Do you ever look back and think; The world of gaming has changed.
Because, clearly it has.
Often we think it's for the worse, but sometimes it's actually for the better.
I know that may come as a shock, but World Grand Prix.
Here's a game, which if released today, would just be chuckled all the back back to the
developers.
It's not that it's inherently bad, it's just, there's very little to the main game.
It's like those LCD toys where you could jump to the left and right, to dodge obstacles.
Nothing really happened.
Your score went up, and you kept playing.
Sometimes you'd die and start again.
But the point is, we played this stuff.
We played the living hell out of it.
For hours.
Even games today can't grip me for that long.
I'll lay some of the blame at the doors of youth.
Some at this magical new digital world, but the rest...
I dunno.
I genuinely enjoyed playing games like World Grand Prix.
Time passed, but in a smoother fashion.
My brain was engaged in a pleasurable activity.
Yet on the face of it, there looks to be more pleasure in a tin of baked beans.
Developed and published by Sega and released in 1986, this was one of the early Master
System games available on "The Mega Cartridge", and redeem-ably the tessellated box doesn't
try and lure us into false pretenses.
Some people complain about the Western box art, compared to the Japanese.
But I actually like it's brutal simplicity.
It's really an updated version of the SG-1000 game, GP World, sharing many of the same ideas
There is zero connection to the real world of F1.
*Well, obscurely, apart from the odd piece of advertising to real companies, but* This
definitely isn't a licenced game like Domark's 1993 F1 release, but that just makes me adore
it that little bit more.
After selecting one of twelve countries, including the UK, with a seemingly never ending Houses
of Parliament, you can then master accelerating without wheel spin.
There's no scoring system as we'd commonly know it.
Instead you're ranked by position, depending on your time.
The only AI involved in the other cars is how close they are to each other when blocking
you, and that's dependent on one of three difficulty levels you select, and those cars
can be incredibly infuriating, especially when collision detection is a little off.
You do get a nice explosion to make up for it though.
As the driver of a two speed F1 Car, your task is to beat the target time to move onto
the next round.
There's only ever 1 lap, but Beat the target time and you may earn vehicle upgrades....
...Including...
an ENGIN???
There's a certain level of skill you need to acquire here, and it's very well tuned.
Skimming between other cars and the road side banners is a blissful experience.
Maybe I was too hard on this game from the outset.
Although losing is still a disappointment, as your jettisoned simply to the Game Over
screen and have to start again
But what really kept me coming back to this game was the track editor!
You can throw together whatever track you like and then race it!
I mean, you're not doing much other than placing the same twists and turns here and there.
But the joy of playing my own, created track, was fairly unique at the time.
I'd only really experienced something similar with Locomotion on the Spectrum, where you
have to guide a train to safety.
But this was a very different game.
This was faster than a train, and I was in control.
I think that sums up the element of gaming which I've always enjoyed.
The freedom.
That's why games like Doom were more fun than on the rail shooters like Creature Shock.
That's why firing up the Doom level editor was the best thing since..
well...
Doom! and that's why, although gaming has changed, the core of it, has mostly remained
the same.
Good job World Grand Prix.