Sleeper Beauty

Sleeper Beauty is a racing game released in 1999 by Rhode for Playstation and Microsoft Windows. The game is focused on taking regular (and mostly subcompact) cars and tuning them without making any visible changes and then racing them against normally high-performance cars. The name is perhaps a pun on Sleeping Beauty, with "sleeper" defining a high-performance car with an unassuming exterior.

Gameplay
The game only has two modes: Vs. Story and Vs. Human.

In the Vs. Story mode, the player can start off with either a Daewoo Tico (TICO) or an Autozam Carol (AA5XA.) You have an assistant who is constantly getting new upgrades and parts for your car, eventually starting to import sports cars for engine swaps, such as the Supra for it's 2JZ-GTE.

The strategy of the game relies on choosing cars with a balanced weight, handling, weight distribution, drag coefficient and displacement, rather than brute force. For instance, a car like the Nissan Pulsar (E-FN13) can fit a 400PS F131 engine, but due to the fact that the weight distribution will be messed up, how hard it will be to control and the fact that there aren't many upgrades for it, a better choice would be a smaller car like the Autozam Carol (MK.III) with an engine like the 280PS 13B-REW since it will be way easier to control and upgrade and overall will be way more enjoyable.

Daewoo

 * Daewoo Tico (TICO)
 * Daewoo Matiz (M100)
 * Daewoo Espero (ESPERO)
 * Daewoo Cielo (CIELO)
 * Daewoo Lanos (T150)

Mazda

 * '89 Autozam Carol (AA5XA)
 * '96 Autozam Carol (MK.III)
 * Autozam Revue (JELYBEAN)
 * '91 Mazda Familia (BG323)
 * Mazda AZ-Wagon (AZ-WAGON)

Nissan

 * Nissan Pao (PAO)
 * Nissan Micra (K11)
 * Nissan Cube (GF-Z10)
 * '87 Nissan Pulsar 5-Door (E-FN13)
 * Nissan Primera Traveller (P10WAGON)

Reception
The game got overall high reviews for it's originality and diversity. However, numerous critics pointed out that the player cannot play as the opponent cars, which include cars like the R34 GT-R, E36 M3 or even the Ferrari F512 M or Veilside NSX in the later part of the Vs. Story Mode. One critic in particular stated that "I felt distraught watching my little car weeze by actual cool cars that I'd like to drive, like the new GT-R Skyline. Yet here you are stuck with cars like the Matiz (hey!) and the New Beetle (yuck.)" Another critic stated that the player would instinctually want to drive the opponent cars due to their looks, and that the game would be better off if all cars were sleepers.

The game was praised for its car, track and musical diversity.