The Long And Confusing History Of The Test Drive Franchise

Most video game franchises have pretty clear identities, and that includes racing games. In Gran Turismo, you race around tracks. In Dirt (RIP), you race off-road. In Need for Speed (possibly also RIP?), you race on the streets.

The Test Drive series, though, is different. Despite always having been a bit of a minnow compared to the Gran Turismos, Need for Speeds and Forzas of the world, it’s been around on and off since 1987. In that time, the name’s bounced around no fewer than 14 different developers and has been slapped onto all kinds of disparate games, the only connecting thread being that you drive a vehicle of some sort.

The early years

That first title, naturally just called Test Drive and developed by Distinctive Software, was available on all the finest home computers 1987 had to offer. Though it looks basic now, it was genuinely groundbreaking at the time.

You chose from five poster-worthy supercars of the era, the idea being you were taking them for a test drive (geddit?), which often ended up with you having to outrun some low-poly cops. This was about as relevant as the series’ name would get to the actual games. The next two games – 1989’s The Duel: Test Drive II and 1990’s Test Drive III: The Passion – pretty much built on that formula, before the series fell silent for seven years.

Going off-road

The name saw a revival in 1997 on the PS1 and PC, now with 3D-modelled cars and environments as opposed to the 2D landscapes of the older games. This time, though, it was developed by Elite Systems and named Test Drive: Off-Road. This was a self-explanatory title for a game that saw you racing stuff like the Hummer H1 and Land Rover Defender around closed off-road courses. This was the first big diversion in the franchise’s history, but far from the last.

Later in 1997, another Test Drive game would arrive, simply named Test Drive 4. This, too, came from a different developer, Pitbull Syndicate (nothing to do with Mr Worldwide, as far as we know), and was more in the spirit of the original three games, but also made the jump to full 3D. It was followed in 1998 and 1999 by the fifth and sixth numbered games, which were more of the same, releasing alongside three more Off-Road spinoffs between 1998 and 2001. So far, so simple. Ish.

Things get weird(er)

The turn of the millennium, though, is where things get really weird. By 2000, the Test Drive name was under the Atari umbrella, and it leveraged it in the North American market for some extra brand recognition on a couple of otherwise unrelated games. One was Le Mans 24 Hours, a fairly serious attempt at simulating the world’s most famous endurance race, which was packaged as Test Drive Le Mans for North America.

The other was arcade-style rally racer V-Rally 2, which was known as Test Drive V-Rally in North America. Well, the Dreamcast version was, anyway. Just to complicate things even more, the PlayStation version was sold in the same market as a Need for Speed game. Oh yeah, and the same year also saw the release of Xantera’s Test Drive Cycles, a Game Boy Color exclusive centred around motorbikes.

With the name seemingly being slapped on anything vaguely driving-related, where did the series go next? As it turns out, back to its ‘race exotic cars and escape the police’ roots with 2002’s fantastically named TD Overdrive: The Brotherhood of Speed (marketed simply as Test Drive in North America. Boooo). It now had an attempt at a plot, although it didn't pose Hollywood much of a threat.

The series still wasn’t done exploring other niches, though, because 2004 saw the launch of Test Drive: Eve of Destruction. Here, the franchise decided to have a go at being a demolition derby game, one rather overshadowed by cult classic FlatOut being released a couple of months later. It was the work of Monster Games, which already had the early NASCAR Heat titles under its belt and is now part of sim racing behemoth iRacing.

No limits

It wasn’t until 2006’s Test Drive Unlimited, from Eden Games, that things started to look more familiar to modern eyes. It saw the series once again go back to whizzing around in expensive cars and getting into the occasional scrape with the law, but it was one of the most ambitious racing games of its era, recreating the entire Hawaiian island of Oahu in 1:1 scale as your personal automotive playground.

Despite its flaws, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that the original TDU laid out the groundwork for series like The Crew and the mega-successful Forza Horizon franchise. In 2011 it spawned an equally grand sequel, this time giving you Ibiza as well as Oahu to play around in. Sadly, TDU2 was let down by clunky handling and a shrunken car list compared to the original, but it’s still a memorable game.

So surely, that takes us up to the present day, right? Erm, not quite. There was one more random detour in the works with 2012’s Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends. This was a circuit racer, and one focused entirely on the back catalogue of a certain Italian car maker. We’ll let you work out which one. It was actually developed by Slightly Mad Studios, in between the outfit working on the Need for Speed: Shift games and Project Cars franchise.

Throughout this long and weird career, the series has varied wildly in quality and scope, although few would argue that it hit its peak with the original Unlimited. When KT Racing’s TDU Solar Crown arrived last year, 13 years since the last Unlimited title and 12 since the last appearance of the Test Drive, we were hoping it would be a return to form, but nearly a year on from its launch, that hasn’t yet been the case.

Still, there’s always the next game to look forward to. A hardcore sim, perhaps? A Mario Kart-style kart racer? A Euro Truck Simulator 2 rival? Stranger things have happened.