Rare was the arcade that did not have a speed video game. Since the mid-nineties SEGA Rally was very popular, but also those with an aerial perspective and another arcade vein were seen.
In Spain, without going any further, that Gaelco World Rally Championship hit very hard, which was going to have the figure of Carlos Sainz as its biggest claim. It came out, curiously, a year before the SEGA classic, offering in contrast a highly striking isometric perspective. And it is precisely that spirit that recreates this Super Woden GP , a project of the humble Vigo studio ViJuDa.
A little history to put us in the background
Who did not play in the World Rally Championship? It was a very popular game in Spain that Gaelco launched.
Earlier we mentioned the two-time Spanish champion Carlos Sainz , winner of the prized world rally championship in 1990 and 1992 with his iconic Toyota Celica ST165 . This data is important, since in 1993 the Madrid driver changed brand and racing car to drive the Lancia Delta HF Integrale. And this affected the Spanish Zigurat, because Carlos Sainz was going to be the figure of the aforementioned World Rally Championship , as happened with his predecessor in ZX Spectrum.
In the group, in any case, that recreational one like “Carlos Sainz’s game” remained for the memory, following in the footsteps of the 1990 game of the same name in 8-bit systems, also by Zigurat. During those years, the 1991 Thrash Rally , the work of the ADK (Twinkle Star Sprites) studio, was also very popular, however there the view was overhead. For the rest, it was a rally game that was “singing” each curve with colored signs, a few thousandths before it happened.
It is important to emphasize that there was no map , hence it was essential to pay attention to each indication and react instantly, as if it were a Quick-Time Event . At the end of the day, the idea was the same, but the result could have many options to trigger failure due to the frenzy of each race and the high number of turns that had to be made. It was an arcade for nothing .
There were a few recreational venues of this style in the nineties, both the Neo Drift Out by Visco Corporation and the Over Top by ADK, which was precisely the successor to Thrash Rally , being highly remembered, but this time with an isometric view and a minimap as an extra to help us.
This brings us to Super Woden GP , which is steeped in those classics, especially the 1993 arcade that we all suck in Spain trying to emulate the triumphal stage of Carlos Sainz (despite the fact that his face did not appear, covered with a helmet). The resemblance is more than evident, but ViJuDa’s work offers substantial differences, such as the fact that we will not always see the car from the bottom of the screen when playing with much more pronounced turns to follow the scheme of a circuit on certain occasions. closed … without being.
We refer, of course, to the traditional rally racing mode, having there a brushstroke of Time Attack in the form of a demo on Steam. In this mode, that classic pattern is followed, where we will have to compete against the clock, without ghost cars , to reach the best time. This demo only has one race, but at least we can repeat it as many times as we want and with online ranking, seeing its creator at the top of the table. And with the demo video.
Super Woden GP, para Steam y Nintendo Switch
It is not ViJuDa’s first work that takes us back to an era of glory in arcades. In fact, in the summer of last year it launched Woden GP on Steam for 4.99 euros, now facing a more polished and complete game, despite the very brief brushstroke left by the demo. Because, obviously, it will not only have a Time Attack mode , but also championships against other racers, apart from special events or endurance races. And with more options, go.
The demo serves to corroborate positive feelings , by replicating quite well what we felt with those games of the nineties, perfectly measuring the timing of the warnings to make the corresponding maneuver with the car right after. It knows how to be tough, but without forgetting that it is above all an arcade , leaving the realism for other more serious games. But each crash is penalized by wasting time, of course. And it’s not easy to do the perfect lap at Super Woden GP .
On the other hand, it is not a game in which our car is “still” when correcting its direction. Or put another way: we will notice how it “slides” across the screen until we place it in parallel with the edges of the layout, which in the 1993 classic was easier to place it in that position with any curve with a simple stroke of the lever. What memories in the arcades …
Like the aforementioned Over Top , here we will also have a minimap, which helps to prepare in advance for the most difficult curves, although it is still essential to pay attention to the indications that appear on the screen to react instantly. And certainly there is a lot of desire to see how it handles with more cars on the screen in the face of friction with rivals.
For now, things are promising and we know that it will come out this year on Steam and Nintendo Switch, although ViJuDa has dropped by Twitter that “possibly it will come out on more platforms”, although the latter is still not 100% sure. Now, from the outset, what it will offer will not be turkey mucus, since apart from the aforementioned modes, there will be six vehicle manufacturers from around the world (each with its history and style), a wide variety of scenarios (deserts, snowy landscapes , cities, forests …) and something that makes me especially excited, a local multiplayer for four players on split screen . We leave you with its most complete trailer.