Kingdom Grand Prix

Kingdom Grand Prix scrolling shooter/racing hybrid arcade game developed by Raizing and published by Eighting. It was later ported to the Sega Saturn. It is the second entry in the Mahou Daisakusen series, but the first to be a shooter/racing hybrid.

Gameplay
The game consists of a vertically scrolling field where the player races against seven contestants while shooting enemies and avoiding enemy bullets. Tapping the fire button fires the player's weapons; holding it down gives the player a speed boost. In addition to these speed boosts, overall speed will increase or decrease depending on screen position (the higher up the player craft is onscreen, the faster it travels). Overall speed decreases every time a life is lost or the next stage is reached.

The player is also given a limited amount of bombs which destroy most on-screen enemies and slow down the opponent racers. There are four power-ups in Kingdom Grandprix. All have a cumulative effect on overall power except the bomb which simply increases the number of times it has been used.

The game has a total of twelve stages in a branching path configuration. In most cases, there is a choice of two stages for each level. There is only one choice for the first level, and there are three choices for the sixth level. Beating the first loop of the game in one credit and finishing first overall unlocks the second loop, where all the stages not selected in the first loop are played.

The Sega Saturn version includes a shooting-only mode. In this mode, the racing aspect is removed and the player is left to play the game at their own pace.

Plot
For decades the kingdom has been ravaged by war. Too many innocents have suffered and legions good men have lost their lives in battle. The king had an idea to stop the war; he would hold a big race that would encompass every part of the kingdom. Everyone from each part of the kingdom was invited to participate. The wars ceased and the people began looking forward to this competition every year.

Reception
The game was well received. Three reviewers from the Japanese Sega Saturn Magazine rated it a 8-7-7/10. French magazine Consoles + gave it a review score of 90%.