While it's a very mild upgrade over the original, I believe it continues to keep the title of best racing game up to that point in the history of the medium.
Marginally better than the first game.
Every Atari 7800 Game #1/59 - Pole Position II
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For an intended 1983-84 release, Pole Position II is very impressive, especially in terms of visuals. I can't really think of any game consoles at this time in North America that could have produced something that looked better than this, so I get the feeling that if the 7800 had been released at its intended time frame, it would have been a major success compared to how it's viewed now, being the tertiary 8-bit console far behind Sega and Nintendo.
However, the delayed release does not alter the fact that Pole Position II is a really fun game and is a great port. While on the surface the game appears to be really lacking in content, with there only being 4 tracks, I can't say that the experience gets boring ever. There are only 4 tracks, but each one is much harder than the previous one, and the first test track is a perfect tutorial. Perfect enough that it makes you really want to conquer the other 3 and race for better scores. I think my only problem with how the game itself plays is that the rival racers on the track can be really hard to avoid. It feels like if even a single pixel collides you're going up in flames (Maybe this is accurate to F-1 races?).
As stated previously, this game is visually stunning for the time it came out (based on my admittedly limited knowledge of other games of the time). Porting Pole Position II was a great idea, particularly for showcasing the graphical capabilities of the 7800. Pixels are still rather chunky and large like previous Atari consoles, but I think there are more options in terms of colors and the resolution is probably larger (I'm guessing). It's hard to explain, but I do feel that this game looks fantastic.
I'm noticing early that Atari 7800 games kind of fall behind in terms of audio. The base audio capabilities feel in line with the aging 2600, so the music jingles in this game sound rather strange. Then again, not a huge deal.
7/10
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For an intended 1983-84 release, Pole Position II is very impressive, especially in terms of visuals. I can't really think of any game consoles at this time in North America that could have produced something that looked better than this, so I get the feeling that if the 7800 had been released at its intended time frame, it would have been a major success compared to how it's viewed now, being the tertiary 8-bit console far behind Sega and Nintendo.
However, the delayed release does not alter the fact that Pole Position II is a really fun game and is a great port. While on the surface the game appears to be really lacking in content, with there only being 4 tracks, I can't say that the experience gets boring ever. There are only 4 tracks, but each one is much harder than the previous one, and the first test track is a perfect tutorial. Perfect enough that it makes you really want to conquer the other 3 and race for better scores. I think my only problem with how the game itself plays is that the rival racers on the track can be really hard to avoid. It feels like if even a single pixel collides you're going up in flames (Maybe this is accurate to F-1 races?).
As stated previously, this game is visually stunning for the time it came out (based on my admittedly limited knowledge of other games of the time). Porting Pole Position II was a great idea, particularly for showcasing the graphical capabilities of the 7800. Pixels are still rather chunky and large like previous Atari consoles, but I think there are more options in terms of colors and the resolution is probably larger (I'm guessing). It's hard to explain, but I do feel that this game looks fantastic.
I'm noticing early that Atari 7800 games kind of fall behind in terms of audio. The base audio capabilities feel in line with the aging 2600, so the music jingles in this game sound rather strange. Then again, not a huge deal.
7/10
See the Pole Position review, but add three more tracks, make the player car more of a blueish color, and there's more debris in the explosions. It's also a classic, and the additional tracks give this game more replay value to justify an additional half a star.
Technically played this through Namco Museum Volume 3 on the PlayStation, but that wasn't one of the choices.
Technically played this through Namco Museum Volume 3 on the PlayStation, but that wasn't one of the choices.
holds pillow over face
PRPR T QLFY
PRPR T QLFY
pole position ii
Played this via the new Arcade Archives release on Nintendo Switch.
I used to play this all the time at a restaurant in a town in the middle of nowhere. They had this and an Addam's Family pinball machine. This has nothing to do with the game, I just thought it was a neat memory.
I still really enjoy going back to Pole Position II. It's simple, tough at times, but a very good racer. There are better old arcade racers but this just has a charm to it, down to the bit crushed voices.
Anytime I turn this game on, via the few methods I own to play it, I get a good solid hour of enjoyment of just playing this neat arcade racer. I think that qualifies it to be fun.
Get it? "Qualifies"? You see the joke is...
I used to play this all the time at a restaurant in a town in the middle of nowhere. They had this and an Addam's Family pinball machine. This has nothing to do with the game, I just thought it was a neat memory.
I still really enjoy going back to Pole Position II. It's simple, tough at times, but a very good racer. There are better old arcade racers but this just has a charm to it, down to the bit crushed voices.
Anytime I turn this game on, via the few methods I own to play it, I get a good solid hour of enjoyment of just playing this neat arcade racer. I think that qualifies it to be fun.
Get it? "Qualifies"? You see the joke is...
It's alright
I hate to sound like a broken record, but I think this game is kind of fun on the whole, but I don't really enjoy this version of the game. It doesn't look very good and I don't like how slow it feels.
This makes Pole Position 1 look like the beta for this game
pole position ii