Fun fact: Top Gear was created by Gremlin Graphics, a British studio that made its name on home computers with the Lotus series. It later became Gremlin Interactive. The looping soundtrack is by Barry Leitch, whose driving tunes are as much a part of the cartridge as the pixels. Kemco handled publishing in several territories, showing the mix of British development and Japanese distribution that was common on the Super NES.
All right, I just hit power — cartridge clicks in like a ritual. The title screen music already has that arcade ambition. Choose your car. The Eagle has the top speed, but its fuel consumption is brutal.
I lean toward the Panther for grip and acceleration balance. Four cars with distinct stats is something I appreciate. It forces you to tailor strategy to each track. Also, split-screen for two players looks clean, and the frame rate holds up even when we’re neck-and-neck.
Gameplay highlights: circuits span Brazil, USA, France, and Japan. Locales feel distinct not only for texture variety but also for environmental hazards. Iron plates, gravel patches, and debris force you to think about racing lines. Pit stops add strategy; in longer tracks you choose whether those seconds to refill are worth it. Sometimes you gamble to limp to the finish, other times you stop and come out with more speed.
I like that qualifying requires finishing at least fifth. It adds tension without the artificial “lives” system many arcade racers use. Computer opponents seem to have a slight speed edge, which keeps single-player challenging. Still, the difficulty curve can spike on certain circuits.
Hot tips while we play:
- Pick a car that suits the track: high-speed models for straights, better-grip cars for mountain stages.
- Use boost sparingly — it’s tempting to hold it, but fuel drains fast and you risk running empty.
- Learn the iron plate sequences. They unsettle your car if approached wrong; nudge brakes and re-accelerate to keep control.
- In two-player split-screen, watch mini time gaps. Sometimes holding position is better than reckless overtaking.
- Write down passwords. No internet to check them; paper is the only reliable save right now.
Memorable moments so far? There was that stretch through the rain in the Japan circuit — the way the music tightens and visibility drops makes every passing car feel dramatic. And the pit stop in the long desert track: I barely made it in with one bar of fuel and exiting with full tanks felt like a small triumph. The sound of the engine revving after a good corner is oddly satisfying because the audio really sells speed even when the sprite scale is limited.
Anecdote: remember last night when we tried the USA coastal track and you decided to hug the left edge to avoid most traffic? It worked until the cluster of stones ambushed you three corners from the end. We both laughed so hard you could almost hear the cartridge giggling. Moments like that are why this cartridge stays on the shelf.
The rough edges are worth mentioning candidly. Controls can feel slippery in places where you expect more weight and in a few tracks the CPU pull can be a bit too generous. There are occasions when collision detection feels unforgiving: you touch a truck and it’s as though the game insists you’ve committed a cardinal sin. Also, the visual repetition across some levels becomes noticeable after many hours.
That is why we’d give it a B. It excels at arcade racing excitement and has design choices — pit stops, distinct car stats, world circuits — that reward practice. At the same time, some balancing quirks and occasional unfair collisions keep it from feeling truly flawless.
Final boss anecdote — not a single giant car with lasers, of course, but the final championship race plays like a boss fight. The last opponent drives like an expert: perfect lines, aggressive draft, and a tendency to push you off ideal sections. In the final laps I was pacing behind that rival, timing boosts to draft and overtake on the straight. On the final corner the rival clipped a row of iron plates and spun, handing the lead to me by a sliver of a second. It felt cinematic: the sort of climax a console racer does best without needing a literal boss monster.
Closing thoughts while we cross the finish line: Top Gear on SNES is fun, competitive, and musically iconic. Its faults show when you grind circuits for championships but the core racing loop is pure and enjoyable. For those of us with controllers held like wands and a stack of passwords on a desk, this is a game we will replay for the rush of a perfectly executed overtaking maneuver and the small victories in the pit lane.
