Formula One: Built to Win (NES) Playthrough

A playthrough of Seta's 1990 license-based racing game for the NES, Formula One: Built to Win.

If you'd like to skip the intro stuff, the game begins at 3:43.

Formula One: Built to Win puts you in the shoes of a starry-eyed street racing novice who is determined to claw his way to the top of the professional racing world. It's a zero-to-hero journey through "a world of sweat and sacrifice where split second reflexes and the ultimate in technology are essential in attaining the victory that can only be achieved when man and machine function as one. An arduous, step by step process known to these driven few as... 'Built to Win.'"

You start out your career by competing in a few small-time, D-class events in New York and pouring your winnings into upgrades for your Mini Cooper. Once New York has been conquered, you'll move on to Detroit and Miami in search of bigger opportunities and a shot at the C-class rank, which opens the doors to higher stakes races, higher performance parts, and even a new car - a Vector W2 - providing you've saved up enough cash. (The Las Vegas casino's generous payouts can speed this process up considerably).

You continue like this through thirty races spread across ten cities, and if you take first with your tricked out Ferrari F40 at the A-class "Final Road" event in Hawaii, you'll be invited to participate in the Formula One World Championship that spans sixteen grueling races on tracks that mirror the layouts of their real-life counterparts. Win, and you'll be declared the "world's fastest man." Dream accomplished. Lose, and... well, there's always tomorrow, right?

Formula One: Built to Win is fairly obscure as far as NES racing games go, but that's hardly a surprise: the title is super generic, there's no celebrity endorsement, it saw little coverage in magazines, and the box art was positively ghastly.

Formula One's flat, single-plane background images don't look as nice as the multi-layered scrolling vistas from the Rad Racer games, and the music is at its best when it's turned off, but those are the only negatives that stuck out to me. The presentation sends the message that Formula One was not a big budget production from a major studio, but it's more than good enough to get the job done.

So yeah, if racing games are your thing, I'd absolutely recommend checking out Formula One: Built to Win.

(I've gotta say again, though: that box art! I can't get over it! I was laughing so hard that I had tears looking at the Predator-vision color job on the cars.)
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

[bigduke]

Man, I loved this game when I was a kid and rented it several times. In the early days, long, long before every game of every genre was required to have them, I was a huge sucker for games outside of RPGs that had RPG elements. Also another example of early exposure to that particularly appealing style of character design that would later be known to me as "Japanimation".

[franciscusz]

I'm 42 years old this was the game I spent most of my time playing as a youngster.

[MarcBarkyMarta]

All right! More classic formula racing games! Give us this and more classic arcade space shooters, and I'll call it my birthday many months ahead of time.

[EpicTyphlosionTV]

Rad Racer with upgrades and multiple cars sounds pretty nice. It's like if Top Gear 2 was made on the NES, in a way.

[NintendoComplete]

Formula One: Built to Win is one of the best racing games you'll find on the NES. How in the world did the people who created The Adventures of Tom Sawyer go on to make this less than two years later?

[sabataskull]

Thanks a lot for share this with us.
This is increíble, the gradpa of Gran Turismo😮😮😮😮

[digmsymii]

2:01:00 This is the moment when the game changes drastically.

[rjcupid]

Once again, just when I think I know every NES game, Alex/NintendoComplete proves me wrong. This game looks awesome!

[sakuracc]

Nice game!! My routine here was going to the slots and try to get the 7´s to score enough cash to buy the upgrades to go only to the races where you get the license needed and buy the next car to the harder challenges. Gotta go fast ... faster .... the fastest man alive!!!

[ziggybowman]

I remember discovering this game on a "compilation" for the PS1 I got "from a friend"

[XxSailorScoutxX]

I'm gonna have to try this one out!

[spoonshiro]

I remember renting this one. I got bored of racing and mostly just played the slot machines.

[digmsymii]

I like its charming graphics with beautiful views, cute girls and a nice game menu, but I miss the variety of racing tracks.
In any case, the game has a pretty good engine.

[sacamedeaca]

Funny thing: When you drive a Ferrari F40 the enemies are Lamborghini´s countach. But when you play Lamborghini American Challenge in the SNES the enemies are Ferrari´s testarrosa. Italian cars battle forever XD

[digmsymii]

1:34:57 You've reached the speed of the strobe effect.

[Dorian_Scott]

So, "Rad Racer" but way more in-depth... and with cute anime waifus (4:03)?

[digmsymii]

I would like to listen to at least one track gameplay with the music turned off.

[CaptainCapital]

This game had a true career mode but it got boring really quickly.