Virtua Racing Review (Sega Genesis, 1994)

Sega arcade games in the 90s were truly ahead of their time. The company may have been best known for the Sega Genesis console at the time, but they ruled the world of coin-op video games. Their development studios were making titles that looked next gen years before that was even a thing. They were pushing polygons and 3D gameplay in a world ruled by sprites. Unfortunately that meant they couldn’t port most of them to the much weaker Sega Genesis. In one particular case they defied all odds and succeeded. This is Virtua Racing, and with the use of a specialized processing chip in the cartridge Sega managed to get it running on the 16-bit Genesis. Today we’re going to take a look at this version to see if it’s worth playing. Let’s check out Virtua Racing on the Sega Genesis.

As I’ve already mentioned the appeal of Virtua Racing is in its 3D polygonal graphics. This was a feat unheard of on the Sega Genesis. Because of the special chip shoved in the cartridge shell had to be larger than pretty much every other release on the console. Besides the 3D graphics this is a pretty traditional racing game. Virtua Racer has you competing against seven other cars. Your goal is to come in first by the time you complete the third lap. You’re also competing against a timer and you only gain additional seconds to it when crossing checkpoints. If you run out of time the race ends and it’s game over. I can appreciate that Virtua Racing doesn’t throw any gimmicks into the mix. What you have here is a traditional racer that sticks to the assignment.

Unfortunately it’s not a very good one I’m sad to say. I wasn’t expecting the game to run as competently as it did in the arcades, but the gameplay engine really struggles. There are severe framerate issues, collision detection problems, and some questionable physics. It makes Virtua Racing kind of a chore to play. There were times when I bumped into a wall and couldn’t predict which way my car would bounce. Other times I was sure I had cleared a car or obstacle only to find my vehicle knocked back as if I hit it head on. Eventually I was able to overcome most of these problems but I didn’t have much fun figuring it out.

This brings me to the next issue. The graphics are rendered at such a low resolution that it can be difficult to see the other vehicles. In many instances I collided with other cars simply because I didn’t see them. The game also suffers from a significant amount of pop-in which can make anticipating turns overly difficult. Sometimes you just don’t have enough time to react. To compensate for this I had to memorize landmarks. Structures like windmills and ferris wheels in the background are good guides. The problem is this extra work I put into the game wasn’t worth it in the end. I feel like you have to constantly find ways to compensate for Virtua Racing’s technical shortcomings to even mildly enjoy it. That just feels like bad design in my opinion.

I could forgive some of these issues if the base game was solid. It’s not. One of Virtua Racing’s big downfalls is its difficulty. You have to be just about perfect in order to finish a race before the timer runs out. The game affords you very few errors. In the expert stage you can only get away with one or two collisions before you’re doomed to failure. Even the beginner level is unforgiving. What’s frustrating is I felt like most of the errors I made weren’t completely my fault. The aforementioned issues really are detrimental to success. In turn they also make Virtua Racing less fun to play. I’m more than familiar with early 3D gaming, and I pretty much knew what to expect here. That doesn’t mean Virtua Racing deserves a free pass though.

Another problem is that Virtua Racing lacks content. This was a problem with a lot of 3D titles but the issue is really bad here. For one thing you only have one choice for vehicle. That’s a questionable choice even for an arcade game from this era. At least you can choose between automatic and manual transmission. Another problem is the lack of courses. There are only three to choose from with no unlockables. These are simply labeled beginner, medium and expert. They have feature varying terrain and gradually build in complexity and number of turns. They do each feature different landmarks and terrain, but they aren’t different enough from one another. Sega should have pushed the envelope more with changes in terrain or even incorporating things like tunnels. As it stands the differentiations in each stage are too insignificant.

Controls are also a bit problematic. Although they’re very responsive it feels like the car’s tires don’t properly grip the road. This can be chalked up to the poor physics. In these instances I can clearly see the tires turn, but it takes half a second before the car accurately reacts. The brakes also suffer from this issue. In these instances you can see them throw off smoke, but your vehicle doesn’t seem to slow down accordingly. It just makes the game more difficult because you’re constantly compensating for these problems as well. What is neat however is that the game features four different camera angles. When using the Sega Genesis six button controller these are triggered by X, Y and Z. You can view the action from the driver’s seat, behind the car, zoomed out, and even use a birds eye perspective.

Thankfully there are a few other options. The game offers you a free run mode. This takes away the timer as well as the other racers and just lets you drive. Honestly free run is almost more fun than the regular single player mode. Fortunately the game also includes multiplayer. You and another friend can compete head to head via split screen. I only had a chance to briefly try this out and the framerate and pop-in are worse. That’s to be expected, but considering this was already an issue I don’t recommend it. Other options include changing the difficulty and controls. There’s also a sound test where you can listen to the voice samples as well as music. These aren’t particularly significant but at least it’s something.

The graphics are extremely problematic. On one hand it’s impressive to see polygonal graphics on the Sega Genesis. On the other too many concessions had to be made to get it to even run. First of all everything is super low poly. I actually like this look. The problem is that some scenery like trees are just flat. It looks strange compared to everything else including the cars. Virtua Racing also uses a horrible dithering effect. The hardware didn’t have great color capabilities so they tried this to generate different shades. It didn’t work, and looks bad. Of course there’s also the framerate problems but I’ve already covered that. Virtua Racing just isn’t very pleasant to look at.

On the other hand the soundtrack is kind of neat. It’s classic Sega through and through. I loved the bouncy themes. These were also re-created quite well in spite of the horrible Genesis sound chip. I also found the voice samples were quite good. They’re much more clear than in most other examples on the platform. It also helps that the announcer sounds like they were having a fantastic time while recording them in the studio. The graphics aren’t good, but at least the music is enjoyable. I almost like the soundtrack here as much as the arcade version. That’s saying a lot.