“Indianapolis 500 Legends”
Genre: Sports/Auto Racing
Developer: Torus Games
Publisher: Destineer
Platform: Nintendo Wii, DS
Price: $39.99
ESRB rating: E (Everyone)
Grade: B+

A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones, Al Unser, Dan Gurney, Roger Ward, Jim Clark.

Once upon a time, these names were as well known among auto racing fans as Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Darryl Waltrip are today. Now they’re relics of a time when racing was real drama, not soap opera.

For gamers who remember those names and the impact they once had on the world of racing, there’s “Indianapolis 500 Legends,” one among several racing-themed titles released in the past month. While other casual racing games dwell on outrageous and unreal urban or off-road stunts, “Legends” presents a tougher challenge: reality.

“Legends,” produced by Destineer Inc. and developed by Torus Games for Nintendo’s Wii console, highlights one race course, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and one race, the 500-mile sprint held every Memorial Day weekend. But instead of choosing just any of the classic events, or featuring the most recent one, Destineer has chosen 10 years of races between 1961 and 1971, the period when racing made its greatest evolution and did it on this course.

The game features two basic modes, “classic” and “mission.” In “classic,” players simply choose one or two players; which driver to ride with; how many laps to race between 10 and 200; and whether to run a three-lap qualifier to determine starting placement among the field’s 33 cars. Starting out in “classic” mode puts players in the year 1961; advancing to other years comes only after completing a series of missions.

It’s in this “mission” mode where the real challenge lies. Beginning with 1961, players must choose one of three legendary drivers who raced in the 500 that year — the choices are Jack Brabham, A.J. Foyt and Eddie “The Clown Prince” Sachs — and match or surpass goals actually accomplished in the race. The “pass” challenge asks players to pass a number of cars in a certain time; “tire change,” “refuel” and, of course, “time trial” also require beating a stopwatch.

The most difficult mission for Game Guy was “dodge,” where he had to veer around flying debris and burning cars without suffering damage, and as with other missions, do it in a set time (Topping the list of great dodges was Foyt’s daring escape from a the seven-car carnage at the 1964 Indy 500 in less than 26 seconds. Game Guy needed almost 20 tries to repeat that feat).

Meeting each mission’s expectations earns drivers a bronze medal, slightly surpassing them warrants a silver and far exceeding them merits gold. Mission success also unlocks photos and video clips taken from each year and stored in the game’s Indy 500 race museum. Completing the missions for at least two of the three featured drivers in, say, 1962, unlocks access race missions for 1963, and so on.

“Legends” can’t compare to flashier, high-definition games such as the Gran Turismo series, but what “Legends” lacks in features it makes up for in player control and historical integrity. Steering requires holding the Wii remote lengthwise and pressing assorted button combinations at the right moment to speed up or brake and slingshot past rivals, as well as to view the racing action from multiple angles. The remote is remarkably sensitive, requiring little movement for steering response, and the button-pressing sequence can be tricky at times, especially when changing tires or filling the gas tank.

Still, an hour or so with “Legends” made Game Guy wish all other racing titles were playable the same way on Wii, too. (The DS, not so much; its touch-screen and directional keys provide for a stiff, uninviting game environment.)

Options in “Legends” for steering, braking and acceleration assistance offer moderate improvement in control, but a deft touch and adherence to the racing “line” — driving down low on the track in turns and up high along the wall along straights — are a gamer’s best tools.

Unlike other race titles, “Legends” offers players something of a feeling for racing in those days, when cars and track rules were loose and the driving, not so much the drivers, drew most crowds. Destineer and Torus were careful enough with detail to even include actual audio from public address announcements made by Tom Carnegie, the voice of Indy for more than 60 years.

“Legends” has limits, most of them aesthetic. The repetition in turn-and-sprint-style oval-track racing doesn’t appeal to all erstwhile speed demons. Not even Game Guy mustered enough patience to sit through a full 200 laps in “classic” mode.
The crashes in “Legends” are rather corny, too. Not even really bad ones stop the action. In one “classic”-mode race, Game Guy hit a flying wheel, vaulted into the air and landed atop a flaming car, yet still finished in third place.

But “Legends” targets the time period and the event as much as the experience. Anyone can spin around a digital track for hours, but only “Legends” lets gamers do it as the alter egos of such legendary drivers as Brabham, Clark and Foyt, testing their mettle in the same experiences those guys survived. And because of that, “Legends” isn’t so much a racing game as it is a history lesson — and an interactive one, no less.

The days when Indy truly was “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” were thrilling beyond anything seen on Speed Channel today, and “Indianapolis 500 Legends” displays at least a little of why that’s so.