When reflecting on games from yesteryear, the abundance of retro collections in the last generation have managed to demonstrate that sometimes you’re better off just sticking with the memories of some things rather than revisiting them. In some cases, especially with early 3D games, the outdated mechanics or control styles can be a disaster, but sometimes the return to concepts of play that are simply more primitive or basic can make old gameplay very hard to appreciate as ever having been good. 

While I don’t have many memories of Street Racer, since it was only a game I rented a few times back on the SNES, on a general level I at least recalled it being decent. Let’s face it, while there were some great titles in that era, including the likes of Rock ‘n Roll Racing in particular, there were also plenty of duds. Mixing together some memorable characters, a twinge of combat racing for a little spice, and then some alternative modes like an oddball take on soccer, I thought it was at least some fun with friends. Well, returning to it now I can still see some of the elements that I liked, but there’s no doubt that I’d had some rose-colored glasses on in my memories of it.

As this is a collection, there are actually multiple versions of the game, each representing a different time and in some cases different systems. Having only played one of them, I actually did find it fascinating to see how the game evolved a bit over time in its look and how it played, in one case taking on an entirely different almost Micro Machines style isometric view that was just completely different. An earlier version had almost a Mode 7 type of look, while the last entry sort of pieced together elements of its predecessors to try to find the middle-of-the-road balance in look and play style. From the preservationist standpoint it is at least interesting to work through and see the progression in the game’s style over the years.

All that said, in practice playing the games can be a bit rough. Granted, even the SNES Mario Kart is a bit of an acquired taste now, but this more watered down formula really struggles on a few fronts. The first is that the controls, being very digital, aren’t great. The second is that even though each racer does have some attack moves at their disposal they don’t tend to be very useful. The third is that while I appreciate the attempt to include different modes for the sake of variety, there’s simply not much to them. The soccer mode I did remember somewhat fondly, now in practice, is a bit of a mess with it being very hard to try to keep track of the ball in the first place, let alone trying to be competitive. This is one of those titles where with a few retro-minded friends perhaps it could be more fun, suffering equally in parallel with the struggles of going back to a previous age. However, if you’re mostly playing on your own the likelihood that it has much staying power at all is doubtful.