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Turbo
It's pretty straightforward...you're zipping along in
your Formula One race car, trying to avoid other drivers and obstacles along the
way while hauling a sufficient quantity of ass to win the race.
(Sega, 1981)
Ah, the driving game wars of the early 1980s. Remember when everyone was
ga-ga over this game and Pole Position, which were both essentially very
pretty remakes of Atari's old Night Driver game? Though, to be quite
honest, both of the early 80's driving game staples were graphically impressive.
Turbo reached the checkered flag first, though - Pole Position was
released the following year in the U.S.
And still the battle rages on: which was better? Good question. I'll chip
in with my 25 cents and say that while I think Pole Position was easily
the better game in terms of game play, Turbo was much
prettier to look at, with more colorful graphics and more varied
landscapes, including a seaside drive. It's no coincidence, then, that Pole
Position II corrected that deficiency with its own varied racing
locales. I never thought Turbo played very smoothly, but it was worth
playing at least once or twice to gawk at the graphics.
Prior to the advent of MAME - and Turbo
is an extremely recent addition to MAME - Turbo was available in only one
home version. A very good port of the game was packed in with the steering
wheel/gas pedal controller pack released in 1983 for the ColecoVision console. Unlike many other licenses they
snagged, Coleco didn't even try to port Turbo to the Atari 2600 or Intellivision.
Wise move.
Rating: 
Three quarters - worth repeat play, but with some annoying features that
might alienate less patient arcade veterans.
Reviewed by Earl Green
theLogBook.com editor/webmaster
 
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