Sierra's huge hit Nascar 2 is back in a new revamped form. Once again you will be up against NASCAR's finest, not only in the Winston Cup, but also the Busch series, and the Craftsman Truck series. It's been redone so it now has a native Windows executable in addition to the DOS executable.

Sierra tries to modernize NASCAR 2 with this release. They've added 3DFX support along with all the racing series. This makes for a richer game with more options. The rosters and tracks have also been updated, so you'll have the additional tracks that have been added since '96.

When I saw Grand Prix Legends come out, I already knew what the graphics were going to look like. It still looks like the old NASCAR 2, except it's much smoother. The addition of 3Dfx makes it run faster and gives it a few more graphical options, but other than that, not much has changed. I think Sierra needs to start building new engines instead of trying to rework ones that are well over two years old. It's better than NASCAR 2, so if you liked NASCAR 2 and want a little enhancement, then N99 will do it for you. It just doesn't seem like enough of an enhancement for two years of work.

The audio is ALL NASCAR 2 rehash. The engine noises are the same and the spotter still says exactly what he did in NASCAR 2. Come on Sierra, get a little creative from time to time please. This isn't what I call a "new" game. Next time put out a patch or something to update it, not make us spend more money on the same game.

Gameplay is pretty much the same as NASCAR 2, which was excellent. The realism is well done, the damage is pretty well done, and it has a broad difficulty selection. N99 also adds support for Force Feedback so if you've got one of those nice FF wheels, I hope it'll give you a workout. You have all three leagues you can race in so that's three different cars you'll have to work with. I didn't notice significant handling characteristics between the cars and the trucks. That's just not right either. If you're going to add trucks, make them handle differently. The paint shop is still here, although it's no different than the NASCAR 2 one. Well, it does have a few extra panels to paint, but it still has the same logos and decals.

It's fun still, even if it's not much of an upgrade. If you enjoyed NASCAR 2 and you're not sick of it, then this is a decent enhancement. I'm not sure if Sierra's providing any rebates for NASCAR 2 users, but they did drop the price on N99 down to $29.99 so if you think it's worth it for minor enhancements then you'll probably like the improvements.

I couldn't get the multiplayer to work. I saw no options for it although the manual says multiplayer is there. I think my version must have had problems with it or maybe multiplayer isn't in the Win native version. (I didn't try the DOS native version). If N99 doesn't have multiplayer that functions at least as well as NASCAR 2 had, than a lot of the enhancements go to pot. I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt since Grand Prix Legends had decent multiplayer and both these games are built on the same engine.

Overall, it's an upgrade, plain and simple. If you're a diehard NASCAR 2 fan, then get this because the enhancements are worthwhile ones and should make NASCAR 2 more stable and smoother. If you're not a fan of NASCAR 2, stay away cause this is pretty much the same old stuff.