REVIEW: F1 - 2004 Racing
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"When Ferrari F1 control the vehicle world, MacLaren motorcade catches up with and surpass Ferrari courageously. Williams,Renault, Jordan, etc. are in competition We push out our own new style racing-car F1-2004. It brings you vivid feeling in theworld of racing-cycle. The fans of racing-car, let’s take action and go to experience the stimulus of car racing together!"
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The folks at Timetop seem to be a confused bunch most of the time, with odd box write-ups rarely matching the action going on in the games themselves.
Never one to worry about a licence being out of reach, here our happy developers apparently got together and decided to cash in on the popularity of F1 racing. In typical Timetop fashion they did so by releasing a game that has absolutely nothing to do with F1 racing and liberally sprinkling F1 references through its seams.
F1-2004 is actually closer in mechanics (no pun indented) to being a bog standard Out-Run clone. Races take place in ambiguous deserts with only far and distant mountains for scenery. The idea is to finish in the top 3 of the race by making sure you overtake the other 50 cars racing againt you.
There really isn't a lot of challenge in the gameplay as its only a matter of holding down accellerate and braking occasionally to veer around a car.
Never one to worry about a licence being out of reach, here our happy developers apparently got together and decided to cash in on the popularity of F1 racing. In typical Timetop fashion they did so by releasing a game that has absolutely nothing to do with F1 racing and liberally sprinkling F1 references through its seams.
F1-2004 is actually closer in mechanics (no pun indented) to being a bog standard Out-Run clone. Races take place in ambiguous deserts with only far and distant mountains for scenery. The idea is to finish in the top 3 of the race by making sure you overtake the other 50 cars racing againt you.
There really isn't a lot of challenge in the gameplay as its only a matter of holding down accellerate and braking occasionally to veer around a car.
Considering the limited resolution of the Gameking the spinny 3d renderings of the cars you can choose from are impressive...
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...even if they don't look anything like Formula 1 cars. FNot that it matters as they all look like the same poorly constructed tank in-game anyway!
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You are also given various tracks to select from although the backgrounds are all pretty much identical.
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No, we don't know why all of these alleged F1 races are taking place on Outrun style dirt roads in the middle of the desert either. It's best not to overthink Timetop's logic.
It's a shame that the gameplay is so mundane because what precedes it is fairly promising with a nice 3d car selection screen and track selection being rendered redundant by every car and landscape looking pretty much identical in-game.
The Gameking's above average sound is once again used well here, with an actual voice sample counting down to the race and screaming "Let's go y'all!"
Sadly its probably the last moment of excitement you'll feel while playing it.
Even more annoyingly, the game doesn't even contain a proper tournament, so regardless of whether you win or lose a race you are taken back to the title screen to start all over again.
This latter decision is baffling as there might at least have been something of a challenge in beating all of the tracks consecutively. As it is, its as if Timetop had finished with their little tech demo and are actively reminding you of the pointlessness of playing the actual game. Here at Obsolete Worlds, we are ready to battle through all manner of low-fi gaming challenges, but when the game itself can't even be bothered to let you continue, it's a hard ask for the player to care.
Score 5/10
The Gameking's above average sound is once again used well here, with an actual voice sample counting down to the race and screaming "Let's go y'all!"
Sadly its probably the last moment of excitement you'll feel while playing it.
Even more annoyingly, the game doesn't even contain a proper tournament, so regardless of whether you win or lose a race you are taken back to the title screen to start all over again.
This latter decision is baffling as there might at least have been something of a challenge in beating all of the tracks consecutively. As it is, its as if Timetop had finished with their little tech demo and are actively reminding you of the pointlessness of playing the actual game. Here at Obsolete Worlds, we are ready to battle through all manner of low-fi gaming challenges, but when the game itself can't even be bothered to let you continue, it's a hard ask for the player to care.
Score 5/10
