10. G-6155 (Spy Hunter)

Growing up with arcades, there were two kind of people: the ones that looked for the multi-colored Street Fighter joysticks and the ones that looked for the (if you were lucky) triple steering wheels of Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road. It was the first steering wheel a lot of kids like Unregular got their pizza-stained hands on and, due to quick gameplay and NITROS, most of them were never the same again. [Photo: TeamTeaBag]

7.) Sweet Tooth's Chevy Ice Cream Truck(Twisted Metal)

Twisted Metal has a special place in our hearts for merging the concept of head-to-head destruction with a driving game in such an enjoyable package. Everyone had a favorite vehicle and a belief that their special weapon was the key to success. But no car managed to stir the imagination like Sweet Tooth, the insane clown in a Chevy Ice Cream Truck. It was tough. It was fun to drive. It had a giant clown head on the top of it. It was the ultimate extension of teenage angst in a purely digital form. [Photo: IGCD.net]

6.) Mario's Kart (Mari Kart Series)

Who knew that a game essentially about go-kart racing could be so much fun? It manages to feature no vehicles or weapons from the real world. The race tracks are often shaped like characters. The physics of the game are completely unlike even kart racing. Yet time-after-time we manage to sit down with our friends and enjoy hours of the game on any console it appears on. As with other games, there is debate as to what kart is truly the best, but Mario's red kart clearly carries with it the best balance of speed, size and acceleration. Be on the lookout for that kart and LamerX with a red shell on your tail.

5.) Infernus (Grand Theft Auto Series)

It takes a lot of effort to stand out in a game that features, amongst other vehicles, an Armored Personal Carrier and an ambulance. What makes the Infernus so special to the Grand Theft Auto series is the durability of its enjoyment (if not its actual, rather poor, durability). Whether it's the Vector-based Infernus of GTA III or the Murcielago of GTA IV, there's little that's as much fun as hopping in the high-speed ride, finding the best ramp and learning how to fly higher than a helicopter. We imagine Msketchler is trolling a virtual world in one now. [Photo: IGCD.net]

4.) The Blue Racer (F-Zero)

The Blue Racer from F-Zero stands out on this list, and not just because it is the only car here without any wheels. When F-Zero debuted on the SNES it blew our minds. With its quasi-3D graphics it felt like a revolution in gameplay. It was as if we had gone from horse-and-buggy to hovercar. Though the differentiation between cars was for the most part completely visual, everyone seemed to want the Blue Racer when it was their turn at the controls. It not only carried the cover and looked the fastest, it felt the fastest. It is the only futuristic racer that Dr. Danger would pilot around Mute City. [Photo: Wikimedia]

3.) Hornet (Daytona USA)

Rather than bothering with the complicated licensing involved in creating a NASCAR-type game, SEGA pushed through a rather detailed racing simulator with made-up names. As the driver in the original version of Daytona USA you raced a Hornet, and only a hornet. Is it a Ford or a Chevy? We don't know. We just know that when anyone is invited to an event at Dave & Buster's the first test of skill is behind the wheel of Hornet. It looks like a stock car but it drives like a dream and takes abuse like Rodney Dangerfield. [Photo Arcade-History]

2.) Buick Skylark (Driver: You Are The Wheelman)

Before there was a fully 3D Grand Theft Auto there was Driver: You Are The Wheelman. As an undercover cop asked to infiltrate the world or organized crime, you have to dodge the cops and carry out jobs for the villains without becoming one yourself. Rather than throwing the driver into an officially-licensed Dodge Intrepid or something equally as ridiculous, the designers start out the driver in what is essentially a Buick Skylark. The mix of tire-smoking rear-wheel-drive and a growling V8 make for classic and unforgettable enjoyment. It's one big reason to never part with that PS1. [Photo: IGCD.net]

1.) Ferrari Testarossa (Outrun)

Though Hang On may have been the test-bed for the technology, the original Out Run arcade game was one of the first driving simulators to put the player head first into the action. It was the game that let us dream of actually cruising down familiar roads at high-speeds and it was the Ferrari Testarossa we associate with that dream. It combined the beauty of a classic Italian design with the fun of open-top driving. But the best feature, and the reason why we can't forget the car, was probably the girlfriend in the passenger seat. Any car that comes pre-equipped with a blonde passenger that's easily impressed by beating a checkpoint is the car for Kors and a ride worthy of our endless appreciation. [Photo: IGCD.net] More »
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Aside from futuristic imagination of nanotechnology and ridiculously awesome environmental damage models, Crysis is pretty much a standard first-person shooter. What's really cool is the map development capabilities available to the average gamer. We get a pyrotechnically charged demonstration of that dev system here, with the fun combination of skydiving and blowing up huge stacks of cars. Delightful! [WeGame] More »
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Take our love for driving sims like the Gran Turismo series and combine it with our fixation with dekotora trucks and you get what we consider to be the most Jalopnik game of all time: Zenkoku Dekotora Matsuri. From what we can tell from the trailer, Japanese Elvis wants you to buy, customize and drive around in your own awesome dekotora. The driving dynamics don't seem to be outstanding, but the customization setup appears to go beyond merely choosing parts and colors. In the true dekotora tradition, users can use their own Wii painting skills to create an airbrushed dragon masterpiece.
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It makes such incredibly perfect sense for tire companies to be huge supporters of Drifting Madness (and burnout competitions, of course) that it was inevitable that one of them would put up a drifting Flash game to encourage young hoons to hone their tire-wear-enhancing techniques while online (yes, yes, it's been around for a while, so anyone who's limbering up their 1337 skilz to break out the scathing "ur teh lame this so old" comments can just go somewhere else). Players can choose from a variety of vehicles, including a Fjord, Muzda, or Minimal minivan, all equipped with a selection of Marhal Tyres; the sound effects are just the thing to liven up a dull Monday workplace. We recommend the Minimal. Thanks to Franzouse for the tip! [Driftgame.au] More »
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During those long family road trips, my siblings and I would gather in the back of the '72 Chevy Beauville van and play endless rounds of card and/or board games. Sure, we weren't seatbelted (and thus might as well have been juggling buckets of fuming nitric acid and loaded .45s, as far as today's panicky child-safety fanatics are concerned), but we didn't need no goddamn entertainment center in the vehicle to keep us from driving our parents crazy, neither! Anyway, one of our very favorite road-trip games was a vintage copy of Parker Brothers' fine driving game, Touring. More »
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We've been binging on East Bay punk and East Bay-associated bands (see Avail) over the last couple of days. And then we stumbled across a couple of Tim Armstrong-themed vehicles from Forza Motorsport 2. Now here's the deal, doing up a car in Forza, is apparently not as easy as plugging one's 360 into a scanner, inputting one's favorite album cover and plastering it to the roof of your weapon of choice. You've gotta recreate it using your gamepad. Plus, a 383 'Cuda with Rancid's ...And Out Come The Wolves on the roof? That opens up a barrel of East Bay Scene Incest that we were both peripherally and by turns, directly involved in. The players know who they are. After the jump, an Operation Ivy Peugeot and Spinelli's car in Panda Express livery. – Davey G. Johnson More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=267832&view=rss&microfeed=true Now, we're not really marketing types here, but if you're going to combine an off-road SUV with a full vehicle simulation, the logical option would be to shoot for, oh, I don't know, an off-road game. Not so for the marketing types at ToyMoCo. They've gone with a wacky mashup of what can be described as a snowboarding game and a chase sequence that throws you around while inside a shiny blue FJ. We didn't say it makes sense, but hey, who are we to argue with a kajillion dollar juggernaut?– Ben Wojdyla More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=226713&view=rss&microfeed=true Every once in a while, the Internet takes a giant leap forward in its ability to waste my life away. Imagine combining a profound love of Jeeps with the desire to see them pull off Dukes-of-Hazzard-on-acid jumps. Well my friend, that's the idea behind Jeep Flyer. Go ahead, take a furtive stab at a loop-dee-loop, make massive jumps over impossible distances, crash the Jeep into a thorny nest of death spikes and watch the driver fly off into white space — it's only limited by your imagination (and simulated physics). Now that you're hooked, go introduce it to all of your coworkers and enjoy as your office productivity plummets to zero. See you in the unemployment line.– Ben Wojdyla More »
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Back when time was long and Los Jalopniks were short, one of us used to sit upstairs at our cousins' Southern Ulster farmhouse with them and and learn all we could about cars from a deck of Top Trumps. We're not sure that we even played the game, and we know we barely remember anything about the rules. We think it has something to do with your specifications beating the other guys. Now comes Crap Trumps, which is the same deal, but instead of supercars, the vehicles are things like Reliant Robin fire trucks, crashed police cars and probably the Salton Sea Mystery Machine. – Davey G. Johnson More »
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Now you can experience for yourself what it felt like to be the passionate Mel Gibson, speeding drunkenly down the PCH on a fateful July night. "So You Think You Can Drive, Mel?", a new game on gsn.com, recreates Mel's drive in animated form, replete with tequila bottles, state troopers, and Star of David-slinging rabbis. The only thing more realistic the game could've added is if it made you pen a letter of regret to the worldwide Jewish community if you don't make the high schore — but hey, it's a game...not real life. More »
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It already has a sort of monopoly in the hybrid car market; now the Toyota Prius is going into real estate. The gaming monopolists at Hasbro say they're including a Prius-shaped token in its new, "Here and Now" edition of the Monopoly game. The Prius will replace whatever manner of Silver Arrow 1930s race car we used to fight to be (second choice: the top hat). The Prius will be joined by a laptop, a sneaker, an order of supersized fries, Suri Holmes-Cruise's first poop and the head of Mel Gibson. More »
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There's some mighty weird stuff happening over in the glass house of Ford — first they were trying to get their employees to become a new dealer network for them in exchange for a Ford-branded fleece. Now, they're resorting to pushing e-mails out to staff touting the most recent crazy/sexy/cool online advertising campaign — trying to get the employees to help them to make them go viral. Cause like they so don't have anything else to do with their time in the office, right. Witness as example the following e-mail sent out to all employees by James Owens, Mustang's Marketing Manager, for Ford's little pony — the Mustang GT: More »
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We're still pissed at the Forza Motorsport kids for not having a 2CV in the game. This must change, and it must change immediately and without compromise. Right now they're in the midst of dyno pulls for the second edition of the racing sim, and they've posted a bit about having an '88 M6 on the dyno. It's got an oversize straight six and makes about 460 ponies at the crank, which isn't exactly something to sneeze at. It's also unavailable for road use. More »
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Things we know Bumbeck likes: StarQuests, Datsuns, Mission of Burma, pretty models and video games. Sadly, there were no Starions, Conquests or B210s, and Toyota sure as hell wasn't about to blast "Academy Fight Song" over the PA as they introduced the Yaris sedan. But over in the relative calm of the Subaru booth, there were pretty models. And one big freakin' video game: a fully-wired Petter-Solberg's-car simulator. He was lovin' the thing, and we think he especially liked it when the pretty model touched the steering wheel to set the game prefs. He was drivin' smooth and settin' fast times galore. Meanwhile, we got dizzy and contented ourselves with making donuts 'til the clock ran out. More »
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