Original Release: Accolade, 1989, Assorted computers
Other Releases: Atari ST (1990), Genesis/SNES (1992)
The Test Drive sequel mostly keeps the same formula but adds a few more advanced elements: varying terrain elevation, more course segments, and a CPU car to race against
Test Drive 2 (SNES, Accolade, 1992)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: SNES Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
The follow-up to Test Drive pretty much keeps the same gameplay engine and formula but makes it more comfy (four selectable difficulties, the lower two have automatic shifting) and expands the horizons a bit with a choice of four tracks. Unfortunately, at least in the console ports, the tradeoff for these new features is that you only get three cars to choose from.
It’s the same setup of short stretches of track with gas stations serving as a rest / checkpoint between, but this time there’s another car racing you. The scoring system is a little wonky, at least in the SNES port, but apparently in an ultimately harmless way. You can see the other car’s position at all times, and you can go about as fast as possible the entire segment and just dust the other guy yet be greeted with “this car can go faster” and “you’re losing the race” at the gas station. You never actually seem to get kicked out of the game though, and at the final checkpoint it suddenly reverses to you winning the game (and you keep your points total), so whatever I guess. You can also just run courses solo for time/score attack purposes.
Cops and the radar detector are also back, but also simplified in this edition, in the sense that there’s no real logical choice but to just ignore and outrun them. If you try slowing down to let them go after the other car, in theory they will but the dopey AI script usually just gets stuck behind some other vehicle (never tries to pass) and blocks your way forever. Fortunately the cops are trivial to shake if you’re going near max speed.
Aside from looking a little nicer/more detailed in general and adding the other racer, the big technological advance here was the ability to launch over bumps on some tracks and catch a little air (complete with digitized “WOOOAAH!”) A minor thing, but it does help to contribute to the game’s general solid feel of driving physics (one of the best examples from the relatively primitive 16 bit era). For some reason they insisted on a ton of bird poop specks randomly appearing on your window, however, and there’s no way to turn that off so I could see it driving OCD people crazy.
As with the prequel the game is basically Balls Out: The Checkpoint Simulator, offering nothing more than just a test of your reflexes and driving acumen as you go as fast as possible along short road stretches that are sparsely populated. That’s still fairly fun in its own right, however, with the very decent handling/feel and the port handling pseudo-3D sprite scaling about as well as could be expected on the SNES.
This version is a fine port, in an era where that wasn’t all that common for games moving from PC to console, but you might want to go to the computer versions anyway for a larger car roster and the ability to add more tracks via expansion disks.
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