Super Monaco GP

Overview

The game was released in arcades in 1989 and for the Sega Mega Drive in 1990 and is an arcade racing game in the style of Formula One.

Although the original arcade version of the game consisted of the one circuit, a re-imagination of the Circuit de Monaco, the Sega Mega Drive port has a world championship mode, which consists of 16 race weekends. The 1989 F1 season is used as a basis for circuits and drivers, although the drivers only loosely resemble the real world counterparts.

Gameplay

The arcade version of the game is simpler in design than the Mega Drive counterpart, featuring only the one track. The player chooses between automatic or manual transmission and then begins qualifying. The player must qualify in under 45 seconds to progress to the race. In the race mode, the player must stay in front of a certain position in the field. This begins at 20th, but increases as the player reaches checkpoints, finally ending at 3rd place.

In the Mega Drive version, the player can fail to qualify and begin the race from the back of the grid.

The World Championship mode, not featured in the arcade version, has the goal of winning a season, with points being awarded similar to the real life sport. To add replay value, once the season is over the player goes on to defend the title. In the second season the player is given a seat at the game's fictional super team, and is assigned a difficult rival.

In this mode, the player drives for Team Minarae, and is able to choose another driver as his rival. If the player beats the rival in two consecutive race weekends, the rivals team will offer a place to the player. This allows the player to drive faster cars, and acts as a difficulty curve.

If the player wins two championships, the game is considered over.

Drivers

Class A

Class B

Class C

Class D

An additional Driver becomes the players main rival after winning the first championship:

Circuits

The Mega Drive version features 16 race weekends:

• Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, San Marino. (Commonly called "Imola")
• Jacarepagua, Brazil. (Now named "Nelson Piquet International Autodrome".)
• Paul Ricard Circuit, France.
• Hungaroring, Hungary.
• Hockenheimring, Germany. (Full name "Hockenheinring Baden-Württemberg" but usually just referred to as "Hockenheim".)
• Pheonix Street Circuit, USA.
• Circuit Cilles Villeneuve, Canada.
• Silverstone Circuit, United Kingdom.
• Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy. (Commonly called "Monza".)
• Autodromo do Estoril, Portugal. (Officially called "Autodromo Fernanda Pieres de Silva".)
• Circuito Permanente de Jerez, Spain.
• Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico. (Rodriguez Brothers Racetrack.)
• Suzuka Circuit, Japan.
• Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium. (Commonly called "Spa".)
• Adelaide Street Circuit, Australia.
• Circuit De Monaco, Monaco. (Street Sircuit in Monte Carlo, in which the game takes it's name.)

Trivia

Sega had law suit filed against them because the unlicenced use of the Marlboro trademark was seen to advertise to children. However, all advertisements were misspelled and altered with the exception of an advert for another Sega Game.

Pressing A, B, and C while crosssing the finish line changes the trophy ceremony. The Driver will hold his head in his hands instead of lifting the trophy.

The game was the first racing game to have a rear-view mirror.