Remember Outrun and the fun you had rocking that title in arcades, or one of the myriads of home ports? I preferred Outrun to Rad Racer myself, but I had a Nintendo Entertainment System, so arcades were where my racing tires, teeth(?), grew in. The speed, the challenge, if you were extremely lucky you were playing on a deluxe Sega arcade unit – a near heavenly experience that also cost more. Drive Beat is very much in the arcade vein like Outrun but it is coming to the MSX Turbo R – Microsoft’s original attempt to enter the home gaming market in the 80s.
There is some screen tearing, there is a bit of slowdown here and there, all signs of early work in progress. The screen tearing could, might, be due to the recording method used. I have no information on whether that is the fact or not. I can only react to what is being shown in the footage.
Graphically, this is 8-Bit, but it is awesome 8-Bit graphics and sound. Compared to what we got back in the day, Drive Beat would rank in the upper half of racing games released back then, lower upper half but still, I have seen much worse – Race Drivin’ anyone (it had a head-on with the Game Boy, no one survived that trash crash).
Roadside objects scale, somewhat poorly, as the MSX Turbo R is doing its best there. There is no scaling hardware so sprite-based racing fans have to take what they can get.
To me, that never bothered me, I was too busy focusing on staying on the road and avoiding the other cars flooring the gas pedal to that next check point. Roadside objects were just obstacles I had to avoid at all costs.
I do want to bring up that the developers have somehow included hills and a combination of roadside objects here. This combination on the side of the road was interesting. There are even split lanes with a median, and additional roadside objects, in some areas.
I cannot wait for Drive Beat to release; it will be on my grab and play list.
What arcade racing game was your goto? I was one to hit Outrun whenever I saw the deluxe cabinet. I also rocked Hang-On but only when I found a stand-up cabinet (I think I look stupid on a motorcycle).
