Dont get me wrong, the classic games are still classics so if I come across as more negative than I should (as always, lol), it's because I'm discussing the collection itself, the glass instead of the juice, the trailer but not the movie, and the fireworks without the boom. I still love Top Gear 1, 2 and 3, and after Horizon Chase, the "franchise" seemed to "reborn" (if we consider it from the same series), so of course when this collection was announced at first I was excited, however then I remembered how many companies these days were abusing of remakes and ports of old video games, making the minimum possible effort... and well... Being that these games are so easily accessible, in my ideal scenario I would ask for a decompilation at this point. But of course, they had to do the minimum as always. And not even that. I feel like we have been fooled to some extent.
Let's go in parts, we have the trilogy completely intact for better or worse, in this sense I say it because all the flaws are present, such as the low framerate or the permanently split screen of the first game (although at this point I think i would consider it as its "charm", whether i like it or not). I know these games are basically running on emulators but even at those standards it falls flat. Why? Ugh, lets start with it: There is barely any filters, the scale options are trash, there is no way for overclock the game, the menus somehow have loading times, hell i think even the menus are poorly optimized (how this even asks for a I5?). This is one of my problems with modern exact ports of old games, and maybe one of the reasons of why i hate modern gaming (for the most part), and is that it somehow ask you for very modern hardware even if it didnt need it. I mean, anyone has probably those PCs nowadays, is just that is still bullit. Most things are easily modified on modern emulators, so why something you have to pay like $10 (which in my country anything pass $5 is expensive, sorry for living there, lol), doesnt even had some basic options? How is that the Super Mario All Stars Collection which was fundamentally better (at least for Galaxy and Sunshine) was criticized and not this?! Top Gear deserves better, is one of the most underrated SNES games and this is what we get?
And later we have Top Racer Crossroads which for a moment i though it would be the equivalent of Sonic Mania, but oh no, is just a damn hack rom for the first game.... A hack rom disguised as a new game... It can even barely classify as that! Is just a palette swap for the cars! This entire collection just feels barebones in every single way! Well, almost.
I think if i said that there wasnt any decompilation i would be lying since there is a custom cup mode and you can play the individual tracks (online doesnt count since that is easily achievable by emulation), which made me think why they didnt took more time and tried to decompile the entire thing to have the closest to the best version of these games? Its really a missed opportunity.
Modernist people could easily get a better experience in the other way. I mean, may not been legal, but it shouldnt be legal either to sell roms with barely any effort behind. I honestly only recommend this if you somehow are scared of configuring out emulators, or want to try a few features, but i still think even if this was like $1, i feel like people just got used to this practices and well, what more i can do? Not supporting it thats for sure.
Let's go in parts, we have the trilogy completely intact for better or worse, in this sense I say it because all the flaws are present, such as the low framerate or the permanently split screen of the first game (although at this point I think i would consider it as its "charm", whether i like it or not). I know these games are basically running on emulators but even at those standards it falls flat. Why? Ugh, lets start with it: There is barely any filters, the scale options are trash, there is no way for overclock the game, the menus somehow have loading times, hell i think even the menus are poorly optimized (how this even asks for a I5?). This is one of my problems with modern exact ports of old games, and maybe one of the reasons of why i hate modern gaming (for the most part), and is that it somehow ask you for very modern hardware even if it didnt need it. I mean, anyone has probably those PCs nowadays, is just that is still bullit. Most things are easily modified on modern emulators, so why something you have to pay like $10 (which in my country anything pass $5 is expensive, sorry for living there, lol), doesnt even had some basic options? How is that the Super Mario All Stars Collection which was fundamentally better (at least for Galaxy and Sunshine) was criticized and not this?! Top Gear deserves better, is one of the most underrated SNES games and this is what we get?
And later we have Top Racer Crossroads which for a moment i though it would be the equivalent of Sonic Mania, but oh no, is just a damn hack rom for the first game.... A hack rom disguised as a new game... It can even barely classify as that! Is just a palette swap for the cars! This entire collection just feels barebones in every single way! Well, almost.
I think if i said that there wasnt any decompilation i would be lying since there is a custom cup mode and you can play the individual tracks (online doesnt count since that is easily achievable by emulation), which made me think why they didnt took more time and tried to decompile the entire thing to have the closest to the best version of these games? Its really a missed opportunity.
Modernist people could easily get a better experience in the other way. I mean, may not been legal, but it shouldnt be legal either to sell roms with barely any effort behind. I honestly only recommend this if you somehow are scared of configuring out emulators, or want to try a few features, but i still think even if this was like $1, i feel like people just got used to this practices and well, what more i can do? Not supporting it thats for sure.
