And The Winner Is...

In late May, I wrote a list of my favourite racing games with the intention of choosing one as my favourite to date. The reason I wanted to do this was because I was asked a few times and realised that I wasn't entirely sure.

Well after thinking about it for some time, I have finally come up with an answer. A very late answer, but one nonetheless. So, what is it?

F-Zero GX.

I used one word to describe it while forming my list of games and it is one I am going to use here. Perfect. Yep, to me F-Zero GX is perfect. It looks stunning, sounds fantastic and most importantly plays brilliantly as well. The difficulty curve was perfect and it is still probably the hardest racing game I have ever played. The satisfaction gained from mastering this game has not been repeated in any other game and it is for these reasons that F-Zero wins for me. I really hope another game in the franchise is released in the future but even if there is, I don't see it beating this game.

I don't have to, but I'm going to mention my runner-up title as well as it, like F-Zero GX, was standing out to me while I was trying to make my decision.

Project Gotham Racing 2.

The franchise may have seen two sequels since this game, both of which were very good but for me PGR 2 is the king. Like F-Zero, it was pretty much perfect as well for the same reasons. Graphically, aurally, the difficulty curve; all of it combined to make one awesome racing experience and I'm really grateful to have it in my racing game collection.

It is a nice coincidence that the two titles that stuck out to me, are pretty much the direct opposite of each other. One is a fictional racer and the other one is a 'realistic' racer (because of the real cars/locations). Two vastly different games, two vastly different racing experiences and yet both are the definition of perfection of the racing genre in my eyes. Awesome.