A playthrough of Tengen's unlicensed 1989 racing game for the NES, Super Sprint.
I played until getting a game over on level fourteen.
Super Sprint was the 1986 follow-up to the 1976 arcade game Sprint 2, and while it wasn't the first top-down racing game, it was among the first to impress with "modern" sprite-based graphics. It ran on Atari's impressive System 2 hardware, which also powered classics like Paperboy and 720°, and it was razor sharp and silky smooth.
It was quite an influential game, too: if you've ever played Ivan "Ironman" Stewart's Super Off Road or R.C. Pro AM, you'll immediately see the similarities.
There are seven tracks total to race on, each occupying a single screen, and you can upgrade your car's grip and speed by grabbing wrenches that appear on the track. The point is to be the first to successfully finish three laps, and of course, there are plenty of obstacles thrown in your path. You need to avoid contact with the other racers' cars, oil slicks, tornadoes, and water puddles.
It's simple, but Super Sprint still holds up extremely well. The physics involved in skidding through sharp corners are convincing and fun to experiment with, the action is fast and fluid, and it's a riot to play with a friend.
The graphics are pretty plain and much simpler than they were in he arcade game, but the reason for this is apparent from the start: smooth and responsive gameplay requires a solid, steady framerate. Even though it looks like you're driving a Crayola crayon across the screen, it flows extremely well. Uncommonly so for an NES game.
Super Sprint is a great rendition of an 80s arcade classic. There's not much content, but what is here is gold.
Here's a random bit of trivia: even though this was an unlicensed release in the US and Australia, the Japanese Famicom version, published by Altron, was licensed by Nintendo.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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