Before we start off this review properly, let me clarify one thing that may be in your head right now. “Top Racer Collection? What’s a Top Racer?” You are not wrong, it’s a weird name. If you grew up with a Mega Drive, an Amiga, or a SNES back in the early 90s, you may have heard of the racing franchise Top Gear, by Gremlin Graphics and Kemco (yes, the same Kemco which releases retro-styled JRPGs at an industrial level nowadays). Top Racer Collection is a collection of THOSE games. These are all Top Gears, the ones you may have grown up with. I assume the name change has to do with some legal BS, possibly caused by the BBC and its once amazing, now pathetic car show. With that out of the day, let’s talk about these retro racing games.

There are two sides to this collection. I need to, first and foremost, commend QuByte for doing an impressive amount of work in improving the UI and menus in each of these games. In essence, every single menu, option, basically anything outside of the racing itself, is now handled through modern menus. You select a difficulty via modern menus. Car selection and improvements? Modern menus. You only revert back to your childhood when a race actually begins. It might not exactly be the most suitable idea if you are a nostalgia purist, who wanted to play these games exactly how you used to back in 1992, but in order to properly adapt these imperfect titles to the 21st century, I do believe they did an excellent job. Because here’s the deal: these games have aged significantly.

We live in an era where making a racing game is a pretty straightforward thing. Polygons and 3D environments allow for easy track building and physics testing. Even back in the Super Nintendo days, racing games could take advantage of Mode-7 in order to create pseudo-3D environments, allowing for better controls and physics. The first two Top Gear / Top Racer games included in this collection are not from the SNES, at least from my understanding, meaning they are that typical case of a fully 2D, fully sprite-based racing game where your car is permanently glued to the center of the screen, with the track itself being what’s moving around it.

There’s nothing wrong about that style. After all, it was the only way you could try to emulate some semblance of 3D-esque immersion in a racing game back in the day. It was either this or making a top-down racing game. But the issue is that, as a result, this dated style has aged quite poorly, as you feel there’s not a lot of input coming from you at all times. This is most noticeable in the first two games in the collection. They are the least technologically advanced, with a poor framerate, small screen size, and overall visibility. They are still playable enough, though. You can have fun with this kind of game, due to how simplistic and approachable it is. But the star of the show is clearly Top Gear / Racer 3000.

Top Gear 3000 is the most advanced game of the classic trilogy. A Super Nintendo exclusive, it might not take advantage of Mode 7, but its screen size, framerate and visibility are vastly superior to its predecessors. It is the most playable and enjoyable of the classic games, still featuring the aforementioned quality of life improvements when menu-hopping and tinkering with your car’s stats.

Finally, let’s talk about Top Racer Crossroads. Unlike the other three games in the collection, Crossroads is (kind of) a brand new title. It’s based on previous games, and it looks (and sounds) just like them. The main difference is a slight bump in performance, as well as some new content. There are four new cars, one of them basically being the convertible Ferrari from OutRun in everything but name, and four new tracks. Nothing mindblowing, but if you are a die-hard fan of the franchise, this is yet another reason to procure a copy.

Top Racer Collection is a fantastic way for fans to relive the long-forgotten Top Gear games in one single package. Even i the games themselves didn’t exactly age very well, they have garnered a monstrous fanbase for a reason. There’s fun to be had with these dated, but iconic racing games, in a remastered effort that keeps the important bits intact, whilst updating menus and interface options to a more acceptable standard. If anything, even if I don’t think these games are the pinnacle of racing titles of the early 90s (Rock n’ Roll Racing, anyone?), I love the kind of remastering effort QuByte put into them, and I’d love to see them do other collections like this one in the future.

Graphics: 6.5 No matter which screen size you decide to play the game on, it will look too stretched. The first few games also run rather poorly. This is not the collection’s fault, however, this is how they ran back in the day. Menus were completely redone, and look crisp and intuitive.	Gameplay: 7.0 Some interesting QoL and user interface choices, remaking the entirety of the game’s menus and options, only leaving the actual gameplay portion of it intact. As for the gameplay itself, it’s dated, and you need to be into this specific era of racing games in order to fully take advantage of the limited visibility and physics.
Sound: 7.5 Barry Leitch’s soundtracks are iconic for the era. Do I think they are his best work? Not really, but they are still pretty good.	Fun Factor: 7.5 A really good collection if you are into this very specific sub-niche of gaming. Top Racer / Top Gear is a historical franchise in some parts of the world, so having this collection available, with way more QoL improvements than expected, is very welcoming.
Final Verdict: 7.0

Top Racer Collection is available now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on PS5.

A copy of Top Racer Collection was provided by the publisher.