A Review of Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing (NES)

Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing is a racing video game released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990, developed by Data East. There are a ton of notable racing games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, so how does this one measure? Let's delve deeper and find out.

Story : No story here, it's a racing game. Zoom zoom to the finish line as fast as you can and leave your opponents in the dust. Do well and you progress, winning the Grand Pix and becoming rich and famous beyond your wild dreams.

Graphics : Graphically the game is quite good. The cars all look great for the NES, the animations are all top notch, the backgrounds are very nice looking, and the track is nice and clear. The different settings you see are all good, and the variety keeps things interesting visually.

Sound : There isn't much to offer musically, unfortunately. There's only two or three songs in the game at most and one of those songs plays during every single race. It gets monotonous and it's too bad because while the song is good, there just needs to be a tiny bit of variety. The sound effects however are quite good, and are an important part of any racing game.

Game play : The game is easy to understand and play. The controls are quite good and feel very responsive, offering the right amount of sensitivity in all cases. The track length is quite good, it never gets so long it's boring. The differences from track to track are mostly minimal but there's enough variety to keep it interesting.

One cool thing is the ability to shift gears with your up and down button. Mastering this feature is essential, as being in top gear while trying to do turns will most assuredly end up in a car wreck. This aspect of the game is very cool, and it's satisfying to jump up to 180 miles per hour in a few seconds. Definitely the most exhilarating part of the game. Overall this is a good Nintendo racer but it doesn't have that extra special thing to keep you coming back for more. Still, there isn't anything bad about it.

Re playability : I'd say this game is quite re playable overall. Racing games in general are fun to re play and there isn't much wrong with this one, but there isn't anything special about it either.

Overall : 6/10. Lack of music or special features dull the game, but it's still very playable.