Pole Position II [Gamecube/Arcade] - Suzuka/Wonder 1st ALL Clear 54870 pts (Namco Museum)

Played on Namco Museum with default difficulty/time settings using the Dolphin emulator.

Pole Position II often gets overshadowed by its predecessor, probably because it has not been included in as many Namco compilations as the original. It is also perceived as being almost identical to the original, which appears to be true on first glance but is not entirely the case when you dig deeper.

Pole Position II stands out to me for a couple of reasons. One, it has more courses than just one. The original Fuji/Namco circuit is back, but there are three new courses as well. Two, it has some hidden extra mechanics that add depth to the racing. The game tries to simulate the effects of tire temperatures in a rudimentary manner. If you hold the accelerator long enough before the green light, you'll take off with some squealing sounds, but you'll also accelerate faster as a result, i.e. the tires getting warm. Also, you can exploit the gears after that to give yourself another acceleration boost, which also leads to you hit higher top speeds than otherwise.

As far as the courses go, Suzuka (renamed Wonder for licensing reasons) is the hardest course along with Seaside (Long Beach). Some of these curves are legitimately tricky with the primitive handling that carried over from the original, and the oil slicks are in well-placed spots to interfere with your racing lines and drop your speed more than they did in the original. Plus, the AI is even nastier with plenty of evil RNG in terms of where they'll be on the course, though where you'll encounter them also depends on how well you are driving in the first place. One last thing is that pole position is difficult to achieve. This was not my best qualifying by any means, but I've never gotten pole before on this course even with a time of 54.7 seconds. However, second place in qualifying is definitely achievable for sure.

Combine all that and you get one of the hardest courses in arcade racing history. I imagine Seaside is just as hard if not worse with its sharp corners.