TOCA World Touring Cars is a 2000 racing video game developed and published by Codemasters for PlayStation and Game Boy Advance. It is the third game in the TOCA series.
| TOCA World Touring Cars | |
|---|---|
 European PlayStation cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Codemasters Spellbound (GBA) |
| Publisher(s) | Codemasters |
| Series | TOCA |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation, Game Boy Advance |
| Release | PlayStation Game Boy Advance
|
| Genre(s) | Racing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
TOCA World Touring Cars features various Touring Car championships from around the world, but despite carrying the TOCA name, a fully licensed British Touring Car Championship (TOCA) series was not included. This upset a lot of fans of the series, but success continued. The gameplay overall became more "Arcade" and the replacement of qualifying laps with random grid positions together with the omission of penalties for bad driving made the game much more playable for the casual gamer. Curiously, unlike the first two titles in the TOCA series, World Touring Cars was not released in a Microsoft Windows version.
For the North American market, the game was released as Jarrett & Labonte Stock Car Racing, with the cover art featuring NASCAR drivers Jason Jarrett and Justin Labonte.[1]
Reception
edit| Aggregator | Score |
|---|---|
| Metacritic | 80/100[2] |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| CNET Gamecenter | 7/10[3] |
| Edge | 8/10[4] |
| Electronic Gaming Monthly | 8.67/10[5] |
| Famitsu | 27/40[6] |
| Game Informer | 7.75/10[7] |
| GamePro |    [8][a] |
| GameSpot | 8.9/10[1] |
| IGN | 8.3/10[9] |
| PlayStation Official Magazine – UK | 10/10[10] |
| Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine | [11] |
| Publication | Award |
|---|---|
| OPM (UK) | Star Player |
The game received "favourable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[2] In Japan, where the PlayStation version was ported and published by Spike under the name WTC: World Touring Car Championship (WTC ワールド・ツーリングカー・チャンピオンシップ, WTC Wārudo Tsūringukā Chanpionshippu) on 9 November 2000, Famitsu gave it a score of 27 out of 40.[6]
The PS version was a bestseller in the UK,[12] replacing WWF SmackDown!. In the media, once again the franchise was compared to the Gran Turismo series and TOCA was warmly received by much of the specialist press, most notably scoring 10 out of 10 in Official UK PlayStation Magazine.[10] The detailed and smooth graphics were of particular praise, and it had "an ideal mix of driving, crashing and career progression".[13]
The same console version was a runner-up for GameSpot's annual "Best Driving Game" award among console games, losing to Test Drive Le Mans.[14]
Notes
editReferences
edit- ^ a b MacDonald, Ryan (9 October 2000). "Jarrett and Labonte Stock Car Racing Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
- ^ a b "Jarrett & Labonte Stock Car Racing for PlayStation Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
- ^ Linn, Demian (10 October 2000). "Jarrett & Labonte Stock Car Racing [Incomplete]". Gamecenter. CNET. Archived from the original on 4 December 2000. Retrieved 3 June 2021.
- ^ Edge staff (September 2000). "TOCA World Touring Cars (PS)". Edge. No. 88. Future Publishing. pp. 100–1. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
- ^ EGM staff (November 2000). "Jarrett and Labonte Stock Car Racing". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 136. Ziff Davis.
- ^ a b "WTC ワールド・ツーリングカー・チャンピオンシップ [PS]". Famitsu (in Japanese). Enterbrain. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
- ^ McNamara, Andy (January 2001). "Jarrett & Labonte Stock Car Racing". Game Informer. No. 93. FuncoLand. p. 103.
- ^ Vicious Sid (November 2000). "Jarrett & Labonte Stock Car Racing Review for PlayStation on GamePro.com". GamePro. No. 146. IDG Entertainment. p. 168. Archived from the original on 7 February 2005. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
- ^ Perry, Douglass C. (17 October 2000). "Jarrett and Labonte Stock Car Racing". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
- ^ a b Davies, Jonathan (September 2000). "TOCA World Touring Cars". Official UK PlayStation Magazine. No. 62. Future Publishing. pp. 106–8. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
- ^ "Jarrett and Labonte Stock Car Racing". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. No. 38. Ziff Davis. November 2000.
- ^ "Loading: OPM Charts". Official UK PlayStation Magazine. No. 65. Future Publishing. December 2000. p. 24. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
- ^ "TOCA World Touring Cars (Preview)". Official UK PlayStation Magazine. No. 58. Future Publishing. May 2000.
- ^ GameSpot staff (5 January 2001). "Best and Worst of 2000 (Best Driving Game Runners-Up)". GameSpot. CNET. Archived from the original on 6 December 2002. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
