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Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing

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Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing
Developer(s)Gremlin Graphics
Publisher(s)
Gremlin Graphics
  • Gremlin Interactive (DOS) Game Boy
    SNES
    NES
    • NA: GameTek
    • EU: Gremlin Interactive
    Genesis
Producer(s)Mark Glossop
Designer(s)Matt Donkin
Programmer(s)Ritchie Brannan
Damian Hibbard
Graeme Ing
Michael Hirst
Artist(s)Damon Godley
Composer(s)Richard Ede
Pat Phelan
SeriesNigel Mansell
Platform(s)
Release
1992
  • 1993
    (CD32/CPC/DOS/ZX Spectrum)
    Game Boy
    • EU: 1992
    • NA: August 1993
    SNES
    • JP: 19 March 1993[1]
    • NA: 1 July 1993
    • EU: 16 December 1993
    NES
    • NA: October 1993
    • EU: 1993
    Genesis
    • NA: November 1993
    • EU: 1994
Genre(s)Racing
Mode(s)Single-player

Nigel Mansell's World Championship Racing[a] is an arcade-style Formula One racing video game developed by Gremlin Graphics and released for various systems. The game was largely successful on Amiga and DOS platforms, and was consequently ported to home consoles.

Gameplay

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Gameplay screenshot (SNES version)

The player can race a single race, participate in a season of Formula One, or practice their skills on a particular race track. The changing of the tyres is mandatory in the pit lane during the middle of each race, and weather can determine whether the player should use hard tyres, soft tyres, or rain tyres. Before the beginning of the race, it is possible to change some aspects of the car, such as spoilers, tyres and gearbox.

Being licensed by Nigel Mansell, the game followed the 1992 Formula One season, which he won. The player takes on Mansell's role to try to win the title against eleven other real-life drivers that were still active in their careers by the time the game was launched. Like Sega's own Super Monaco GP, each of them belongs to their own team (instead of the common F1 format of two drivers per constructor).

Although all the rival cars' colors resemble the actual constructors' colors by that time, only Mansell character wears a suit in the same color of his team's — blue. Mansell is also the only character to have his own sprite, distinguished by his signature mustache and cap. All the other drivers are shown with a similar sprite, all of them in yellow racing suits.

The player also has the option to change Mansell character by setting a different name and nationality. The countries available on custom mode are South Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Finland, Monaco, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Japan, Australia, Austria, and the United States. However, the playable character's appearance will remain that of Mansell. The game also features the national anthem for each of these countries, played in the podium whenever the player character wins a race. If a rival wins the race but the player finishes as runner-up or third place, the podium will still be shown, but the anthem to be played will be the one of the winning driver's home country. The rivals cannot be customized.

The 12 drivers and 16 circuits

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Drivers

Circuits

Ports

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A port of the game was in development by Gremlin Graphics for the Atari Jaguar after they were signed to be a third-party developer by Atari Corporation for the system in November 1993 and was slated for a Q2 1995 release, but this version was never released for unknown reasons.[2][3][4][5] A Commodore 64 version was also in development, and was said to be looking promising, but was cancelled as it was taking too long.[6]

Reception

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Rating the game 1.5 stars out of five, Computer Gaming World in August 1994 said that despite the product endorsement, Nigel Mansell "is at best a mediocre attempt at a racing simulation" that should have been released five years earlier. The magazine recommended Lotus III: The Ultimate Challenge for arcade racing and World Circuit as a racing simulation.[9] Power Unlimited gave a score of 68% summarizing: "Mediocre racing game that does not exploit the 32-bit platform in any way. No live video, no replays, no superior in-game graphics. The only advantage is the large number of setting options. Could have been much better."[10]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Also known as Nigel Mansell's World Championship in Europe and as Nigel Mansell's F-1 Challenge (Japanese: ナイジェル・マンセル Ｆ１チャレンジ, Hepburn: Naijeru Manseru F-1 Charenji) in Japan on the Super Famicom.

References

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  1. ^ "SUPER FAMICOM Soft > 1993". GAME Data Room. Archived from the original on 2018-09-23. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
  2. ^ "ATARI SIGNS 15 MORE NEW SOFTWARE COMPANIES; JAGUAR MOMENTUM ACCELERATES; TOTAL OF 35 AGREEMENTS SIGNED". Nine Lives. November 29, 1993. Archived from the original on December 7, 2004. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
  3. ^ "ProNews: Atari Announces Jaguar Licenses". GamePro. No. 55. IDG. February 1994. p. 186.
  4. ^ "Special - Release Schedule ECTS-Messe". Mega Fun (in German). No. 21. CT Computec Verlag GmbH & Co. KG. June 1994. p. 18. Archived from the original on 2018-09-23. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
  5. ^ "Feature - XT Generation Report - Atari Jaguar". MAN!AC (in German). No. 20. Cybermedia. June 1995. p. 40.
  6. ^ "Nigel Mansell F1 Racing". www.gamesthatwerent.com. 1992. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  7. ^ "Power Unlimited Game Database". powerweb.nl (in Dutch). 1994. Archived from the original on October 22, 2003. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
  8. ^ Game review, Sinclair User issue 134, April 1993, page 8
  9. ^ a b Goble, Gordon (August 1994). "Four More For The Road". Computer Gaming World. pp. 60–64. Archived from the original on 2018-01-02. Retrieved 2017-11-21.
  10. ^ "Power Unlimited Game Database". powerweb.nl (in Dutch). 1994. Archived from the original on October 22, 2003. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
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