Lotus Turbo Challenge (Mega Drive) Playthrough [PAL] @NintendoComplete
Lotus Turbo Challenge (Mega Drive) Playthrough [PAL]  @NintendoComplete
Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
A playthrough of Electronic Arts' 1992 license-based racing game for the Sega Mega Drive, Lotus Turbo Challenge.

I'm playing the 50Hz PAL version of the game in this video. The 60Hz NTSC Genesis version doesn't compensate for the timing differences between video standards and runs 20% faster than intended.

Lotus Turbo Challenge is a console port of 1991's Lotus Challenge Turbo 2, the second title in Magnetic Fields/Gremlin Graphics' Lotus-branded trilogy of Amiga racing games.

Alternating between the Lotus Esprit and Elan, you have eight tracks to tackle, and you race against the timer. When you hit a checkpoint, your remaining time gets a boost. If you run out of time, it's game over. If you've played OutRun or youtu.be/2nTdJF8TuuE, this will feel quite familiar.

The track designs regularly incorporate elements like weather, obstacles, traffic, and power-ups, changing things up to keep you on your toes, and the car handling feels pretty good. It plays a lot like youtu.be/69ISebxLwbc, which makes sense when you consider how closely related the two series are. (The connection is especially clear when you realize that Top Gear's intro theme is a remix of this game's ending theme.)

It plays well, but the quality of the presentation suffered in the move to the Genesis/Mega Drive. The graphics are less detailed, the lighting effects are heavily dithered, and the game runs at a much lower framerate. In terms of sound, the digitized voices and effects are distorted, the tire noises don't loop or transition as smoothly as they did on the Amiga, and the quality of the FM music arrangements leaves a lot to be desired.

The Mega Drive version is a big downgrade from the Amiga one, but taken on its own, it's still a good arcade-style racer that's easy to have fun with, and I loved the inclusion of a "Yeehaw!" button.

I would not recommend playing it on an NTSC Genesis system, however. At 60Hz, the increased speed makes the game unreasonably difficult in the last few races.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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Lotus Turbo Challenge (Mega Drive) Playthrough [PAL]

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