AGH Jaguar CD Review: WORLD TOUR RACING by Telegames When I heard that Teque was working on a polygon racing game for the JagCD, I immediately placed my order with Telegames. After all, I'm a huge racing fan and Checkered Flag had left a sour taste in my mind (as it did with others I'm sure). Is World Tour Racing finally the racing game that redeems the Jaguar as a viable racing platform and challenges Virtual Racing in a way that Checkered Flag was supposed to? Ummm.. no and no. The first thing that is bound to catch your attention is the terrible control. The poor framerate probably is the culprit of the jerky control and will remind you of Checkered Flag. If that wasn't bad enough, there's slowdown galore even when the track is littered with opposing vehicles. And don't even think about the two player mode: I would suspect that at times the framerate dropped as low as 10-15 fps when playing head-to-head. There really is no point in continuing with this review but for the sake of completeness so let's take a look at several of the better qualities of World Tour Racing. First of all, the full motion video introduction is terrific and shows off the Jaguar CD's video ability. FMV is also scattered about in other areas as well, such as when you pit for tires or have body repairs done on your car. Although World Tour Racing is more of an arcade-style racer than a true simulation, there are several options available before you begin the race. Variables such as tires, brakes, wings and transmission are all customizable. I found, however, that the even drastic changes to the car's settings made little or no difference to its handling or lap times. The fact that crashes are of little consequence is further evidence of this game's objective of being an arcade racer. Making contact with other cars or crashing into billboards do nothing more than return your car to the center of the track with hardly any loss in pace or your place. Don't get too out of control, however, as excessive damage to your car will force you to pit and replace the damaged body part (most often it will be the front or rear spoiler.) Twelve different tracks and single season, championship and two player modes ensure decent replay value for those who aren't as frustrated by the poor framerate and control. Billboards featuring advertisement for other Atari games is reminiscent of the coin-op version of Pole Position and adds a whimsical touch to a game with an otherwise serious theme. The save game feature harkens back to the NES days, as you are required to enter a password to continue from where you left off. While other games that allow save (such as Battlemorph) take advantage of the Memory Track cartridge, WTR offers no such luxury. Be sure to have a pen and paper by your side if you plan on having a marathon session with this racer. World Tour Racing fails to remedy many of the problems that plagued its spiritual ancestor and cannot be recommended for even the die hard racing fanatic. Hideous flaws that would be inexcusable even for first generation games are in abundance here and will test the patience of even the die hard Jaguar/racing fan. The only reason to purchase this game is to convince Telegames to continue and support the Jaguar by releasing other promising titles. Title World Tour Racing Publisher Telegames System Atari Jaguar CD Graphics 7 Sound 6 Gameplay 3 Overall 4 Reviewer Keita Iida