Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II

Overview

Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II was released on all Sega consoles including the Genesis, Master System and Game Gear. It is the sequel to Super Monaco GP, which in turn followed Monaco GP. Ayrton Senna himself is credited as being the supervisor to the game's development, as well as lending his name and likeness rights.

The Genesis version is the most feature complete of the three. In it players can race through two main modes: Senna GP, in which players can race on a Senna-designed track, and World Championship mode.

The world championship mode has two settings: Beginner and Master. The Beginner mode is a straightforward drivers championship, where the driver at the end of the season with the most points is the winner. The Master mode includes the concept of teams and rival drivers. In this mode, players start in a low ranked team with the objective of advancing and eventually taking Senna's place at the top of the food chain.

Players can challenge rival drivers and replace them in the team if they won.

The teams were arranged in 5 tiers with the master himself in a separate class altogether. The game only licensed Senna's likeness, so all the rival drivers and teams were slight variants on real ones. Even Senna's team in the game was an original team called "Madonna" as opposed to his real team at the time, McClaren.

The tracks are relatively close to their real life counterparts, and Senna advised developers about track characteristics. They even followed the order of the real life Formula 1 calendar. Each track has some unique background elements such as a city or forest. Some tracks even feature rain on random occasions.

Even with all these realistic elements, the game's handling can best be described as arcadey. This was a characteristic of console racing games of the time. More realistic racing games could be found on the PC, but for many Genesis owners, Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II brought Formula 1 in to the home.

Critical Reception

Upon release, Electronic Gaming Monthly issued the following scores: 6,8,6,5 adding, "...this is a game that only a dyed-in-the-wool racer will love. The first SMGP set new standards in driving simulations and, while this version smooths out the rough edges, it does not break any new ground".