Super Mario Kart on the SNES was a racing gateway drug in our household in the 90s. We liked SMK. We LOVED SMK. All of us, me, my daughter and my son, mastered SMK. And we had a Playstation, so we turned to Need For Speed and many of its sequels to get that same joy of racing each other, togetherness as a family, etc.
I’ve become thoroughly disenchanted over not having a car of my own. I scour Craigslist for non-scams daily. Having never owned a Toyota, I’ve decided nonetheless when the Honda drivers attack, I will stand shoulder to shoulder with my Toyota brethren and sistren and win the battle of street racing supremacy, like in Initial D. In fact, I probably need to hunt down and buy a mid-late 80s Toyota racing machine, like the Toyota Corolla GT-S AE86, the infamous “hachiroku”.
Need For Speed World has an AE86. It’s an MMO (kinda). It’s free. And I’ve been playing it for hours.