Motor Toon Grand Prix

Motor Toon Grand Prix is a Japanese-only racing game released in 1994, and Sony Computer Entertainment’s first major in-house project for the PlayStation console. The game was directed by Kazunori Yamauchi, and is a precursor to his subsequent racing series Gran Turismo. A sequel titled ‘Motor Toon Grand Prix 2’ was released in 1996, but was simply named ‘Motor Toon Grand Prix’ when released in North America.

In this game, when you choose a car with power and speed, he looks mean. A car with loose handling will look crazy, and have a funny bouncing animation while driving. In fact, you don’t need to look at their statistics to know how they will drive, you can tell by their expressions. The courses are exaggerated and surreal – One is a trip through a haunted house, another has you driving through a giant world with boundaries defined by playing cards and candy. Even the more standard tracks have zany scenery and extreme corners or hills. Along the tracks you pick up objects that allow you to fire missiles, speed up, become invulnerable, and so forth, adding a battle aspect to the race. All damage is cartoonish, however, and there is no blood or real violence.