The Moto Racer Collection

This is really not a bad deal for 3 of the better classic motorcycle racing games of the late 90s-early 2000s. The first two games are pure arcade racers, kinda like Screamer or early Test Drive games with bikes or Road Rash without the fighting. It's tight, almost feel like they belong on arcade cabinets, and pretty straightforward. These games are great fun in short bursts, but aren't particularly deep. You have the bikes (road and motocross), the tracks, go and have fun! The third game is the most contentious one, as it not only got rid of some of the series mainstays like a career mode (here instead you have a bunch of individual races and championships that allow you to earn points to then buy a handful of extra tracks and bikes) or track editor, but also tried to shift the handling from pure arcade to simcade, with the bikes feeling more floaty and heavy as a result. It still has the same modes as before, but now they are given equal billing credit (whereas before the racing mode was the main dish and everything else was garnish). As a result the game feels somewhat disjointed and incoherent, but it also resulted in more content for non-racing modes. In particular this led to what i still think is the most accomplished videogame depiction of moto trials - essentially floor-is-lava kind of obstacle courses that you need to hop around on the bike. Ubisoft's Trials series later exploded in popularity, but those games are pure arcade (they are essentially 2D), whereas here you have a genuine attempt to translate the niche discipline of moto trial in a videogame. I spent hours trying to nail those courses, but even then it's not going to keep you occupied for more than 3 or 4 hours at most. Overall it's a pretty good deal if you want the whole series. If you only want the arcade racing parts you'd be better off just buying the first and game on its own.

I do remember playing the first 2 games at the local arcade, back when they had gaming stalls built right in to the walls with a TV & a game console like the PS1. I never had the chance to play the 3rd game very much, yet it doesn't seem to functin very well on my PC. MR3 Gold has unresponsive menu buttons, there is no way for me to get past the main menu for selecting my user account. MR1 & MR2 are in working order as I remember them back in my childhood, though I don't recall MR1 having the snow maps.

I really liked all three games.