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Whatcha Playing: GTI Club+

Posted by Joe Keiser

Did everyone miss this little racing gem when it came out a earlier this year? I know I did, and that’s a shame—but not as shameful as the fact that I missed the original game when it game out 12 years ago. I’m pretty sure I’ve never even seen the cabinet, and I spent a lot of time in arcades in 1996. Maybe GTI Club was a Euro-specific thing?

Whatever. It’s mine now.

The original GTI Club came from the era that was undeniably the heyday of arcade racers, when titles like Daytona and Sega Rally were filling arcade goer’s fields of vision with hairpin turns and sunlit vistas. It’s a time period that’s not very well cataloged—major titles in the genre, like Daytona 2 and, until now, GTI Club, have never gotten home conversions of any sort. It’s sad because these games are not like today’s racing games, with all their twitch or slavish devotion to realism. Mid-90s arcade racers offer a specific mix of mechanical precision and simplified physics, and are uniquely satisfying in their sense of control.

The heart of this era beats in GTI Club+, and I could feel its pulse even though I had never played the original before. It turns out that GTI Club is actually a very nice example of the genre, and the remake retains the classic-feeling mechanics while augmenting the aesthetics to create a reasonable facsimile of what it must have felt like to play GTI Club in 1996. It’s a gorgeous, simple, three-minute romp through a beautiful beachside town in a tiny European car.

Most reviewers have said it’s only worthwhile if you remember the game, but that’s not quite true. This game is emblematic of a sort of game that isn’t really done anymore, and if you like that sort of game this is pretty much your only modern option. It feels as if it’s as loving a remake as Bionic Commando: Rearmed, and it’s a shame that more people haven’t picked up on its charms.

Related Links:

Building a Better Racer
Excitebots Should Be Super Smash Bros. Kart
Alternate Soundtrack: Need For Speed: Underground

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Posted Apr 15 2009, 12:00 PM

Filed under: whatcha playing, psn, joe keiser, racing, gti club, gti club+, daytona usa

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