50 Years Of The Austin Mini: The Top Ten Classic Mini Games
I love Minis. I’ve owned two of them and driven a few more, been to the shows, watched every Mini-related DVD and TV production ever released, joined the forums, and seen The Italian Job (the original – there was no remake) at least 16 times.
I’m also well aware that this week marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of the classic Austin Mini, and so I feel duty bound to celebrate this great little car in the best TTB way possible – by hunting down the top ten games featuring it and displaying them here for all to see.
Oh, and these aren’t in any particular order – I haven’t even played some of them, so that wouldn’t be fair!
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Classic British Motor Racing (Wii : 2006)
Classic British Motor Racing allows you to race classic British cars in classic locations around Britain – so it’s fitting that it features a Mini very prominently. That’s not all, though, as you also get behind the wheel of an MGB, a Triumph TR6, an Austin Healey 3000, a Triumph Spitfire, and 9 other classic British sports cars!
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London Racer Series (Playstation/PS2/PC : 2000 – 2005)
Produced by Netherlands-based game developer Davilex, the London Racer series of games (originally known as M25 Racer) featured a huge section of somewhat-realistic London for your racing enjoyment. It also had classic Minis! You may even find a copy of one of these games in your local games bargain bin, and they’ll run respectably on a modern PC, so why not?
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GT Legends (PC : 2000)
GT Legends is a historic racing game for the PC, and features a large selection of classic tracks and cars, including the Cooper S seen above. I think that this is one of the most underrated racing games of all time, and not just because of the Minis!
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Super Skidmarks (Commodore Amiga : 1995)
Super Skidmarks is a top-down 3D-ish racer for the Amiga, and featured up to 4 player simultaneous racing, a huge variety of courses, and some pretty nice graphics for its day. It has Minis, buggies, and even cows, and some of the races even let you hook up caravans!
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GTI Club (Arcade : 1996 / PS3 : 2008)
GTI Club is a classic sit-down arcade racer, allowing you to take the wheel of an oddball selection of hot hatches including a Renault 5, a Golf GTI, and of course, the decidedly non-hatchback Cooper S. It was recently re-released for the Playstation Network as GTI Club+, so there’s no excuse to avoid this game! (Well, unless you don’t actually have a PS3 I guess).
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Project Gotham Racing Series (Xbox / Xbox 360 : 2001 – 2008)
The Project Gotham Racing series of games are the flagship driving games for the Xbox and Xbox 360, known for their excellent graphics coupled with slightly arcade-y handling. Gotham 4 introduced the ability publish screenshots directly from the game to the internet, so there are loads of them to pick from, and plenty featuring Minis.
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Autotest (Commodore 64 : 1990)
Something a little different here – a precision driving game based around the idea of autotesting. Autotest has 4 cars to choose from (which are all very Mini-like, but not “officially”) and features all the fun of manoeuvering around obstacles.
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Mini Desktop Racing (Wii : 2007)
Mini Desktop Racing features Minis in their mini-est form, tearing around various tiny landscapes, much like the classic Micro Machines games of yore. Only this time in 3D and with motion controls!
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Big Red Racing (PC : 1996)
“I feel like drinking a gallon of turpentine and p***in’ on a brushfire!”
Ah, Big Red Racing. This game featured a crazy range of vehicles from spaceships to snowploughs, helicopters, and even something that looked like a bathtub. It also featured the Mini – fittingly on the game’s Italy track, and even had a bus overhanging a cliff on part of the level as an homage to The Italian Job.
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Gran Turismo Series (PlayStation / PS2 / PS3 : 1997 – 2007)
The Gran Turismo series of racing games have always been known for their high levels of realism, excellent graphics, and a huge selection of cars to pick from. The game has featured plenty of Minis down the line too, but perhaps most interesting is the Mini Marcos from Gran Turismo 4 (pictured above).
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Obviously the Mini has been in a lot of other games too, so I’m sorry if I missed your favourite. If you have any great Mini-related games in mind, why not suggest them in the comments below?
Where’s “The Italian Job”? Excellent PC game in my opinion!
It certainly was! Excellent suggestion – although driving the bus was a total pain…
how ’bout the classic rally cooper s in Colin Mcrae 2005
Also missed dirt 3 but thanks for sharing.