Five Minutes With Five Instances Of Virtua Racing

For a while it seemed like every Sega game console was required to be home to a version of the company's Virtua Racing arcade game.  After all, there were versions of the game for the Sega Genesis (with SVP chip), Sega 32X, Sega Saturn, and - what?  No Sega Dreamcast? - Sony PlayStation 2.  Considering that each console can push a different number of polygons, one wonders how these versions of the game compare to one another.  Retrogaming with Racketboy has a look back at what makes one Virtua Racing different from another.  Don't miss the side-by-side comparison screenshots.

Obviously, the Arcade version will be the top choice for purists, but the PS2 version does a great job and ads some shadowing effects. The 32X version, in most cases, comes out top as the Sega console version champ. The Saturn version is a bit laughable in places, but does “ok”. The Genesis version kinda pales in comparison to the arcade version, but is quite impressive for the Genesis hardware (even if it is using an extra built-in processor).

I was always partial to the 32X version of the game, mostly because it was the first one that I played.  There's just something about driving through a textureless shaded polygon world that makes me all nostalgic, but then I remember Nintendo's Stunt Race FX and get over it.