Developer: Titus France Publisher: Titus France

Released: November 30, 1997 Rated: K-A 3/10

If your trip through the N64 library is approached chronologically (as I did) or alphabetically, Automobili Lamborghini will be your first run-in with Titus, the same company behind what you probably consider the worst game on the console in Superman 64. The truth is that their failures are far more numerous than simply one bad licensed game that the higher-ups continue to blame on corporate meddling. Unfortunately, while Automobili Lamborghini is one bonafide bad video game, it achieves this status by just being generally lame, rather than the serious tripe Titus would end up putting their name on over the next four years.

Automobili Lamborghini is bad, and yet impressive, because it fails to deliver any sense of enjoyment by managing to make the concept of racing luxury sports cars exceedingly dull. Like, yawn-inducing, groan-worthy, spectacularly dull, for a game that has not only the license of one of the flashiest and bourgeoisie car manufacturers in the world, but a surprisingly boppy techno soundtrack that delivers more than just the bare minimum of variation and runtime 

And it’s just that. It’s dull. In every sense of the word, it is a dull, uninspired game: it delivers barely a fraction of the sense of hundreds of km/h speeds it portrays on screen, and still handles even more sluggishly. It boasts no sense of depth or complexity to pretend it’s a simulation game, yet still encourages utilizing pit stops that run on five-second little microgames only to provide no tangible difference in performance. And it’s a painfully drab game to look at. Repetitive, bland textures even throughout a decent handful of tracks (more than some other early racing games, at least), and even worse, downright ugly car models for the titular vehicles as well as a few other licensed legitimate supercars like the McLaren F1 and Dodge Viper. It all just drains you of any excitement or interest after only one or two races. And really, it just never seems fair for this game to have received even mixed reviews back in 1997, on the same system that saw a home port of Cruis’n USA be critically panned for the same problems Automobili Lamborghini has, while the former is touted as a quarter-munching arcade game in its original form, and the latter wears its big-money, performance and visual focused car licenses like a badge of honor.

Continuing Legacy

I have definitely considered the idea that, outside of Superman 64, every Titus release should just have this section read “ding dong, the witch is dead. Hallelujah. The witch is dead.”

Additional Information

Saves: Cartridge

Compatible With: Rumble Pak

Players: 1-4

Print Guides: None

Aggregate Critical Reception (GameRankings): 70.32%, based on 11 reviews

Other Releases: EU, December 1, 1997

JP, May 29, 1998 (as Automobili Lamborghini: Super Speed Race 64)

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