Trigger Happy
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and only does so when available CPU power is already
maxed out. The problem is, as we shall see, that
videogame “realism” is always a fix anyway.
Furthermore, simulations stomp roughshod all over one
raison d’Être
of certain types of videogame, which is to
let the player perform amusingly dangerous and
unlikely maneuvers in perfect safety. If playing an
arcade-style racing game is like being a car stuntman in
The French Connection
or
Ronin
, playing a simulation
is a much more earnest business. Martin Amis again:
“It sounds rather like
driving
, doesn’t it?”
Unlike Space Invaders et al., racing games offer the
perfect opportunity for competitive two-person action,
either with two arcade cabinets linked together or with
one home console splitting the television screen into
two separate viewpoints for each player. And you need
not be satisfied with racing mere cars against a friend.
The racing-game genre splits into driving games (what
we have seen so far) and the rest, which encompass
cartoon go-cart competitions (the superb Super Mario
Kart), snowboard piste challenges (1080
Snowboarding), tiny cars speeding over a kitchen table
(Micro Machines) or futuristic hoverplanes thundering
around a sci-fi rollercoaster of a course (WipEout).
