Why was Gran Turismo popular?

[MikeRox]

johnsobas said:

MikeRox said:
Because back in 1997 it was pretty much without peer. Back then racing games were fully features with 3 tracks and a few cars. So suddenly having so many courses and hundreds of cars was a WTF!? moment.

The visuals were also pretty damn stunning by console standards back then too. The N64 was a joke for racing games, the Sega Saturn was already dead. So it really found a market, especially in Europe.

yea i'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you about the N64 having no good racing games.  

I didn't say it had "no good racing games" I said it was a joke for them. Compared with the PlayStation and even the Saturn, the N64 racing game lineup was awful.

I loved Mario Kart 64 and Diddy Kong Racing (but these are Kart racers which is a sub genre), Ridge Racer 64 and enjoyed Top Gear Rally, but off the top of my head, I can't really think of anything else worth bothering with on the N64 as far as racing games went. There was a reason when Burnout released on the GameCube, the Nintendo magazines went crazy for the fact that there was finally a good racer on a Nintendo system.

Oh I suppose there was also Wave Race, but again, not the sort of racing game we're referring to when talking about Gran Turismo.