From: ejd@cimage.com (Ed Driscoll)
Subject: Re: SNES driving game clones
Summary: Not F-Zero and Top Gear!
Organization: Cimage Corp., Ann Arbor, MI
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 15:43:29 GMT

In article <1gnr90INNhkf@aludra.usc.edu> tehyang@aludra.usc.edu 
(Teh Kao Yang) writes:
  >BTW am I
  >the only person who thinks that almost every SNES driving game is a clone of 
  >F-Zero?

Well, I can't speak for everyone but I certainly don't think so.  I own
both F-Zero and Top Gear.  (The fact that I even bought them both 
is indicative that I felt they were sufficiently different -- I always
rent games before buying).

The things they have in common:

- Similar perspective (3-rd person, behind, 3/4 overhead)
- Three "turbo boosts" per track.
- Must finish in certain place to continue to next track.
- Player can select different vehicles with different acceleration/handling/
top speed characteristics.
- Both have mini on-screen "track maps" showing you your overall position
on the track.
- Difficulty settings.

Overall, that's not much, especially considering that they ARE both
racing games.  A lot of racing games are probably similar in those
same regards.

Some of the things that are different:

- Top Gear is split-screen, and allows two players to race
simultaneously.  F-Zero is full-screen single player only.

- Graphics/scenery: F-Zero has futuristic cars and scenery (mostly
abstract backgrounds).  Top Gear has "realistic" cars and scenery.  The
background scenery is much more detailed (road signs, land marks, etc).
Top Gear has sunrises and sunsets, and racing in the dark
with headlights.  Top Gear also has a lot of hills which reduce
your visibility.  Your speed increases when you're going down hill and
decreases when you're going up hill.

- Car control: While both have steering, accelerator, brake, and turbo,
F-Zero has "leaning" as an essential part of controlling
your vehicle.  Top Gear has the option of a manual transmission.
Top Gear has somewhat configurable controls (can choose from four
different control configurations); F-Zero doesn't.

- F-Zero has a damage gauge -- you have to pull into the pits if
you suffer too much damage from collisions/obstacles.  Top Gear, on the
other hand, has a fuel guage which is just based on distance and
your vehicle's mileage.  The pit stops in Top Gear are much more
expensive time-wise; you have to use a lot more strategy in deciding
when to make one.

- The F-Zero obstacles include things like magnets which suck your
vehicle over to them, and ramps - some of which you have to use to
jump gaping holes in the track.  Top Gear obstacles include 
simpler things like construction barriers and rocks.  

- Top Gear has 32 tracks, 8 countries * 4 tracks each.  You can only
go to the next country once you've got the password from the previous
country (by finishing 5th or better in all 4 races).  F-Zero has
15 tracks, 3 leagues * 5 tracks.  You can race in whichever league
you want without having to "beat" any of the other leagues.

- F-Zero has the "secret" fourth difficulty level (Master) which you
only get to play once you've beaten the third level (Expert).  As
far as I can tell, Top Gear doesn't have this.

- F-Zero has a cool explosion scene if you manage to blow your vehicle
up.  Top Gear has cool speech balloons that come up at appropriate
times with different sayings ("Let's GO", "Get out of the way", 
"Ha Ha loser", and my personal favorite -- "Eat dust sucker!").

- F-Zero has a battery-backed best times scoreboard for all the
tracks.  Top Gear (sadly!!!) does not.


I could probably keep going, but I think that's probably sufficient.
These two games are really only similar in ways that just about ANY
racing games are likely to be similar.  I wouldn't consider them
"clones" of each other at all.

-- 
Ed Driscoll
Cimage Corp.
ejd@cimage.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.video