Top 6 Racing Games

Hey, I haven't done any game reviews yet, have I?

This is so exciting! I'll preface this article by saying that I don't play sports games. Racing games are not sports games. That's just how it is. Racing games are all about how fast you can react. Games about not thinking and just doing. I love it. So let's run down my personal favorite racing games in no particular order. These are the games that I still plug in when I have some buddies over and provide an experience that will never get old. Be sure not to miss these titles.

6. San Francisco Rush - N64

I don't care who you are, you've gotta love this shit.

In this game, you just pick a car and go. The maps are complicated and send you soaring through the air over city streets, buildings, you name it. Crashing causes your car to burst into a brilliant fireball and exploding like the fucking Death Star before the Lucas edits. The maps are littered with all kinds of shortcuts and intersections with other racers, causing hilarious collisions.

If you happen to get tired of the normal game (which you wouldn't), go off road and find one of the secret playgrounds. One of these playgrounds, is a huge loop-de-loop and the other, is more like a skate park, only in the side of a mountain.

This game has got hidden keys, a great over-the-top narrator and a killer soundtrack. Seriously, listen to this shit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm0Mg0T2Sl0

Witness the origen of dubstep.

5. F-Zero X - N64

Another one for the Nintendo 64, the greatest console ever made in my opinion.

Look at that shit. I know you want to play it.

F-Zero was a great game. It was amazing for the time and the races are fun to this day. F-Zero X is what you get when you give that game steroids. Now in stunning 64 bits, F-Zero was better than ever. Crazy flips, jumps, loops and everything in between, F-Zero X is as fast as it is mind blowing. You'll spend more time in this game than you thought possible trying to figure out which way is up.

Oh, God, is this safe?

You already cruise at a cool 800 mph on average, but if that's not enough, you have to have boosts as well! Yeah! And just like in San Fransico Rush, if you crash in this game, you crash hard.

Welcome to Driver's Ed. Lesson 1: driving on an incline.

I've never played another racing game that made my head spin so much as F-Zero X and for that, it deserves a solid spot on this list.

4. Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit - PC

Most people don't seem to remember the earlier Need For Speed games. Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit, was the first one I played. This was the breakthrough game. The cops are back and they're smarter than ever! The police AI had received dramatic changes since NFS II, and now, they'd attack you during a race.

We're in the middle of nowhere! Why do you care!?

I played the shit out of this game. I remember I used to be scared by the cops, so I would just inch along the track hoping my detector didn't go off. The cops had spike strips at their disposal. Three times pulled over and it's ARRESTED for you motherfucker!

Have we met before, officer?

Despite it's datedness, this game is still a blast. Not to mention, there are the cheat cars! There was the Spider-Car, the mini, the invisible one, and a host of others.

The maps are lavishly animated and diverse. The races are fast paced and intense and it's only heightened when the cops get involved. A great throwback to great times.

3. Mario Kart 64 - N64

Mario Kart was back and this time better than ever! With the standard racing mode, the battle mode, eight different characters from the Mushroom Kingdom and a ton of crazy maps, gamers had their hands full with this game. I'll never forget Wario's losing shout "Next time, Imma gonna weeeen!" Awesome.

Asshole time.

Battling with your friends never felt so gripping with all sorts of randomizing items to send their controller across the room in anger. The infamous Blue Turtle Shell is a favorite of course. Dodging the attacks from your fellow players can be just as challenging as surviving the perils of the map itself. With falling boulders, Thwomps, perilous cliffs, trucks on the highway, dickbag snowmen, fireballs, lava and a fuckton of other things, your eyes are never off the screen. I also enjoy the hidden Peach's Castle on one of the maps. It's fun to drive around on the same place you'd be running if you played Super Mario 64 (which you did).

It's all about being on top. Take beloved characters and give them karts. Great formula, great game.

2. Need For Speed: Most Wanted - Xbox

The thing that sets this racing game apart from all the others was that it was the first I remember coming out that actually had a story line. I'm guessing some fag will try to argue with me, but I don't give a shit, this was the first racing game with a plot that I played.

You're some douchebag racer who loses his car in a rigged race, and now your only way to get back to the top of the food chain is to defeat all 15 members of the Blacklist in a one on one race. They're organized by their wanted level and how hard they are. The guy on top, Razor, being the tool that took your ride. This game is interesting because it uses real people for it's cutscenes, but it doesn't look weird like those old Sega CD games...

But fuck all that, let's talk about the game itself! The racing is fast as hell and never feels repetitive. The vehicle customization is perfected in this game, providing countless performance and visual combos. But the way this game truly shines can be summed up in one word.

Pursuits.

Anyone who has played this game can attest to the heart-stopping epic that is a five-star chase. With the more absurd ones lasting for up to an hour if you're crazy enough, and hundreds of totaled cop cars along the way. This time, they don't stop with just cruisers and spike-strips. They've got road-blocks, helicopters, SUVs, corvettes and tactics up the ass. Sounding a little unfair? Don't worry, in this game, your car is not only an escape machine, but a weapon. Crashing through road-blocks at close to 200 mph sends cops flying through the air like toys and you can ram into hundreds of structures around the expansive, free-roam map to rain hell down on the cops behind you. And that never gets old. You haven't lived until you've knocked a giant novelty donut onto six or seven cops.

It's one of those, "this one time," games, where everyone who's played it has a unique story to tell about their joy-rides. It's an experience that is totally unmatched in the world of video gaming.

1. Burnout 3: Takedown - Xbox

Anyone who has played this game just said, "fuck yeah."

The fastest, most explosive racing game of it's time, Burnout 3 has no contest when you're talking about an epic multiplayer experience. It was a huge leap from the Burnout 2 that everyone was used to. Now you could blast through the worlds at unimaginable speeds, while battling your fellow racers the whole way.

As far as multiplayer goes, there's always the standard racing gametype, and then there's stuff like Road Rage, where the whole point is to wreck as many enemies as you can. I'll never get tired of slamming a friend into an oncoming car or a street divider. The wrecks are an amazing spectacle that will never get old. Cars explode into fireballs, they fly into the air and take down street-lights, they shatter into millions of pieces, they get crushed, they roll, they skid, you name it. The destruction is endless.

If you don't like that, then you can team up and play one of the most memorable gametypes of the generation.

Crash.

Oh, yeah. A game where the whole point is to launch your car into the traffic at high speeds and cause as much damage as possible. And the damage is of cataclysmic proportions. How can you go wrong? You can't. This game is amazing. Your score is measured by the amount of damage you do and you can play cooperatively, or competitively.

I swear, they thought of everything for this game. There's even a slow-motion button when you wreck where you actually can lean your car in specific directions in order to crash other racers trying to sneak by.

You don't know competitive, fast paced racing until you've played Burnout 3: Takedown.