Hey guys,
I lucked out last weekend. I found Top Gear 3000 for my SNES for $10 plus taxes CAD(worked out to $11.30), no shipping, no handling IN A FRIGGIN' STORE. Kid you not. I played a couple of races "testing it out", and then K put the kibosh on it.
Something about spending time with her. Girlfriends, sheesh.
For those of you who have never played a Top Gear game after the first one on the SNES and I believe Genesis, Top Gear 3000 is more or less one of the many games that helped inspire the driving sims that are Gran Turismo and Forza - except Top Gear only sported Ferraris back then, if I remember right.
So, you race (duh), earn money, upgrade your car and continue to race until you've completed the whole schtick. It's a hell of a lot of fun, especially 3000, which has a gentler learning curve than Top Gear 2, where the series started this formula, continued to Top Gear 2000 (I haven't played Top Gear 2000, so I can't speak for it), and persisted to Top Gear 3000. After it hit the next generation after the SNES with Top Gear Rally, you lost the privilege to upgrade, but could use different vehicles, and then it returned to form with Top Gear Overdrive (excellent game), which also let you choose vehicles as well as modify them.
Now, what's so special about Top Gear 3000? Well, for one, it's not all that common. Two, it was actually almost impossible to emulate for quite some time, and it had everything to do with Mode 7 graphics emulation. SNES 9x can now do this. However, back in 1999 - 2002 when I was trying to decide if emulation and I could ever be friends (not happening), it didn't. So, now that Mode 7 emulation is possible, Top Gear 3000 carts on their own are worth about $15 - $20 on EBay before shipping fees. Yeah, I beat EBay. Like that was hard...
So, there you have it. And if you can't find Top Gear 3000 (or, if I remember right, the even rarer Top Gear 2000), Top Gear 2 is a great settling point. Do yourselves a favor and give this series a go. The gameplay still holds up today.
