Super Monaco GP (Game Gear)

Super Monaco GP is a Formula One racing simulation video game released by Sega, originally as a Sega X Board arcade game in 1989, followed by ports for multiple video game consoles and home computers in the early 1990s. It is the sequel to the 1979 arcade game Monaco GP. The arcade game consists mostly of one race: the Grand Prix of Monaco (though represented by a totally different track, albeit with the same features of the real-life Circuit de Monaco). The player simply chooses a transmission type, qualifies, and race. The player must qualify in under 45 seconds in the shortened track in order to actually race. If he fails, the game ends (though, in the home versions, even if the player fails to qualify, he still starts off the race at the last position). When in the race itself, there is also a position limit, which starts off on 20th (15th in the home versions) and decreases as the player bypasses checkpoints along the track, ultimately stopping on 3rd. If the player falls behind the indicated position and does not manage to recover fast enough, a game over happens. The game was one of the first games to include a rear-view mirror, along with Winning Run. The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis version of Super Monaco GP adds a World Championship mode. In the World Championship mode, the goal is to win a season of races, and then go on to defend the title. The circuits are modeled on the ones used in the 1989 Formula One season, with background scenery similar to the real-world circuit venues, though without the wealth of details the Arcade version had. This Mega Drive/Genesis version was also released in arcades for the Sega Mega-Tech system board in 1990. The world championship mode starts with a relatively slow car in the Minarae (the game's equivalent of Team Minardi). Drivers are able to name other drivers as rivals, and if an driver's rival defeats him in two consecutive races, the loser's team will offer a seat to the winner. Should the winner accept the seat, the loser will be fired from his team and take an open seat with another team which is usually ranked lower than the team the loser was fired from. This allows good drivers to get into teams with better cars, but also can punish drivers including the player for being poor drivers. The goal is to win the F1 World Title by earning more driver's points than all other drivers. Once the player has won a season for the first time they are given the opportunity to join Madonna (the game's equivalent of McLaren), the game's best team. At the start of the title defense year, the player is then challenged by a new rival, G. Ceara, who is seemingly impossible to beat in the first two races. If the player loses the first two races of the defending season to Ceara, he is dropped by team Madonna and goes to Team Dardin (the game's equivalent of BMS Scuderia Italia-Dallara) . The challenge is then to get back to the top and win the second season, or if you defeated G.Ceara, to retain the Championship in the Madonna car. Once two championship seasons are won, the player beats the game.

Arcade Games