Cyber Speedway / Gran Chaser
グランチェイサー
I have another neo-futurist racing Sega Saturn game for you — as last month would’ve been the late Syd Mead’s 90th birthday — we call it Cyber Speedway (known as Gran Chaser in Japan)! Cyber Speedway is a 1995 racing video game developed by the now-closed Nex Entertainment (then known as NexTech) and published by Sega.
The game was originally called Grand Racer, but was renamed to avoid confusion with another early Saturn game, Gale Racer. It is a spiritual sequel to the 1993 computer game CyberRace; the two games share a similar theme, and vehicles designed by Syd Mead. The game has different soundtracks depending on the region: one by Nextech’s Kohji Hayama in Japan and Europe, and another by the now-disbanded rock band Bygone Dogs in the United States and Canada. I sadly never owned or played the game, but I would try it if I had the Saturn, which I would purchase the region-free version from eBay since the Switch is region-free. The NA release’s soundtrack looked more like crap.
Sega Retro describes the game’s story:
War and Peace — the Cyber Speedway
Imagine. Sometime in the future. A universe free from wars. Civilizations developed to the extent that planets no longer need to attack and destroy each other.
Despite the intergalactic pacts and treaties that protect the universal peace, a few backward outposts continue their primitive practices.
Now two of these offenders are locked together in battle. The savage inhabitants of Kaladasia have been at war with the armed forces of another barbaric planet for so long that no one is sure why they are fighting anymore. No solution has been forthcoming.
Kaladasia’s enemy: Earth. No more than a speck of mud spinning around a second-rate star in a forgotten corner of the galaxy. But, it is one of the last barriers to universal peace.
At last, there may be a solution. The leaders from uncountable planets in all the galaxies of the universe gathered to find a way to reform it’s delinquent members. Cyber Speedway, they call it.
In place of the battlefield there is the cyber-race course. Instead of planes and tanks, hi-tech sleds.Armies of millions no longer need to perish. All disputes can be decided by the outcome of the race. The conflict with Kaladasia and the future of universal peace both depend on the hero that drives the winning sled. Is that hero you?
Cyber Speedway received generally mediocre reviews. While critics remarked that the graphics are good and that the two-player split screen mode is a welcome treat, especially given that the Saturn’s flagship racer Daytona USA is single-player only, they found fault with the gameplay, particularly the hovercraft handling. The now-defunct American magazine Next Generation reviewed the Japanese version as an import, rating it three stars out of five, and stated, “Gran Chaser is good fun, if not all together great.”
That wraps up for this game, and please don’t harass or troll anyone if you’re going to be a social media influencer. Don’t forget that Gfycat will be shut down in less than a week!
