The Top 7... Fastest games of all time

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Does anyone feel the need for this much speed?

7. WipEout HD

How fast is it? Top speeds in Zone mode have been known to breach the 1,600kph barrier. So that's as fast as 50 real-life roadrunners. Not the animated fella who 'meep meep's at Wile E Coyote, that would be silly.

How fast does it feel? Alright, about as fast as the animated Roadrunner.

But it's not just current-gen tech that lets you reach insane speeds. Check out this little beauty:

6: F1

Domark's sensational Formula One racer is still one of the fastest games ever made. The main game moves at a fair lick of pace, especially on higher skill levels. This is despite the 16-bit machine having to render true 3D scenery objects without any kind of DSP chip to accelerate the graphics (geek mode cancel).

So check out the full-screen single player mode, which is, in its own right, smooth and vroomy.

Looks pretty quick, right? Yeah, but I know what you're thinking - there are loads of games faster than this. Ah, but have you seen the game's Turbo mode? Didn't think so.

Basically, this takes the game engine from the 2-player mode (smaller car sprites and reduced scenery) but runs one whole screen of it. That leaves the top half of the screen showing nothing but sky and the track map which, when coupled with some rather large black borders, allows the processor to concentrate on making the remaining 30 per cent of the screen run like greased lightning. And it absolutely does:

How fast is it? F1 cars of the day used to reach 200mph on the long straights. But Turbo mode easily moves another 50% faster than that. So... one and a half Nigel Mansells? Possibly even more.


How fast does it feel?Like someone strapped a NASA-engineered rocket to your arse, lit the fuse and said 'try not to hit anything'.

Justin Towell
Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.