Retro Cycling Videogame Review: Super Tour 3 (PC)

This article was published in October 2006, as entry number four on our Top Five Best Ever Videogames About Cycling series. Super Tour 3 was an excellent game built with love for the sport, and packed a huge number of options.

#4 – Super Tour 3

Super Tour 3 has two qualities that, combined, separate it from every other cycling game available: it’s free; and it’s actually worth playing. Not only that, it’s coded by a bedroom programmer rather than a big evil company, which is the main reason we’re being so uncharacteristically nice about it. We’ll stop now.

This game has plenty of menus. More than we’re comfortable with, frankly, but they WILL let you mess around with all sorts of things. You can edit the fake team and rider names and statistics to make it, like, totally realistic. However, we much prefer the default format of having teams named after famous climbs, and riders with peculiarly false first names (we’re looking at you, Frank Merckx, Cliff Armstrong and Barry Coppi). Usefully, you can also edit the length of a kilometer, meaning you can do 250km stages without having to endure it in real time. Of course, if you’re a sadist, leaving it full length and playing long races could be quite exciting, although the prospect of spending seven hours of our life playing a single stage on a videogame seems a bit daunting to us.

This game has plenty of menus. More than we’re comfortable with, frankly, but they WILL let you mess around with all sorts of things. You can edit the fake team and rider names and statistics to make it, like, totally realistic. However, we much prefer the default format of having teams named after famous climbs, and riders with peculiarly false first names (we’re looking at you, Frank Merckx, Cliff Armstrong and Barry Coppi). Usefully, you can also edit the length of a kilometer, meaning you can do 250km stages without having to endure it in real time. Of course, if you’re a sadist, leaving it full length and playing long races could be quite exciting, although the prospect of spending seven hours of our life playing a single stage on a videogame seems a bit daunting to us.

Excitingly, there’s a two player mode. The caveats determining whether or not it’ll ever get used are so numerous and daunting that we won’t even begin to list them, but one in a hundred of us should have a friend who fits the bill (and, let’s face it, you’re reading this on the internet, so you probably fit the geeky requirements best of all). Of all the things that might deter you from playing this game in multiplayer mode, the biggest factor is that it uses a turn-based control setup. Yep, you read right –a TURN-BASED control method in two player. It means what it says: that you take it in turns to control your rider(s), whilst the action continues. It also means that your rider misses every split in the peloton that doesn’t occur during your turn, and that whichever player attacks first gets an ungodly lead. And you best hope that you’re the player in charge when it comes down to the final sprint. So, errr, the two player mode is quite likely to cause major arguments rather than a cozy male bonding session.

Like Pro Cycling, Super Tour 3 contains both a management and an individual rider mode. Unlike Pro Cycling, either one is sort of worth your time. Management mode works pretty much like individual rider mode, but you have to tell everyone what to do. Our brains aren’t really supple enough for such things, but it seems to work alright.

Both modes are greatly aided by a split screen option. You can easily set up up to four split screens to show you various things — handy to keep an eye on the peloton when you’re on the attack, or a breakaway who’ve gone up the road. It also serves the purpose of confusing things tenfold, especially at tense moments. Fact: trying to watch four different screens and manage an entire team just isn’t possible if you only possess a mere two eyes.

There are also three whole camera angles to view the race from, each one cleverly flawed. The default places you directly behind your rider, perfectly positioned to see his low resolution buttocks wiggling awkwardly in the centre of your screen. If you hadn’t noticed before we said that, we can guarantee that you won’t be able to avoid looking at his lycra-clad buns the next time you play (sorry). The other two viewpoints elevate the camera, theoretically allowing you to see more of the race. It sort of works, and definitely allows you to see how many damn riders you’ll get irritatingly stuck behind when you try to move up through the peloton, but it just looks weird. Because the riders are made of 2D sprites and the course is 3D (getting nerdy here, bear with us), the change of angle only affects the background, not the riders. Which means that from above the riders appear to be riding into the ground, or at least riding incredible low profile bikes (ones so extreme that they must look something like reverse penny farthings, no less).

Conclusion
Download it and blow a few hours. It beats playing solitaire, which you know you’ll do instead of doing whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing.