[ DEC . 22 . 2010 ]
 
Way back in the golden age of video games, the humble racing game was nary more then a line on either side of the screen with an amorphous blob in the center to denote your "car". And you know what? It was damn fun to play.

In the ensuing years, the genre pulled itself up by it's proverbial boot straps, dusted itself off and started down the road (pun intended) to refinement... Adding better graphics, physics based handling, simulating realistic weather and track conditions and emulating the driving behavior of famous drivers.

As far as F-1 Spirit goes; well, it's not Night Driver and it's certainly not Gran Turismo 5... it's more like Thrash Rally for the Neo-Geo. F-1 Spirit: The Way to Formula-1 is one of Konami's late 80's racers that was released only on the MSX. The game is presented in a top-down perspective. Your car is located in the lower center of the screen and as you steer, the world rotates around you. This was a fairly standard presentation style for racers back in the day, but it does take some getting used to.

This remake was created by Brain Games as part of a RetroRemakes coding competition. Considering they only had three months to create the game, I think they did a bang up job. Controls work fairly well as far as the keyboard goes. The game does contain an option to use gamepads but I wasn't able to get it to work... your millage may vary (damn these puns).

If you were a fan of early top-down perspective racers, be sure to give this one a try.

-Chip