Catalogue No. -  GS-9003

Originally known as Rad Mobile in the Japanese arcades, this Saturn version replaces the arcade's sprite based cars with polygon cars and adds an FMV intro as well as a CD soundtrack.

Gale Racer was one of the first games to be released on the Saturn by Sega. In fact I believe it to be the 3rd Saturn game to have been released by Sega. The Saturn port is quite faithful to it's big arcade cousin in terms of levels but it also has quite a few problems. First off, the polygon cars seem to disappear through the sprite based floor resulting in some nasty and off-putting clipping.  The draw distance doesn't seem as far as the arcade version which again affects the game play.  Finally, I feel that the controls are over sensitive. The original arcade used an analogue wheel which the feel of hasn't really been ported over to the Saturn. 

To tell the truth, Gale Racer has an unfinished feel to it and that's probably because it's not finished. When ever you crash the screen will suddenly corrupt then blank everything for a split second while it refreshes the screen. That's not the main thing that makes the game feel unfinished. If you fall off the cliff on the mountain area the graphics on your car will become a mangled mess of blocks for a split second.

Over all Gale Racer isn't that bad for an early attempt by Sega but as far as racing games go, it's not up there with the best.