple: race your bike over multiple obstacles and avoid cheap hits by the computerized opponents to win the race. The game required some coordination concerning the bike angles for ramps and knowing when to speed up just enough without overheating—and stalling for the cool-off. What made Excitebike truly special, however, was that players could actually create their own tracks for racing. Creating massive jumps and oil slick obstacles was immense fun and players could race on their tracks solo or against the Shifting Gears 233 computer. Sadly, such customized tracks could not be saved unless one owned a Japanese NES and Famicom Data Recorder peripheral. 2. BURNOUT 3: TAKEDOWN Released for PlayStation 2 and Xbox systems in 2004, Burnout 3: Takedown is the most popular of the Burnout series. The biggest draw to the game was its emphasis on “takedowns ”: crashing opponents and other cars was essential to a winning strategy on several tracks. The franchise took a common racing mishap and constructed it into a game mechanic, making it an instant hit with players who love to cause mayhem through collisions. Takedown garnered numerous awards for its graphics and playability; it was a very easy racing game for anyone to play. The appeal of purposely crashing into intersections, objects, and other cars for flashy explosions and points was a big draw, as well as its nearly 70 unlockable vehicles and 173 different track events. Nothing satisfied a frustrated commuter more than causing a 50-car pileup in the middle of rush hour traffic from the safety of his or her own couch. 3. SUPER MARIO KART The first game of the highly popular Mario Kart series, Super Mario Kart hit Super Nintendo platforms in 1992 and sold over eight million copies worldwide. (It was the third bestselling SNES game of all time.) Players got to race one of eight Mario series characters through a variety of tracks in attempts to win various championship cups. The tracks were not the usual road racetracks of other racing games; these were stylized to various Mario worlds and featured incredibly unique courses with their own blend of bends, obstacles, tricks, and themes. While Super Mario Kart was fun in solo play, its multiplayer mode—using a split screen for two people—made it even more entertaining. Each of the different characters had 234 Games’ Most Wanted™ their own style of racing; combined with the various tracks, the races became addictive and fun, often ending in insults and taunts being thrown at the computer-controlled characters as they did their level best to make the players earn their victory. Nothing was more satisfying than sending Mario’s doppelganger, Wario, into a spin near the finish line from a well-placed banana peel. When Nintendo released its Wii console, an updated version of Super Mario Kart followed. Players could now face off against three other friends on the same screen. The Wii version had some old favorite tracks of the original and some seriously hard new tracks that took some skill and a healthy dose of luck to win. 4. GRAN TURISMO 5 Gran Turismo 5 (GT5) is widely lauded and considered the most accurate experience a player will get to driving high-powered race cars. The game has over one thousand cars with driving characteristics and nuances meticulously captured, wrapped up on the PlayStation 3 system. The sheer amount of detail is staggering, down to the specific distinctions of each of its seventy-one tracks. Released at the end of 2010, GT5 sold 5.5 million copies within two months. While...