Gaming Target - Dreamcast: Sega GT

Written by Nick Schmidt on September 15, 2000

Review: The king of racers... bow down to your new god!

The Dreamcast is no stranger to racing games. Since its launch way back on September 9th of last year (happy birthday Dreamcast!), no other genre has been as cluttered as the racing variety. Some of them have been good, like Sega Rally 2 and the mild Tokyo Xtreme Racer, but most of them have just flat out sucked. This is primarily due to the insanely crappy ports that developers just seem to have oodles of fun dropping on us for a quick buck, like Test Drive 6; what were they thinking? Fortunately, Sega, the grand masters behind some of the best racers ever, has stepped up once again and single-handedly tore the racing genre a "new one" with Sega GT, the Dreamcast's answer to anything that even remotely comes close to its superiority.

That's right, when I mean superiority; I mean it absolutely crushes anything that stands in its way. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap small buildings in a single bound, Sega GT does it all. It was only a matter of time before Sega opted to take a stroll down realism lane and leave behind its arcade roots for at least one game. But you may be asking yourself, what makes it so damn incredible? Hmm... Where to start?

I'll get this out of the way now... at its core, Sega GT plays, feels, and looks almost identical to the Gran Turismo series. The name of the game here is realism, which in turn means you'll be spending countless hours earning drivers licenses, gaining sponsors and such. If you've never had the opportunity to play Polyphony Digital's masterpiece, shame on you, you don't deserve a cookie! But for those of us who have, you'll be right at home with Sega GT. Your main object is to obviously win every single race you can, earn every single license you can, and impress the females with your mighty engines. Instead of going with a second disc with a simulation mode slapped onto it, Sega simply called it the championship mode and pasted it right on the main menu screen. This is what you're greeted with upon selecting the championship mode (bear with me):

Race: This is where almost 95% of all the races fall under. After you've selected a car and made sure that it meets the specific race standards, select a race and give it your all. There are so many races to pick from; it's not even funny. Haha, okay, maybe a little bit. Anyhow, there are two types of races that you can enter in. First, there are the "Official Races," which are basically the events you can access after you've gotten your license. Within each official race there are two options: do the cup races, or do the special race for that particular license. That's not all. If you don't want to do the "Official Races," you can always take a stab at the "Event Races." There are 20 event races to choose from, but of course there are certain limits that you have to meet in order to play these as well. What's really cool about these is that they are sponsored races, so that means that after you win one, that company is your sponsor (you can have as many as you'd like). When you win a race with your sponsors signed along, money is given to you from them along with the prize money from winning the race; very cool.

License: Get all four of your licenses here. After you select which license you wish to obtain, select one of the six tests. If you get the fastest lap on that test, you gain access to what is called "Works Cup." Basically this is a reward for the fastest time you've achieved in the license assessment. If you win these trouble-free races, you're gradually rewarded with cars from specific manufacturers plus the money for winning the race.

Carrozzeria: Similar to a pizzeria, except you don't make your own pies, you build your own machine from the ground up. Select the factory mode to begin the process and then select all the features you want, like engines, body types, engine layout, drive train, exterior accessories and color. Even though this is a great and original feature, I couldn't help but feel that Sega could of put more detail into it. Oh well, we can't have everything. Of course you can't go in there and build the biggest, most powerful automobile right off the bat. You have to obtain even more licenses (yay!), which grant you permission to make larger, more beastly cars. You maybe thinking that it sounds like a hassle, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. I actually love taking the tests, they make me a much better driver and the rewards are vast.

Car Dealer: This is where you buy your cars. You can either select from one of the 11 manufacturers and buy a new car, or select one of the many used machines just waiting for a good home. When viewing all of the new cars, I couldn't help but feel kind of let down by the lack of selection. The Japanese version had more cars for crying out loud!

Others: There are a few more sections that aren't really important; like an information center where you can view how many races you've won, and see specs for all the cars. There's also a tuning section (okay, that is important, but I just assume you know what to do there) where you can upgrade various components of your automobile. And last but not least there's the save section. Besides the obvious save and load features, you can download the Sega GT mini-game! That's right, a mini-game. How long has it been since we've seen one of those in a Dreamcast game folks? Quite some time. The object of this game is simply to win the six races and unlock the secret car, which is useable in the main game.

Now that I've pretty much run through the entire championship mode, I'll divulge on the visuals. In a few words: beyond belief. Only Ferrari 355 Challenge edges out Sega GT in terms of graphical prowess. The environments are simply astounding in complexity and detail. Trees look like trees, asphalt looks like asphalt, and everything else just looks amazing. The car models are also equally as impressive. While certain cars look cartoonish, most appear to be quite down-to-earth, with the reflective windows, convincing textures, and overall perfect proportions to their real life counterparts. What's even more incredible is the fact that it runs at a constant 30-fps. There is no slowdown what so ever. Even on turns, with all six cars on screen at the same time, it never skips a beat! Amazing, simply amazing. Probably the most heated debate would be the controls. Many naysayers think the handling is atrocious and isn't realistic by any means. Don't listen to these people, just hunt them down and smack their dirty, filthy mouths for uttering those foul words.

The handling in Sega GT is actually exceptionally due to the analogue triggers. The whole process of braking and accelerating never felt this good and/or responsive. Instead of slamming on the brakes like in "other" racing sims (because of their puny digital buttons... ha!), the shoulder triggers work perfectly in allowing a precise blend of the two. Rather than going at full speed towards a turn and then hastily breaking to avoid a confrontation with the wall, you could just as easily hold the gas trigger about half way down in order to achieve the perfect speed for that certain corner. This really makes a huge difference gameplay-wise and gives the game much more of a precision feeling to it.

The music is your typical Sega stuff. On one hand you've got the techno/bass heavy beats, and on the other side of the music spectrum lies the classic 80's thrash rock that Sega fans are used to by now. Although it's not as obnoxious as the music heard in F355, thank God. Engine sounds are also top-notch. Each car sounds completely different from the rest, and when you add a new engine or something of that nature to you car, it will sound completely different. It's the little touches like this that really makes the audio stand out far above the competition.

And for those lucky bastards who have friends, there's also a two-player mode in which you can either choose cars from your memory card, or race with the default automobiles. Either way, you're in for a treat. Even though there is noticeable fog and draw-in with split screen, it still runs at the constant 30-fps as seen in single player races. As if that weren't enough, there's also a single race mode, time trials, replay booth, and a link to the Sega GT homepage. The last game that I saw, which used this feature was Sonic Adventure. So when I say that this game has it all, I mean it.

There are some things that I don't like though. For starters, the courses should have been much more technical; this is a racing sim after all. It just seems they don't challenge you enough for this type of game. Maybe I'm just spoiled from Gran Turismo, but this definitely should have been tweaked. Second, I don't like the plethora of menus you have to navigate through in the championship mode. Even though they are user-friendly, one can't help but feel bogged down or overwhelmed when first starting. I know I was. Fortunately, the overall amount of good far outweighs the bad. If you're looking for a new racing title to de-throne Sega Rally 2, this is definitely it. With so many options, races, cars, licenses, and tracks, you'd be a complete fool not to pick it up. Not only will it last you quite a long time, but it's cheap as hell too ($39.95). While its seriousness may turn off some people who like wacky, off-the-wall physics, the hardcore racing fans will certainly appreciate how much time and energy Sega put into making this landmark title. Go out and buy it today.