Tour 91

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs

GAME DESIGNER:
GAME DEVELOPER:Topo Soft
GAME PUBLISHER:Topo Soft
Copyright 1991, Topo Soft

Tour 91 is a fun bicycle racing game from underrated Spanish developer Topo Soft. While it will never be considered the most realistic cycling game on the market– or even the most fun– it does offer a few hours of fun for the arcade-oriented fans of the sport.

There are only 4 play modes (i.e. tracks): against the clock, against opponents, racing up the mountain, and racing in the streets, and the whole “tour” is merely these four tracks strung together. The first 2 modes (against the clock and against opponents) are played from a 2D side-srolling view, while the last two are played from bird’s eye view– a nice change from other bike games. The differences between them aside from different graphics, however, are sadly minimal: racing up the mountain is, strangely enough, not much more difficult than racing in the streets. The tracks are just more sinewy and controls seem a bit sluggish. Worse, the key to winning seems to hinge only on how fast you can repeatedly hit “accelerate” key on the keyboard, making this a much shallower game than it could be. A decent game, but only with a limited appeal to joystick jocks who are either very dexterous, or are very patient.