Top Gear 3000
A futuristic racer with weapons and branching tracks.
Gremlin Interactive developed Top Gear 3000, which Kemco published for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Japan saw it released as The Planet's Champ: TG3000. This racing game closes the original Top Gear trilogy and marks Gremlin's final entry in the series. Though set in a far-future setting, its gameplay and design closely mirror those of Top Gear 2.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Gremlin Graphics
- Publisher
- JP/NA
- Kemco
- EU
- Gremlin Graphics
- Designer
- Ashley Bennett
- Series
- Top Gear
- Released
- February 1995 (NA)
- April 28, 1995 (JP)
- 1995 (EU)
- Genre
- Racing
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
- Platforms
- Super NES
Facts from the source article.
Comparison to series
Setting the game a thousand years in the future allowed the developers to include futuristic technologies and abandon the relative realism of Top Gear 2. Car upgrades became more extensive, and weapons appeared for the first time in the series. Upgrades included a nuclear fusion engine, a cobalt-titanium armour kit, and a liquid polymer gearbox. Weapons included a device to jump over cars, a warp device, and a magnetic attractor to steal kinetic energy. The DSP-4 chip enabled split tracks with different lengths, making Top Gear 3000 the only Super NES game to use this chip.
Story
The introduction states that anonymous benefactors have created a galaxy-wide racing campaign at the outset of each millennium, rewarding the winner with riches beyond belief. The instruction manual provides a more detailed dystopian story set in 2962. Five centuries earlier, World War XVII devastated colonized planets. The Galactic Conglomerate of Unified Planets maintains calm through suppression of radical thought. Outlaw thrill seekers turn to the Top Gear 3000 Challenge, a race held once every millennium.
Gameplay
The game offers two modes, with Championship being the most expansive. Cars are limited by fuel and frame condition; fuel is gained from red Recharge strips, and structural integrity from blue Repair strips. Championship mode supports one or two players, or one player with a split screen showing an AI opponent. Players start with identical cars and can customize color, name, speed units, and button layout. Each race features twenty cars, with eighteen or nineteen named AI opponents. After races, players spend credits on upgrades for engine, gearbox, tyres, armour, boost, and weapons. AI opponents do not purchase upgrades but grow faster throughout the championship. Bonuses appear as spherical icons or are awarded as secret bonuses after races; Secret Bonus B was not fully implemented and cannot be awarded. Some races intentionally have fewer recharge strips, forcing fuel depletion. Cars can sustain high speed without fuel, but hitting objects may reduce speed drastically; speed can be regained via red strips, the attractor, being hit by a fast car, or using a boost of level 4 or higher. Nuclear engines maintain velocity even without fuel. Upgrades become available as the player progresses. Three difficulty settings affect championship length and AI speed; on easy and medium, not all level 6 components become available.
More in Super Nintendo Entertainment System Game Library
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced