Overview
Much like Continental Circus, Ground Effects is a Formula 1 themed game that uses courses inspired by real circuits. Unlike Continental Circus however, this game carries a FOCA license allowing it to use cars from real F1 teams. Four teams are featured in Ground Effects: Mclaren, Williams, Ferrari and Benetton. Sadly, players can’t actually choose which team livery their car displays; you can only do this via the DIP switches. This is so the deluxe 4 player sit-down version of the game could assign a different team to each player.
As it was released in 1992, Ground Effects came out around the time that racing games were making the jump to 3D. Sega would release Virtua Racing in the same year with Daytona USA and Namco’s Ridge Racer just over the horizon. To be fair to Taito however, they weren’t the only people still making 2D racing games around this time; even Sega and Namco were still in the 2D racing market until 1993. These later sprite-scaling based games were generally quite impressive but they don’t have much of a following today. The switch to 3D hardware and the gradual decline of the arcade scene as home consoles became more advanced could go some way to explain why Ground Effects and its closest 2D rivals have slipped into obscurity.
