278 · Al Unser Jr's Turbo Racing

• Get ready for racing action like you’ve never experienced it
• NES Longplay
• Manual
• Remember Al Unser Jr?
• Remember NES racing games?
• What do you like about racing games?
• As an american, I don’t like changing gears while driving
  • Is it handled the right way in this game?
• Unser kind of mixes arcade with simulation
• So what’s DRIVING like in this game?
  • Do you agree with this from Wikipedia: “Due to the limitations of the NES, curves appear to come out of nowhere, making turning unusually difficult. ”
• Time Trials
  • "A" (with computer opponents) and "B" (without computer opponents)
• Gran Prix
  • Career mode not unlike what we just saw in Top Players Tennis
  • 26 cars per race.
  • At each race, the player has the chance to receive advice about the course from Al Unser, Jr.
  • During each race, the player must avoid accidents such as running into other cars and hitting signposts. Accidents can harm engines or blow tires, which can be repaired by pitting.
  • While pitting, the race is halted so as not to put the player at a disadvantage due to each race's unusually short length (about three to five laps).
• If you play as Al in the World Grand Prix you already have max stats? Shouldn’t you unlock Al after beating the cup if that’s what his stats are gonna be?
• Sequels and Spinoffs
  • Al Unser Jr's Race to the Top
    • progress from go-karts to snowmobiles, IROC racing cars, and eventually to Indy racing cars.
• EGL
• Next week - Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing
• NEStalgia Byte - Downtown Special: It's Kunio-kun's Period Drama, Gather Everyone!

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 Al Unser Jr's Turbo Racing. Get ready for racing action like you've never experienced it.

00:22 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. And I have a whole slew of notes here for this game. And like I had a planned introduction and everything, but then I just finished reading the back of the box for this game, which is what we do. I'm not making up those taglines. That's from the back of the box. And I've got a problem with it. When I wrote it down, it didn't seem that weird.

00:54 But I didn't forget a word here. The game did. It says, Get ready for racing action like you've never experienced it. No before. Like, you know, like not like, oh, this is gonna blow your mind. It's just like, you've never like, forget about it. You're gonna have racing action like you've never ever even thought of the idea of racing before this. I mean, I thought it was saying get ready like you've never experienced racing.

01:23 I mean, I guess it does feel odd now. But, you know, some people talk weird, you know, and that doesn't mean they're bad people. It's just weird that they left it on the box. I'm sure Al Unser Jr. is an upstanding guy and he just made a mistake on the back of his box. I guess you don't have to say before, right? You could say like, oh, you're gonna see fireworks like you've never seen. That makes sense. Yeah, but isn't that different than like you're gonna see fireworks like you've never experienced it? Like, you're gonna see fireworks like it's your first time? You're gonna experience fireworks like you've never experienced.

01:59 But they have the it. No. Oh, who has the it? The back of the box. Oh, okay. Like you've never experienced it. Like, so they're qualifying the thing you've never experienced. But like could be like, you're gonna experience this in a way that you've never experienced it. It's sort of like how some people say like, oh, that'll do you. Or like, you know, they mix up the subject and the action or whatever. And it's just the way that some people talk. And I think we've just got some colloquialism in our mass produced box. Just think of how they'll be able to print one extra word in the manual because they didn't use it on the back of the box. That's true. There is a budget, a word budget. Guys, remember Al Unser Jr.? I'm pretty sure this is all made up.

02:51 No, I don't remember Al Unser Jr. Al Unser Jr. And you know, this is not me knowing who he is or anything. This is just looking at the Wikipedia page. Nicknamed Little Al or Al Jr.? I mean, is Al Jr. really a nickname? It's not a nickname. Yeah, that's just getting rid of his last name. Think of how much more he'll be able to name, how many more words he'll be able to name his kid. Stop it.

03:18 Last week, I thought he was part of F1. Turns out he's part of IndyCar, which is what Sean was saying is different. I, you know, divulged in a little F1 Netflix thing, whatever that's called, Drive to Survive. I watched a little bit of that to get familiar and then realized, oh, it's all for naught because IndyCar series is completely different. Yeah. But that's what Al Unser participated in. And his debut season was in 1982. He finished first in 1990 and 1994. 329 starts, 34 wins, seven polls. Do you give a damn? I mean, you know, it's weird because like we all know that there is a race called the Indianapolis 500 and that the cars are shaped like that.

04:12 And I never really knew like what those are the two things that are true about that particular race. But like for a long time, I thought that was F1. And then, you know, it actually wasn't until I played this game. That's a little bit of a spoiler that, you know, I kind of had played a bit of this game before the record of the last episode that they are different. And the fact that this Mr. Unser Jr. has like co-owns the record of wins at that very famous race that I wasn't really sure what it was. That's still impressive. So I guess I care in so much that I care about motorsport existing.

05:00 Yeah, it's an interesting tidbit. Sean, you bring up a great point, though, and that is that our Northeast is showing right now because people do care about this, especially in America. Like this isn't something where it's like, oh, yeah, those European countries eat this up. It's like now the IndyCar series is kind of a big deal. But it's nowhere near like NASCAR. Right, right, right. But I'm saying like for me to say just because I've never heard of Al Unser Jr. that he's not important is weird. You know, like volleyball is not a big sport in America.

05:33 And like most people would forgive us for not knowing those guys. But apparently the Unser family has won the Indy 500 nine times, which is pretty fucking crazy. If you ask me, like that is crazy, you know, out of all of the Indy 500s. That's a pretty, you know, like that's a that's a dynasty on some levels. How many are in the Unser family of racing? Is it just Al Unser and Al Unser Jr.? Yeah, maybe it's just those two. Maybe there's a third somewhere in there. I did have I don't know where. Oh, yeah. So there's Al Unser, Al Unser the third, which is his son.

06:08 Bobby Unser, his uncle. Jerry Unser, his uncle. I don't have to keep saying Unser, right? I can just. So are these like. If I say Robbie, you guys know who the fuck I'm talking about, right? Is this just a sport created by a family for this family to dominate like like jujitsu with like the the Gracies? Or the Montreal Canadians and the NHL. There you go.

06:33 Yeah, that's a good question. Again, I don't know enough, but it's it's wrong of us to assume that these people aren't important. They're not all just Max Versteppen, which apparently is a F1 guy. Think about how lucky Data East, the makers of this game, got by signing Al Unser Jr. to this deal, releasing the game first in Japan in 1989, probably under a different title. And then in 1990, getting the rights to use his name in North America. And then that same year, he wins it all. Like that's pretty impressed for the first time. Wow. So like talk about. So they just signed some dude before.

07:19 Well, no, I mean, he was he'd been racing for a long time, but he hadn't won the the Grand Prix until then like that same year. So he was signed and it was like, you know, before that race, he was finishing in 1989. He finished second in the Indianapolis 500 with a note next to it saying that he crashed, which is incredible to think. He crashed? You can't finish second in a crash. How many races were there? Two participants? That's pretty awesome. Somebody look up 1989 Indianapolis 500 and find out what happened.

07:55 I'll get right on that. Maybe there was just a crash at the race. Not that he was involved in the crash. I don't know. It seems like all of these are saying what happened to him because I mean, could he have crashed like over the finish line? Right. In 1983, his first time at the Indian 500, the note is out of fuel. And I don't think that would be something people would just talk about for that race. Like that was the race where everybody was out of fuel.

08:19 Like, you know, there's the race where he specifically was pretty shortly after we did have a fuel shortage. So maybe like, you know, OPEC actually didn't send enough fuel to the race. And if you guys, yeah, yeah. Great. And if you can remember Allenser Jr., surely you guys remember NES racing games. Yeah. Tell me about them. We got a couple.

08:45 Um, so, I mean, not all of them are, you know, about, most of them are about racing against time or racing against your budget. Or racing against, uh, your fuel. Or, or actually racing against other, uh, other vehicles like in RC Pro-Am. There's really only a couple that involve like changing of your, uh, your position and overtaking and going fast for the, for more than just the sake of going fast. And this is like, I think the second, the other one being RC Pro-Am.

09:25 Yeah. It feels like, you know, a lot of them are also like more, um, not as like based on real life things as this too, you know, where this is like, no, yeah. This feels more like, okay, yeah, this, you're going to try and really simulate what it's like to, to race in this race. Like, you know, you got to do a pit stop and you got to do, like, I, I feel like this is both more involved and also maybe more akin to like what, uh, like blades of steel is to a hockey fan for like someone who's into racing. Yeah. It's a good point because it, it borders, right?

10:00 The arcade and simulation. It's not exactly Gran Turismo yet, but there's definitely more, um, driving know-how in Al Unser Jr.'s turbo racing than there is in RC Pro-Am, the, the closest equivalent, right? Like that's a fun little, you're controlling, you know, remote controlled cars from an isometric point of view. Like this is, this is like, you're in the cockpit. Is that what they call it? Do they call it the cockpit? Yeah. So you're in the cockpit, you know, cause it's a different kind of car. It's not, you know, you're not driving PT cruisers. You're driving. Actually, that's actually a cockpit too.

10:36 Oh, cool. So you're always in the cockpit, no matter what. What about a motorcycle? Are you in a cockpit? It's a cockpit. I like it. You can change gears. You can control, uh, your speed. You can wind down on the turns and you can prepare for the turns. You can see the course ahead of time.

10:53 Yeah. Here's, here's where I'm just impressed. Like, okay. We've seen this, this, uh, this style before. Like the, the camera is behind the vehicle. You are going forward. There's a pseudo 3d effect going on, but we've only seen these in games like mock rider or games like, uh, that other thing that we played recently with the spies, but it's not spy hunter. Something like that. Knight rider. Yes.

11:24 Uh, games like that, but there's never the only other game that we played so far that keeps track of cars in position and trying to go faster than other cars. Is this RC car game from that isometric position. So it's just, I'm just amazed that it took this long to get to this point where like when I was playing the game, I noticed like, cause you start with a lot of time trials because

11:50 you're trying to, to get into, you're trying to actually qualify, um, and, and get what position you'd be in the actual race. So for a while, you're still not seeing other drivers. And then finally you get into a race and there are other drivers that seem to be taking, like the game seems to be taking into account what they're doing when they're not physically in front of you.

12:11 And I just found that mind blowing that that's, that it's taken this long to get to this point. Yeah. I actually can't figure that part out if you think about it because it's 26 cars in a race. So like, where's the, like, obviously it's not actually simulating their positions or anything at all times, but like. Like, no, that's some, no, that's some impressive stuff to be doing. Like you would think you'd be going up against like four other cars, right?

12:38 Yeah. I, I wonder if it's like, they just, they're just keeping in order and there's like a little bit of RNG, like once they're out of sight, it's like, okay, you're going to catch up to them eventually if you keep going.

12:49 I think that this is closer to like the Ridge Racer, uh, form of a racing game where basically you all start at the start line and then a bunch of all the other cars just get off the, like just go faster than you for a while. And then they end up being sort of evenly spaced in front of you. Um, so over the course of the race, you always have somebody to overtake as opposed to like Gran Turismo, which is actually simulating each car and you can end up blowing past everyone in 30 seconds and not see someone again, unless you're lapping them.

13:23 Um, so it's like a less, it's definitely less of a simulation than it probably is trying to portray itself as. Um, but it's still keeping track of your position and because you can qualify at certain levels, like you can probably start at the beginning. And I, I would still assume that those few cars in your immediate vicinity. So I remember in one of my races sort of jockeying with, uh, jockeying for position with two other cars near the end of a race.

13:56 Um, like at least that sort of being taken care of. Before we, uh, take our first lap, let's just, uh, you know, start, let's ground ourselves here for a second. What do you like about racing games? And I'm talking specifically about Al Unser Jr. style racing games, not other games that just involve like a ticking clock or whatever. What is the thrill for you in specific, uh, about racing games? Well, I'll say that me personally, there are things like when I'm playing them, it, it, like, I guess I'm thinking more of these older games. It's like the feeling of speed. Like I'm impressed by giving that feeling on like an NES.

14:38 That's not, that doesn't necessarily translate to like modern games because, uh, I don't really play racing games. I actually don't really like racing games, but it's not like, oh, I'm like, I see it on here and I'm like, oh God, another racing game. I hate these things. Like, no, like I play it and it's like an interesting, fun thing, but it's just never something that like, I care about enough to pick up and play. Like if I'm going to play a racing game, it's going to be like crash team racing or something. You know, I, I, I don't care enough about the cars or the speed.

15:07 So I'm kind of, uh, out of my element when I'm playing this personally. I, I really like racing games. I'm not an expert by any means. I'm really bad at them. I couldn't take an apex to save my life. Um, but unless that's drawn on the ground.

15:24 So I really like Forza and I, I do enjoy Gran Turismo. And, uh, for a while I was playing a NASCAR game cause it was the only racing game that we had on the PS2. Um, but I really like, you know, for one, gotta go fast and two, I want to be faster than you. So the, just the, the simple act of overtaking, whether it's a computer or another player, whether they're next to you or somewhere in the internet, uh, it just feels good to exert, you know, assert your dominance, uh, when fast things are to be part of it. It's just, you know, it's, it's very, it's probably very reptilian brain.

16:10 I don't, I don't know what the actual psychological reasoning is, but that's why I like racing games. If it makes sense, Joe, I'm kind of with you where like, I don't really know cars and I don't really care for cars or whatever. So it shouldn't be that the cars are what I like about racing games. But somehow what I really like about racing games that I get heavy into is the idea that like you have this car and then you upgrade it, progress with it, like race other cars

16:41 within your own limitations. So it's not like, you know, you're not dreaming that the Honda Civic is going to beat some supercar, uh, you know, that can go 400 horsepower. It's like, forget that. But like you're racing other Honda Civics and at first you enter this race and it's like, yeah, you can't. You probably upset somebody by saying that. Because that is a tuner car.

17:03 Yeah. Well, I believe it. Uh, and yeah, 400 horsepower is probably not even like people like, I can get mine to 700. It's like, yeah, okay. But nevermind. Again, remember, don't know anything about cars. If you ask me to point you out a Honda Civic in real life, I couldn't do it, but I'll tell you where mine is on my Gran Turismo save. That's my point. Is that like, for whatever reason, I actually just like the feeling of progression with your particular car or, um, you know, as Alan Sir Jr. would have it in his game, uh, your particular character, because that is something you do in the Grand Prix mode.

17:34 It's, it's a little bit of a career mode, not unlike what we, uh, just saw in top players tennis, where you created a character there. You can create a character in this and, uh, it is your car's stats really. But nevertheless, it's like you upgrade those stats over time to get your car better. You stick with the same car. It's not like you keep unlocking new, faster cars that you don't like learn the feel of. And I think that's what I really appreciate about racing games.

18:17 So what is driving like in this game? Not talking about the racing, not overtaking something. What is driving one of these Indy cars like? Yeah, this is, um, this is interesting because it, they've added a lot of complexity. It's, it's not super complex, but they've added a lot of complexity in a racing game pretty fast. We've gone from up to accelerate and do nothing to keep it there to, um, now you got, now you can accelerate. Now your D pad is a shifter and then to continue to try and shift up. That's now your turbo. And there's also a brake button that has a semi-realistic effect of braking at the same time of accelerating.

19:08 Um, so they've added a lot of systems here that really go beyond the, the very basic situations that we've seen in, in driving games up to this point. Yeah. I'll say that like it, again, someone who doesn't play racing games, I'm speaking, my experience is Crash Team Racing and Mario Kart basically. But this is the first racing game where it felt to me similar to like what I would expect from like a modern game.

19:35 And in fact, it threw me off at first because I wasn't like playing like that until I like realized like, oh, you do kind of have to like break around sharp turns to try and like drift a little bit or, or like, you know, change gears and stuff. Like, and once I kind of got that, the hang of that, like, I'm still terrible at this game, but I felt like the controls felt really good. Yeah. I was surprised to find on the Wikipedia article, and keep in mind, again, this is just proof that anybody can add anything to Wikipedia.

20:01 There wasn't really a source for this. But do you agree with this statement on Wikipedia? It says in quotations, due to the limitations of the NES curves, sorry, due to the limitations of the NES, comma, curves appear to come out of nowhere, making turning unusually difficult. I do agree with that statement, except for the fact that I think they fixed it by putting signs up.

20:26 I think that it worked perfectly. I was actually going to mention that before when you mentioned that you could see turns coming, that like, you definitely in real life will be able to see the turn coming a lot further ahead than you can in the game. So the signs actually really helped me just prepare for what to do. And also, like in real life, you're actually going much faster so that you, it is, it is good to have a little bit of a warning. So that's almost a little bit of realism that right there, that the turns sort of just show up. But no, I, those, those little arrows are very useful.

20:58 Um, I, again, because this isn't an actual 3D video game, I think turning is always kind of fudged. So even if you're going way too fast and if this were a more realistic game, you'd probably like crash into a wall or go wide out, wide out of the actual track. Um, you get a little bit of wiggle room just because the game can't simulate you. Uh, completely blowing past the turn. Given the way that both modes, the time trial and the Grand Prix work, it expects you to learn these courses and play them a lot before you actually commit to the idea of racing them in them. If you want to have any shot at winning, right?

21:40 This isn't something where it's like, yeah, I'm just going to play through, um, Dolphin Shoals, which is a Mario Kart course. I'm going to play through Dolphin Shoals blind. And yeah, you'll probably still finish in first if you're playing against Mario Kart computer characters, right? Like it's not something where you're like, I have to really know this course to do it well. That's true of the time trials and online for sure, but not against Nintendo computer characters. In this game, if you don't take the time to take Al Unser Jr.'s like coaching advice and practice on the course and qualify with a good time, like you can't just go on this course immediately into the race and start in 26th place and expect to finish well.

22:25 Yeah, it's kind of, it's kind of punishing. Um, I thought I was driving pretty well. I didn't, I didn't crash. And I still, I think finished like seventh, uh, playing it blind.

22:38 And, uh, this was after many attempts. So I'm not saying that that kind of commitment is like, should be par for the course in a racing game, especially one that is only simulating so much. Uh, but I mean, it, it, it, it's definitely got a high skill ceiling, but that's, that's most NES games, it seems.

23:03 So before we get into the grand prix mode, the, the premier mode of the game, you're first greeted with the idea of time trials, which I feel like, you know, just on a menu thing, if I'm going to nitpick this, the time trials should be below the grand prix, right? Like you shouldn't be doing time trials when you start this game, you should be learning the career mode and starting with a character and figuring out like what it's like to drive before you try and complete your fastest laps or, or, uh, wasn't that sort of what you said prior, like you should be playing these tracks.

23:35 You should be. Yeah. But in the, in the practice mode on grand prix, like there you practice, you get unlimited practices before you have to qualify. Like the time trial, the idea is like, how fast can you do it? Like, should you really start there? I get it. You know, but that also a weird decision is that the time trial has a time trial a, which you would think is like the main time trial mode, but that's the one with computer opponents and time trial B without computer opponents. I don't think of time trials as something that like involve other people racing at the same time. Yeah, exactly.

24:07 So you should just call that a different mode. It's like, that's just a exhibition mode. Huh? Just nitpicking. Not really, you know, it's not substantial enough. It's great that they included it, I suppose. They just didn't label it properly.

24:20 Yes. Like I, that is weird. Um, but I, I, you know what, I can forgive a misplaced menu item, but not two. No. All right. Once there's two or, or any interface that's wrong, that's what you do. Or if all of the buttons make you move like the babies or something like that's completely like, you cannot survive that.

24:48 And then there's the Grand Prix, which, uh, as we said, uh, you can make a character and go into, uh, basically the first part of the Grand Prix with a really bad car and really bad stats. And you're not trying, it's just like top players tennis again, where it's like, you're not going to have a shot at winning it all in the first season. You know, you have to continuously upgrade your stats, compete in these races. And over time you'll get there. But unlike, uh, top players tennis, this game does allow you to just start the Grand Prix as Al with completely max stats.

25:30 And I will, I'll admit that's how I played the game. But shouldn't you unlock Al after beating the cup? That, yes, I do think. Like maybe not even after beating it at some point later than at the very beginning of the game, because I was actually very confused. But I was like, just kind of like, okay, this is the default. You play as, you play as Al, whatever.

25:48 And then I'm playing and I'm just like, choose your stats. And they're all maxed out. And all I can do is lower stats. And I'm like, am I confused about something? Like, I guess maybe if you have like too much speed and too much, like of two things combined, like maybe I wouldn't want some of these, but like, I don't know enough about it. I'm just like, why would I, why am I starting with like the absolute best stats? It seems. Yeah, I guess I never, I mean, I thought about it like, oh, I'm not really getting the full experience here because I'm not playing in God mode, but I'm, I'm, I'm using like an end game character here.

26:20 Uh, but I, I think it's still hard. Like regardless of how fast you can go and how tight you can turn or how fast your pit crew can operate. Like it's still hard to win a race in this game. And maybe again, it just speaks to how bad I am at racing games, but I, I, it doesn't remove all of the, the challenge.

26:44 It's still weird though. I completely agree with you. I guess it's even more confusing because yeah, if you don't play the game, it's your first time playing the game, playing with max speed, isn't going to help anybody learn anything. That's, that's true. Actually, that may, might actually disprove the point I was going to make, which is like, I wonder if, if this was done, like maybe the intention was to have Al Unser Jr.

27:10 unlockable at the end. And then they realize like, wow, casual players are just not going to be able to pick up this game and start. We got to give them the ability to be really good off the bat. Like if I can't play as Al Unser Jr., I'm returning this to media play. Yeah. That's what I say about most games. That's why I returned Super Mario Brothers 3. Because you couldn't play as, uh, Mario's, no, you could, yeah, you couldn't play as Mario's, uh, son's son. Right. Who would have been named Mario the third.

27:40 Right, right. All right. Back to more relevant stuff that is, that maybe is funny. Unlike that joke. That was funny. Oh, thank you. Oh, uh, what do you guys, how do you guys feel about Valvoline? Why? Just because their name is all over this game. Yeah, well, obviously their name's all over the game. They're a sponsor of the podcast. Um, that's important to know too, so. No. They're one of those like undercover sponsors where they just waited 270 something episodes to finally get name dropped. I didn't notice until you said that I, um, watched the video. I didn't notice, uh, Valvoline's name all over the place. Right. So they did a really bad job. Right now. Yeah. They hit it. Their name is, uh, in all of the, uh, all of the like coach things.

28:27 Um, anytime you. Helmet. Yeah. It's on the helmet on the, on the screen while you're playing, regardless of like where in the race you are. It's every single piece of artwork that isn't just the car racing. It says Valvoline somewhere. It's hilarious. It's funny. I didn't notice at all, but I did start, uh, like scheduling oil changes.

28:51 So it got me subliminally. At each race, uh, the player has the chance to get advice from Al Unser Jr., which I guess could be a little confusing if you're playing as Al Unser. I like that we keep calling him Al Unser Jr. Should we, should we just start calling him a little Al? Al Unser Jr. Little Al. That's his name. Al Unser Jr. Math is his full name. Oh, there you go. Yes. Very good. Another solid joke. Um, this advice, uh, did you use it at all? Did you, is it something that you would skip? You'd be like, yeah, Al, okay. Like, I'm just going to play the game.

29:27 It always seemed like something that is like, oh, here, you know, the, the best way to drive a car is shifting properly. And it's like the kind of advice that like, gee, gee, Al, like, wow, if I knew how to do that properly or like, that would be great to do. Like, it always felt like very unhelpful advice. Like, oh, you know what? You should definitely break, uh, and then accelerate out of a turn. Like, yeah, I get it, Al. I know how racing works technically.

30:00 I only like looked at, at this one time really. And then I, and I thought my initial thought was like, I would use this if I played this game for like, uh, you know, a much more extended period of time and was really trying to get good at it. But that's because I thought, and maybe I misread the one. I thought he was saying like, you need to accelerate, you need to accelerate and then break. I thought he was giving me advice for this specific course.

30:24 Like accelerate off the bat, but don't forget there's a turn coming up. So you got to break on like the first turn because it's too sharp or something like that. That's how I read it. But like, I just sort of skimmed it. Maybe he was just saying after you accelerate, don't forget to break. They are more specified. They are, but they're still like not, not super helpful.

30:41 Yeah. They're still vague. Gotcha. And unlike my beloved Gran Turismo series, uh, in these races, you can't just, uh, sideswipe people and not face any repercussions, which is weird because Gran Turismo is a simulation game, but somehow everybody agreed that like, yeah, we don't want to make our cars look damaged. Could you imagine?

31:04 So, uh, Gran Turismo, you can cheese it at least in the career mode. I'm sure online there's like penalties or whatever. I'm not, I'm not about to go online and play other people. That's insane. Uh, I'm going to race the computers all day. But here, if you, um, if you get into crashes or whatever, uh, accidents of any kind, uh, hitting signposts, all that stuff is gonna not only slow you down, but also could harm your engine or blow your tires. And then you have to pit to get those things repaired.

31:35 Yeah. Um, and I think that, I think that even though the reason why a game like Gran Turismo, like the reason, the reason why they didn't have like damage models was, was dumb. And it was because the manufacturers of the cars didn't want to see their cars all busted up. I, at least like in this game, it makes sense. Like crashing into another car to get them out of the way is not a valid, uh, a valid strategy. Uh, you're going 200 and something miles away, miles per hour.

32:08 Uh, you were likely to die in a crash like that. So, yeah. But what would Valvoline think? Valvoline is, is all for clean racing and clean engines. And they paid me to say that. Yeah. That is stock ticker VVV. If you're looking to become a shareholder. Is it VVV? Yeah, it is. I'll buy some more right now. Because it's only going. Uh, to the moon. No, that'd be down.

32:37 Yeah. I'd say V's are like downward arrows. V's. Um, which is exactly, you know, stocks on sale. Giddy up. There's no, there's no time not to buy. Hey, but when this, when this episode airs, we very well may have defaulted. So everything's on sale. Valvoline is definitely on sale.

33:23 So it sounds like we mostly played as Al in Grand Prix just to try to get like the lay of the land and stuff like that. But any, any interest in like playing as a player made character and taking the time to like upgrade your stats very, very slowly? Or is it like, nah, they gave me the juiced guy. So I might as well. Only if they were able to like give me the option to put like neon under my car and like really sick vinyl. Um, and if I could listen to that, like one writers on the storm song, you know? Nice. Right.

34:01 Uh, I, I think that if, if this were, if this was more my thing and like, I really wanted to like sink my teeth into this game, I definitely would want to create like, yeah, I don't want to play as the super maxed out guy. Like I, I, I like kind of the sorts of things you were describing before Mike of like. That's my Honda Civic.

34:21 Like, yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, you know, starting from the bottom and like fixing up your car and getting better stats as you go and like feeling that progression. Um, which I guess is like, just like a long way of saying if I were interested in it, I'd be more interested in it, but that's kind of where I am. And there is a, it's a lengthy Grand Prix. It's not just like. You go on like a world tour. Right. Yeah. You go on a world tour and there are different locations and they are somewhat based, not, not one to one, but they are based on real courses.

34:52 Uh, so I think for the enthusiast, there's a lot here, even if for the, you know, for the everyday person who doesn't really care that much about racing games, never bought a wheel to drive properly in their video games. Uh, you know, you might just say like, ah, yes, really freaking hard, uh, these turns. Right. And it's also like, how do I, you know, that's one thing we didn't talk about. If you think about the controls, right? What's it like driving this car? That was one of my sections earlier.

35:24 The controls are a little awkward with just the amount of buttons we have. Like in, in modern games, even if you don't have a wheel or, um, an actual stick, you know, to change the gears or even at arcades, they would have the gears for you, right? At least one through four. Um, if you don't have those on a PS4 controller, PS5, I guess I should say, but I don't own one, but like on those consoles, like you change gears using like R2. Shoulder buttons. Yeah.

35:54 R1, R2, like, uh, you know, stuff like that here. You're using the same buttons that you're also using to steer a little bit, but also to accelerate. Like you have to be holding down the drive at the same time as you're shifting up the gears. Yeah, it's weird. Like there's throttle and then there's the gear shifter and the throttle's like a, and then the gear shifter's up and down and then, uh, breaking is B or maybe I'm switching those two up. No, you're right. But then also when you're in the third gear trying to shift up again, that turns on your turbo. And so I always thought you have to hold it down.

36:30 And I didn't even know that like turbo was a thing in this kind of racing, but it apparently is. Um, and then you have like a limited amount of turbo and then breaking kind of breaking feels weird sometimes because it feels like, uh, it, it completely brings you to a halt. And I feel like it shouldn't if you're already going 200 and something miles an hour. So it does feel strange, but it does seem more simulation-y than it does feel arcade-y, which may be what they were going. Yeah. I just feel like there was something a little off about the way it all controlled for somebody who's not like, look, we're Americans.

37:13 We don't, we don't really drive stick, right? Like it's like, it's already not there programming in my head. And like, I get the concept and like, I know that like, yeah, you hit a certain rotations per minute and then you shift into the next gear or whatever. It's not like it's, that part is difficult, but like, I'm not trained to be doing that at all times. So it was like hard enough to remember to do that. But then on top of that, to do it with an NES controller was just like, man, this is really foreign. Somewhat foreign, but not really.

37:49 The sequels and spinoffs for the game is a distant relative of Al Unser Jr.'s turbo racing is Al Unser Jr.'s Road to the Top on the Super Nintendo. It was released in 1994, so four years later. What do you think Al Unser Jr.'s Road to the Top does to be different? I want to say that Al Unser Jr. was something of a renaissance man. So this one probably isn't even about racing. Like this is about like managing a restaurant to the best of its ability. And this is sort of the thing that he did after racing. Sean, there's no way you want me now to like, I desperately want to play a kitchen, a Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmare video game, but for like N64.

38:36 But it's also Al Unser Jr.'s. Al Unser Jr.'s Kitchen Nightmares. Hell yeah. Just that he just becomes like a video game mascot of all genres. He's Data East's main mascot.

38:49 In an alternate reality, Al Unser Jr. is the Mario. The Al Unser Jr. movie just came out. Chris Pratt plays it. I would think that Race to the Top or Road to the Top should be very literal. And that's probably like you're driving up a mountain. Like Rally Car? But Rehearse? Sure. I don't know what that is, but it sounds like yes. Road to the Top is different because in order to be the true racing champion, you have to start from the beginning. Okay? You don't get to start in the Indy racing. You don't get Al Unser. I see. Yeah. See, you have to start at go-karts.

39:28 Wait, it goes from go-karts to like, to Indy karts? You have to start at the invention of the wheel. It goes crazy, okay, Sean? It goes from go-karts to snowmobiles to the International Race of Champions, which I guess are like, you know, similar to NASCAR, but they couldn't license NASCAR, but like those kinds of cars. And then eventually to the super fast Indy cars. So you're telling me that we jumped from, you know, go-karts to snowmobiles and then from snowmobiles to NASCAR? It's the natural progression of racing. Is this like, this is the actual like farm system? We get all of our NASCAR drivers from the snowmobile circuit?

40:13 Well, it's funny because like, go-kart, somehow I guess I can imagine a line from go-kart to like NASCAR. But like, snowmobiles is like somewhat lateral to that. Like you've gone off the path a little bit to be like snow-trying. Yeah, you're now in the niche markets. You've made a mistake.

40:33 Even more interesting is like, this is a different, like Data East didn't, this isn't a sequel. It's really just a spinoff because the developers, Radical Entertainment, the publishers, software, Toolworks. So like other people just said like, let's make another Alan's or Junior game. But this time, Al, we're going all over the place. Go-karts, snowmobiles. And it's funny because like, the go-kart racing is like you travel across the USA. And then in the snowmobiles, you're like in the Alps. Oh. It's like, you really get around. The racing circuits are something, you know, like everybody's of international fame if you're a racer. And the most famous part of our podcast is coming up.

41:18 Al Unser's Essential Games list. You didn't even try. You didn't even try for a segue there. Oh my gosh. No, it's Valvoline's Essential Games list. Oh man. I think Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing is a mouthful of a game. And I can't believe I keep saying his full name each time. He's definitely in my subconscious now. He's definitely in my vocabulary. Hopefully he shows up in Jeopardy. Not like as a contestant, but like as a category of Al Unser Jr. stuff. And I know a little bit more about him now.

41:53 So that is to say that like this has all been very educational. And I had a fun time playing this game. And I feel like people who like racing games ought to really like this game. But then maybe people who really like racing games can also tell us that like, no, this actually isn't a good racing game for the following reasons. My point is, I'm not good enough at racing games to critique it on that level. And I'm also too much of a casual to say that like, well, it's just not a good racing game because I'm not good at it. You know, like there's a double-edged sword here where either way I'm wrong because I'm not good enough, but I'm also not. No, I am bad enough. See, I'm not good enough, but I'm also bad enough.

42:34 So where do I fall on this whole like, is it on the essential games list thing? I'm going to tell you right now. I don't think it is because it's not for the everyday man. And I don't think an essential game has like a limited audience. And I think Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing, by being the kind of game it is,

42:51 limits its audience a little bit to just people who already have a familiarity with all the complicated, complicated, not really. I mean, it's as complicated as 8-bit gaming can get. But that is to say, too, that every console generation afterwards only improves upon this, right? Like you're not going to see Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing do something better than any other modern-day equivalent. Like these are the bare-bones features of these racing simulation games. And so it's definitely a great racing game. It's one of the few racing games we really have on this system. So kudos to that, but not enough for the essential games list.

43:35 Joe? Yeah, I'm sort of echoing a lot of what you said. I mean, first of all, this isn't my niche. So I'm not like the most qualified to talk about it. But I would say that this is a great racing simulation game for the time.

43:54 But the difference between this and another game where we say, oh, well, even though there have been better types of games in this genre going forward, this is still essential. The difference here is I can feel, I can see,

44:08 okay, for the time this is good, but I can feel the outdatedness of this. Like I don't see a reason for someone who loves like a racing game to be like, this is a must play. Like if you want to know the history and you want to see like you like an NES style, you like the style, fine. But like it feels like this is a cool thing that happened and we're past it.

44:30 So I'm going to say no. Sean? You know, I do really like this game. And I don't think we're that far off from what could be our first racing central game, unless we already put RC Pro-Am on there, in which case I'm wrong. But I don't think we're far off. But I think that some execution is right now. This is an enthusiast game. And it really shouldn't be. Because like Mike said, it's really just the bare bones of what makes like an actual simulation game a thing. Like there's shifting. There's somewhat keeping track of where your opponents are.

45:16 There's cornering and braking around turns instead of just going full speed the entire time. Like there's actual depth to this game. And I think some of it just kind of has to do with the control scheme. I know that there's really not much they can do with it here.

45:35 But because of just how many buttons there are on this controller. But I can see somewhere on the horizon, maybe we will have an essential racing game. Unfortunately, Mr. Unser Jr., he doesn't have it right now. As good as Valvoline's oil is, I can't in good conscience put this on the essential games list right now. Wow, we lost the sponsor. I still said they were good. RC Pro-Am is not on the essential games list. But it was voted on by Sam and you, Sean. That's what I thought. On December 13th, 2019. So, you know, maybe I was shafted. But that's neither here nor there.

46:21 Right, right. I want there to be a racing game on the essential games list at some point, you know. You may have a good point about the controller, though. They really needed to, like, release a wheel accessory with this. Yeah. I wonder what that would look like. Yeah. I mean, like, yeah, it would look really weird if it looked anything like the rest of the NES color schemes and stuff. Like, an NES Advantage styled racing wheel that's just really bulky.

46:48 And probably not even a full circle. It's like, you know, it's like a giant rectangle instead for whatever reason because they were just dealing in absolutes back then. But whatever. Next week, the Astonax. I think I'm saying that right.

47:04 Jaleco. You choose. It's them. They're the publishers. There's ACOM. It's them. They're the developers. I'm him. Yep. Sean's him. And just to, you know, before the show's over, just to, you know, maybe surprise the people that are still listening.

47:22 Unrelated question completely from Al Unser Jr.'s Turbo Racing. I'm just going to try something new here. I'm just going to say, like, what if I just asked a random question at the end of the show? My question for this week that I have thought of. No one submitted this question. What do you do at any game? It doesn't have to be an NES game. What do you do for a video game that you're playing where the story is absolute cringe? I usually stop playing. You would stop playing because the story is cringe. There's no, like, in your scenario, no skip the story and just keep playing the game. Well, okay. It depends on what kind of game you're talking about.

47:59 If it's a game where the story plays a pretty deep part of the game, then, yeah, I'm going to turn it off and just not play it anymore. If it's a game in which it knows that the story is kind of worthless, but the game is fun, then, yeah, I'll keep playing. Yeah, it's a game where they think the story is important, but it's cringe and it keeps working its way in. But technically, you don't need to know anything to keep playing because you understand the gameplay loop. It's just that now you're not really learning anything about the characters or the motivation.

48:33 It sounds like you're talking about a JRPG. Most JRPGs, right? Yeah. Joe? For me, it's more, like, I used to be very, like, adamant. Like, no, like, if there's a story, I have to, like, pay full attention to it.

48:48 Now I'm a lot more loosened up on that. I mean, there are plenty of games where I'm still very much in it for the story, but there are a lot of games where I'm just like, you know what? This is just a fun game. The story's bad. I don't care. I'm just playing the fun game. But I'll say that I get burnt out a lot on unskippable stories that are just no good. Pokemon, modern Pokemon is, I think, like, one of the worst offenders of this, where it's just like, hey, this gameplay is fun, but it's, like, it's cutscene every two seconds of characters. I don't care about stuff that, like, is not interesting,

49:19 and it didn't used to be like this, and I don't need it to be like this, and, like, that makes me stop playing. So, like, it also depends. If I can just ignore a bad story and have fun with the game, but if the story is, like, if the story is encroaching on my ability to play the game and it's bad, then I gotta be out. I think that if Aluncer Jr.'s Turbo Racing didn't have the love interest, I would be able to pay attention to the story better. Right, right.

49:50 And I think it's, like, another thing, just to go back to, like, it's not that the story is bad, it's just that, or, you know, like, that it's essential or whatever, it's just that it's, like, too childish for you, you know, or, like, or that not even, I don't even want to say that, like, I don't want to put a qualifier to it, but it's like, yeah, they're telling a competent story, you're just really not jiving with it. It's like... What game are you talking about? Well, I'm talking about all sorts of games, but most recently, Fire Emblem Engage, the newest Fire Emblem game on Switch. It's just one of those things where, like, you know, what you're doing in the game, like, you're recruiting characters, and if they die, they die forever.

50:30 Like, you want to know their stories and everything, but everything is just so, like, at this point, like, I've been gaming for 20 years, like, you can't surprise me with these story arcs. They're not interesting, and most of them are pretty, like, basic and bare bones. Like, I'm not surprised by it. So, yeah, I probably should stop playing the game, but I like Fire Emblem-type games.

50:50 I like the whole, like, tactical RPG side of things, and so it's totally easy to play that game without knowing what's going on, but they do want you to be invested in the story, more so than ever. Yeah. Fire Emblem, as a series, is just a collection of archetypes that are barely... They're barely fleshed out past, like, they have a name and a quirk, and that's pretty much it.

51:13 Three Houses was tolerable because of just how much was going on, and that's really what the series relies on, is just, like, there's a lot going on, so they trust you to forgive them not giving all these characters that much depth. And that's just the way the series goes. Now, you're saying that this is even more unforgivable than it has in the past? I believe so. Hmm. And who am I to talk? I play Kingdom Hearts games, and I enjoy this. I think that so often when I'm, like, I'll watch something, I'm like, it just felt childish, and I play Kingdom Hearts.

51:50 Like, that's, like, my test of, like, if it's more childish than Kingdom Hearts, like... Yeah, maybe that means that you're onto something. Yeah. All right, that's the episode. I forget how to end these yet after we ask the question, but that's how we'll do it for now. Cool.