Original Release: Konami, 1987, MSX
Other Releases: Game Boy (1991), PC (2008)
This pioneering racing title from Konami was one of the first to pair the basic top-down “Micro Machines” style with more complex elements like car customization and more of an emphasis on realism.
F1 Spirit Remake (PC, Brain Games, 2008)
Where to Buy: Freeware – download here (official site)
Review by: C. M0use
This nice fan remake from 2008 stays very faithful to the particulars of the original game but gives it a pleasant aesthetic tune-up that makes it feel like a PSP title, including an improvement to the soundtrack. It even has online leaderboards and multiplayer!
It’s a very impressive package (and free), but one minor complaint is that the default control setup is a bit of a PITA. It says that it supports gamepads, but you have to wade through the menu and manually select this option for each player for each individual race … and then, at least for me, it didn’t even work anyway. The default keyboard control is also poorly set up with the acceleration on the space bar, when holding the up arrow (which is unused) would seem to make a lot more sense. Anyway, you’ll want to set up something like Joy2Key to play this one. Shame that it doesn’t work right out of the box, but at the low low price of free it’s hard to complain too much.
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