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Gameplay
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Strangely, the release of Top Gear Pocket has been met with neither fanfare nor publicity. The fact that U.S. gamers are experiencing something new before the Japanese is cause for celebration, but maybe like me, most feel that Top Gear Pocket is but a token alternative to what we really want, which is Pokemon Pinball.
As its title implies, Top Gear Pocket is a racing game that feature rally cars racing against each other on courses that range from jungles to deserts to slick city streets. It is a 3rd person racing game, which means that you control your car from the outside. There are three modes to choose from, and these are Championship mode, Time Attack mode, and if you're lucky enough to have a friend with the same game and a link cable, VS Battle mode. Options mode gives you the choice of entering your password, enabling or disabling the rumble feature and doing a sound test.
You start the game with a limited choice of cars, and each is different in capabilities
like top speed, acceleration and handling. Choosing the right car for the right course is important. Speed isn't
everything, since each course is different. A fast car with low handling for example, will only cause you to crash
on sandy desert courses that have lots of twisty bends and sudden turns. Use your brains, because fast reflexes
aren't enough to help you win a race.
You also have a choice of automatic or manual transmission. If you're new to racing games, automatic will be your
best bet, since it can be confusing to navigate and shift gears at the same time. Later on, when you're more familiar
with the courses and cars, you should switch to manual transmission since it offers better speed, and better control
by down-shifting on tight bends.
As soon as you've chosen your car and course, the race begins. In Championship mode,
you are not racing alone as there are 8 other cars wanting to be first. You will not see them on the starting line,
since you always start last and have to race your way up to the top three positions.
The controls are simple. You steer the car left or right with the directional pad (and shift gears up or down if
you're using a manual car), while the A button acts as your accelerator and the B button your brake.
It is during the race that the rumble feature kicks into action. Anytime you hit the shoulder, skid or bump into
another car, you will feel the rumble. At first, it can be quite shocking, but after a while, you will begin to
enjoy the sense of realism that the rumble feature lends to the game.
There are many twist and turns on each course, though you start out with the simpler ones. Each time you finish
a course in the top three, more are opened to you that are progressively harder. But don't despair, since winning
also means discovering new cars that are better and faster. Sadly, as you progress, so will your opponents who
not only get faster but meaner as well. Oh, did I forget to mention that your opponents will try to run you off
the road? Yes, they will, so you should take this as a warning to avoid them as much as possible. Trying to run
them off the road will do you no good, since any kind of planned collision will only slow you down.
In Time attack mode, however, there are no opponents. It's just you against the clock. It's a lonely affair, but
good as practice to see which cars are better on which courses.
My only gripe is that there wasn't much to see during a race. The courses all looked the same, with just a few scattered cacti or buildings for eye candy. The sound effects were passable, but sadly there is no racing music to get the heart thumping. The opponents too, seemed to little and few, and after you've passed one, it feels like you're all alone on that acrid, desert road.
In my estimation, the cars handled well, and the programmers did a good job in calculating the correct dynamics and feel. However, there wasn't much noticeable differences in each car, since I used the same one for nearly all the courses.
All in all, there is enough in Top Gear Pocket to please any racing fan. There are lots of cars to choose from, mean opponents, different courses and a frame rate that is respectable enough to get the adrenaline going. The rumble feature, in my opinion, is a definite success, and Top Gear Pocket deserves a place on any GameBoy owner's wish list.