Test Drive 6

Though I've played most of the games in the series, my most memorable experience with Test Drive comes from the Dreamcast version of Test Drive 6. I grew up with the PC version, technically, though it turns out that the DC makes for a nearly identical experience. The DC visuals are a vast improvement over the PS1’s jagged textures when factoring the game’s blistering fast pace into account. Of course, I also played through the DC version via emulation, so keep in mind that I might not have had the same slowdown/pop-in issues the physical copy of the game has.

Test Drive 6 is a bizarre racing game experience, but an entertaining one. Considering this was released right before Gran Turismo 2's American debut, it's no surprise that TD6 ended up receiving much of the frustrated wrath of antsy game reviewers at the time. Those awaiting the groundbreaking realism and content of Gran Turismo 2 would find no amusement in TD6's blistering arcade gameplay and compact tournament modes. Don't be fooled, Test Drive 6 is a challenging game. Its constant cornering, paired with pestering police cars, traffic vehicles, and rubberband AI demand a high level of focus. Enough so that I was barely hanging on to first place in the final tournaments of the game!

Test Drive 6 wants you to crash a LOT. During the early days of 3D racing games like Need for Speed, crash physics were the NEW hotness. Traffic cars will comically rush in from intersections and pile up in front of you, with collisions typically sending everyone flying across the road. Your only consolation is the snappy speed and handling, meaning that even if you crash, you can get back into the race right away. This is fun... unless you're trying to win races. If you spend too much time crashing, the AI will completely outpace the player, leaving drivers like me in the dust by 10+ second gaps. This wouldn't be such a big problem if the tournaments weren't determined by the total time across every track. That means if you lose one race by 10 seconds, you have to make those 10 seconds up over the remaining races. It's much harder than traditional tournament point structures.

As much as I love the fast pace of Test Drive 6, these cars are TOO fast for these tracks. Each track is littered with sharp turns and bumps, with a decent amount of alternative paths and shortcuts to choose from. I had little time to savor all these details, since I'd be flying through each corner at a breakneck pace. You will be constantly braking and cornering, with surprise traffic cars appearing around tight turns and getting in your way. The AI gets tougher in the higher classes as well, demanding more and more precision from the player the further you progress. Once you get your hands on the fastest cars in the game (especially the Toyota GT-One), it will take practice to avoid bouncing off of the walls like a pinball. These roads are skinny!

You don't need to fight all the way to the final tournaments to experience all the goodness this game has to offer. Within only a few hours, I managed to get through the second fastest class, which I had the most amount of fun with. By that point, you will have driven on every track in the game more than once, not including the reverse variations. One question though, where's the time trial mode??? Usually once I finish a racing game's main content, I like to squeeze some extra life out of it by playing with its assortment of cars and tracks without having to worry about beating AI or dealing with obstacles. Alas, this game has no way to race your own upgraded cars on its many tracks. You can use the stock cars in practice mode but... what about MY cars with upgrades that make them drivable?

The original colorful world-traveling charm of Test Drive's second trilogy would be lost after Test Drive 6. The identity would begin to shift around, not unlike Need for Speed, leading to other oddball experiments like Test Drive Unlimited and Angel Studio's Test Drive Off Road on the PS2. As interesting as those games are, they can’t replicate the feeling of these goofy low polygon exotic cars and erratic tracks.