12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games) - Day 8: Toy Racer

Game: Toy Racer
Console: Sega Dreamcast
Developer: No Cliche
Release Date: 22nd December 2000

Nowadays the concept of a multiplayer only game is fairly common as single player campaign modes are paid less attention and online gaming enjoys continued popularity. Back in 2000 however, online home console gaming was in its infancy, making the release of Toy Racer notable. While there was an offline multiplayer mode to go alongside the online aspect, anyone attempting to play the game alone could only drive around the tracks by themselves in training mode, without any AI opposition.

While I'm not a huge fan of games which exclude the single player element entirely, I have to consider the multiplayer merits of this game or there'd be nothing to consider. Like many games released in the late 90s and early 00s, Toy Racer is in many ways a Mario Kart clone, with elements of Micro Machines thrown in for good measure. As a sort of spin-off from the Toy Commander series, this isn't particularly surprising though it's a shame that so little effort went into developing original gameplay ideas.

The handling of all vehicles is fairly slidey, as you might expect from miniature cars. It's something that's easy to get used to and on the whole, racing is pretty fun with a good sense of speed. Conversely the track design is pretty poor, even considering circuits which find their way up walls and onto the ceiling. Add this to a mediocre selection of cars, with nothing left for players to unlock and without seeing the £5 pricetag, you'd know that this is a budget title.

The multiplayer experience is perhaps one of the weakest parts of the game. There's no way to access the official online multiplayer for the Dreamcast anymore, so online play isn't an option, and local multiplayer causes a lot of framerate issues with the game, making all movement and animation incredibly jerky and inconsistent.

Graphically the game isn't particularly bad, which is surprising considering just how budget other aspects of it are. While some of the textures on the tracks leave a little to be desired, the vehicles are all nicely designed and presented. The music that plays behind races is pretty generic, but not in a bad way; it's almost exactly what you'd expect to be featured on this sort of game.

Overall Toy Racer could have been a fairly average budget racing game with the small addition of some CPU opponents and a single player mode, but instead it sits firmly near the bottom of the Dreamcast rankings thanks to framerate issues and the lack off access to Dreamcast servers for the game, rendering it even more useless than it once was.

Rating: 37/100
Grade: E

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games) - Day 7: Pacific Warriors II: Dogfight

Game: Pacific Warriors II: Dogfight
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: InterActive Vision Games
Release Date: 1st October 2004

Before playing this particular game, my expectations of World War II aeroplane games were based entirely on "Secret Weapons Over Normandy" for PS2, a fairly comprehensive and exciting account of the air battles of the war. While I wasn't expecting too much from a Midas published title, I found the experience to be frustratingly close to being an enjoyable game on some levels.

With campaign being the only game mode, you'd be forgiven for thinking that it's another classic case of a shallow budget title, but there's a fair set of missions from both the American and Japanese sides of the war. The selection of planes is slightly more limited, with one fighter and one bomber for each side for a total of 4 planes. By completing missions, players earn upgrade points and can improve aspects of their planes for more effective use during missions.

Controlwise, the game is pretty solid; apart from having no real sense of speed, aeroplanes handle as you might expect them to. L1 and L2 buttons increase and decrease overall speed, R1 and R2 control weapons such as rockets and bombs, and the d-pad gives a selection of viewing angles from around the plane. Strangely though, the game seems to change viewing angles of its own accord at random points during missions, which is offputting even at the best of times.

Missions themselves are incredibly linear and short, usually with a single objective such as "shoot down all the planes" or "sink the ships". Once this is achieved, the next mission is unlocked alongside some story in the form of text. The variety of missions is also pretty narrow; there wasn't a single memorable objective in the whole American campaign.

Graphically the game is mixed; plane textures and graphics are average at best, as are the ground locations, however much of the map is uninteresting and empty. This gives a strange impression to flight which can only be compared to flying over some sort of post-apocalyptic world. The music and sound effects are generally good, and in fact reminded me of the style of audio used in Secret Weapons Over Normandy.

Overall Pacific Warriors II isn't a bad game in terms of gameplay, but its lack of variety, planes, true mission depth and graphical quality lets it down in many ways. A lot of work would be needed to make the game truly enjoyable but the basics are there, unlike many Midas published games. This is a game that might be worth playing on a rainy day as a basis for comparison to other war flying games.

Rating: 45/100
Grade: D

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games) - Day 6: Mary King's Riding Star

Game: Mary King's Riding Star
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Midas Interactive Entertainment
Release Date: 2000

You might think that a horse riding game is a strange choice to review, and I'll admit it's not something I'd have predicted being remotely interested in. A while back whilst browsing the top rated original Playstation sports games, I noticed that this particular title was at #4 and something like #27 overall on the console. Delving further uncovered mainly positive reviews for the game, and only served to heighten my interest as to how this game could be so acclaimed.

After playing for a while, I'm pretty sure that I now understand the generally high scores for the game, despite it being published by Midas. The sort of people who are keen to purchase and play a game about grooming, keeping and riding horses are not the sort of people who also enjoy 80 hour RPGs, or artsy games generally speaking. Simply finding a game that allows them to simulate one of their interests seems to be enough to enjoy its content, and this seems to be where the high ratings have come from.

Gameplay is split into two distinct sections; the first is presented as an almost tamagotchi style point and click animal care game, with meters for overall horse health, thirst, hunger and grooming. In order to keep the horse healthy, players must ensure these meters are full, by performing the necessary tasks and navigating the stables to find the necessary equipment. To assist players in knowing what to do, the farm owner and player character engage in awfully levelled and voice acted dialogue which is far too quiet to hear, and of little help anyway.

The other section of the game deals with "three day eventing" which consists of dressage, showjumping and cross country. Using an overhead view, players steer their horse whilst controlling its speed and timing any necessary jumps so as to clear obstacles. Not only are all of the challenges far too precise and difficult for anyone who isn't completely obsessed with horse racing, the controls are confusing and never explained. After three attempts to place better than 10th in a competition, I gave up and wondered whether it might be easier to enter such an event in real life and place.

Graphically the game is poor with an overhead camera angle for riding sections and a simply animated set of environments and models for the horse care section. Perhaps a camera angle from behind players would have benefited the game, as players could then judge the distance between fences much more easily than having them appear from offscreen unexpectedly. The music that accompanies gameplay seems out of place, though it'd only really fit Build Mode in The Sims. As for sound effects and voice clips, everything's pretty low quality and awful.

Overall Mary King's Riding Star seems to be a game targeted towards horse lovers/riders rather than people like myself. One issue with this however, is that most horse riders will go and ride one instead of switching their Playstation on to simulate equestrian sport. The very small market that this game was made for seemed to enjoy it upon its release, but essentially its just another poorly made Midas title.

Rating: 18/100
Grade: F

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games) - Day 5: Ski Air Mix

Game: Ski Air Mix
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: KID
Release Date: 1st September 2000

As is often the case with Midas published games Ski Air Mix was brought over from Japan, having been published there in 1998. The concept of the game is fairly simple; players make their way down 5 different slopes, attempting to beat the record for either fastest descent or highest number of "air points". Once at the bottom of the slope, scores are ranked against the high score list and the game resets.

Overall the experience is as short as it sounds; each run only lasts a few minutes and everything the game has to offer can be played in around an hour. There are options of different skis which change the top speed and handling whilst descending, and a few player models and outfits which seem to change nothing, but besides this there's very little other content except for a two player mode that pretty much mirrors the single player arcade style campaign.

Controlwise the game is fairly easy to play until the harder slopes are reached. While many of the earlier courses feature wide, open corners later stages seem far more confined and colliding with the edge of the course is a common problem. The overall gameplay experience leaves much to be desired as there's little sense of speed or excitement, and pulling off tricks is near impossible, especially if you want to get a large amount of points.

Graphically the game is impressive for having been on the original Playstation, though perhaps not as impressive for having been released in the year 2000. Most of the time its easy enough to see obstacles to your descent, and only hitting the edges of the course seems to hinder progression. Overall Ski Air Mix is a short game with very little content, barely enjoyable gameplay, and poor slope design in the later stages; a typical Midas experience.

Rating: 30/100
Grade: E

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games) - Day 4: Charlie's Angels

Game: Charlie's Angels
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Neko Entertainment
Release Date: 4th July 2003

Video games based on movies don't usually fall into the budget category of games, however if this game's budget was anything over £20, I'm convinced that the majority of it went towards anything but making the game enjoyable. The game falls loosely into the 3D beat 'em up genre, featuring rooms full of enemies for players to defeat before they can move onto the next room of enemies, eventually reaching an objective which swaps characters and continues the storyline.

Cutscenes inbetween missions are loosely based around the first and second Charlie's Angels films, and are badly written and voice acted. After each cutscene, players are assigned an individual angel who they can control either until they reach the objective or until they wish to switch to another of the girls. Completing objectives for all of the girls will end the level and result in the player's score being displayed.

The controls for fighting have slow response times and the moves themselves have long animations, meaning that it's difficult to predict when's best to hit opponents. The circle button is used to jump, although your angel leaps higher into the air than humanly possible and floats downwards, so calling it jumping is somewhat inaccurate. In terms of attacks, players are able to punch and kick with the Triangle and Square buttons, with the X button used to pick up weapons.

The AI isn't particularly bright and will stand near your angel waiting to be hit most of the time, but enemies can be a little tough in large groups. The action gets tedious very quickly as there's no effort to change up gameplay between sections or levels and there are only really 2 buttons worth pressing for the most part. At no time does the fighting feel satisfying, realistic or even exciting.

Graphically the game is below par also with blocky player models, low quality textures and animations, and generally poor visuals. To say that the angels don't look much like their onscreen counterparts may be an understatement, and apart from an incredibly short loop of "Get Free" by The Hives on the menu screen, the game's accompaniment consists of muzak-esque tracks and completely awful voice clips.

Overall it's hard to convey how truly bad of a game this is. Considering the technology of the time, it's probably the worst beat 'em up I've ever played, and that includes 'classics' such as Double Dragon on the Master System and Amstrad CPC. While it's not unplayable, I can't think of a single reason why anyone'd want to give this a go, aside from its notoriety as a terrible video game. So for anyone thinking of playing Charlie's Angels, it really is as bad as they say.

Rating: 22/100
Grade: F

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games) - Day 3: Tokyo Road Race

Game: Tokyo Road Race
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Taito
Release Date: 22nd November 2002

Most Midas published titles I play have very few game modes to experience, but I think we may have reached a new low with Tokyo Road Race. It's bad enough that the only gameplay options are Arcade mode and Free Run mode, without even the option for a two player experience, but to top things off, playing in arcade mode only allows players to drive single races before being given the option to retry the race, no matter what position they finish. There's very little incentive to do well in the game, as the same result occurs once the race finishes, whatever happens.

With four tracks to choose from initially (one being an oval, and the others getting progressively narrower and badly designed), players can unlock up to 10 tracks in total, but actually winning races in order to do so is challenging enough thanks to the handling and general design of most courses. Added to the lacklustre racing experience, there's not a lot of reason to attempt unlocking more tracks.

The game seems to be attempting to emulate the success of titles such as Gran Turismo by including a choice of licensed cars from 6 manufacturers. The cars themselves aren't modelled too badly and there's around 40 to choose from, but as the AI cars are matched to the performance of yours it's a no-brainer to go for a slower car that handles more predictably, over some of the faster options. Having said this, even the slower cars appear to try and steer themselves at times, veering to the right or left as if magnetically attracted to the barriers.

Design-wise Tokyo Road Race seems to take the worst elements of arcade and simulation games and combines them. From arcade racers it takes its time limit, despite AI cars not being affected by a timer (one of my arcade racing pet hates), and a general lack of a 'bigger picture' or goal to work towards, besides unlocking a few more tracks, and from simulation games it takes its car choice which is strangely limited, despite featuring 40 cars, and heavy handling which doesn't fit the arcade style at all.

Graphically the game isn't noticeably bad, though there are points where backgrounds and crowd effects are pretty blurred. Additions such as tire smoke and fireworks look particularly 2D when compared to the rest of the game also. Musically the game is utterly forgettable with generic rock being the main accompaniment to gameplay and menu screens.

Overall Tokyo Road Race feels like the bare bones of an arcade racing game, hastily thrown together for the PS2. With racers being so prevalent on the system, this isn't a great approach to take, since it's easy to name at least 50 games that are better in every way. While I wouldn't say that Tokyo Road Race is awful, there's certainly no reason for anyone to play it for more than an hour.

Rating: 30/100
Grade: E

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games) - Day 2: Sky Surfer

Game: Sky Surfer
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: TOKA
Release Date: 6th July 2001

Having found this title for 15p in my local CEX store, I was unsurprised to find that Midas Interactive Entertainment had published it; after all games even mentioned by Midas seem to lose all value immediately. The general idea of the game is that players partake in an extreme form of skydiving which begins with a freefall in which tricks can be performed, followed by a Pilotwings-esque stage with gates to parachute through. Besides the game's main mode (Dive to Air), there's only a balloon popping minigame and a multiplayer mode; a shortage of things to do is a staple feature of Midas games.

In Dive to Air mode, players can pick from one of the four characters (America, France, Germany and Japan), one of four boards with varied stats, and one of three locations to 'sky surf' in. The first is Easy, allowing players to play in a tutorial mode (which explains very little of how to actually play), or to play without the worry of failing by losing control of their descent. Medium and Hard modes both quit the game the moment players lose control.

To keep control of your surfer's balance whilst descending, the left analog stick is used to keep the red cross in the centre circle in the bottom left of the screen. Unfortunately not only is this incredibly difficult to do, the controls are also inverted and extremely unresponsive. In Medium and Hard modes I wasn't able to play for longer than 20 seconds due to losing control. Once players have control of the surfer, tricks can be performed by pressing certain combinations of buttons. After the trick has been done, players are also invited to rotate, but there's no clear indication of how to do so, and after at least 8 attempts, I gave up trying to crack the code.

Once players have descended for 1 minute 30 seconds, they're told to open their parachute. With no indication of how to do so, I had to turn to an online FAQ to find out that I was required to press R1, R2, L1 and L2 simultaneously. The parachuting section of the game is also pretty bland, as well as being equally difficult to control. Once again the controls are inverted, but much of the time player input is ignored and the on-screen character will steer themselves in any direction they want. This is as frustrating as it sounds and spoils the small amount of fun the game might have held.

Graphically the game is very poor, especially in the main game mode, where the ground is a foggy pixellated mess. It's no excuse that you're freefalling from an incredible height as there's no change once you get closer in the parachute section either. The locations are bland and uninspired, and the most fun to be found in the entire game is the balloon popping minigame, which is bearable if a little poorly designed. Musically players are treated to jazz piano behind their extreme sports which makes for an interesting contrast, as well as an announcer who'll only exclaim "My God!" every time you finish a trick badly.

Overall Sky Surfer is the definition of a budget game, with poor controls and gameplay, a complete lack of content, options and game mode, outdated graphics even for the era, unfitting music and terrible voice acting. Even for 15p this game wasn't particularly good value as it holds no real enjoyment at all. As I've said time and time again; Stay away from Midas published video games!

Rating: 4/100
Grade: F

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games) - Day 1: Crazy Frog Racer 2

It's Christmas, so what better time to play as many awful games as possible? For the next 12 days I'm going to be taking a look at some of the worst experiences the world of budget video gaming has to offer. While I'm calling this the 12 Days of Midas, in reality only around half of the games are going to be by Midas Interactive, with the other half made up of equally disappointing companies.

Game: Crazy Frog Racer 2
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Neko Entertainment
Release Date: 6th September 2007

I'm fairly certain that most if not all people aged 14 and above will remember "The Annoying Thing" or "Crazy Frog" as he was marketed by Jamster!. Originally just a silly animation and soundclip, the character was licensed and used to sell ringtone service subscriptions with over 70,000 adverts airing on British TV channels in May 2005; so many in fact that there were an unprecedented amount of complaints to the Advertising Standards Agency.

Despite this, various remixes of famous songs featuring the Crazy Frog were released and even made it to the number 1 spot in many charts. It stands to reason then, that eventually a video game would be released to further promotion of the brand. And so, Crazy Frog Racer and its sequel were released.

The core gameplay is essentially that of a Mario Kart clone, with some elements of F-Zero mixed in for good measure. All of the tracks featured in the game are floating in the middle of nowhere, and have no real defining features or interest to them. Items are available to help players gain positions, but unlike Mario Kart they're extremely ineffective; so much so that there's more chance of hindering your own progress than helping it.

The handling is pretty awful whether players choose to use the analog stick or the d-pad; with the analog stick, it's very touchy and even the slightest movement will result in a wild turn, but with the d-pad the handling resembles early ps1 era racing games, where turning only occurs after holding the desired direction down for a short while.

The overall difficulty of the game is hard to define as it varies based on track design, the racer you pick, and whether or not you're able to come to terms with the handling. On simple tracks whose coners don't require telepathy to navigate  the game is insultingly easy, allowing players to finish miles ahead of the opposition. However there are many tracks with unexpected turns, badly designed jumps and other flaws. When racing on these, it's almost impossible not to finish last.

In addition to the main racing mode, players can also attempt mini games. There's an unenjoyable Dance Dance Revolution clone as well as a poorly made pinball game which seems to be never ending. Honestly I'm not sure what's worse as both games seem like half baked attempts at adding content to a game that had very little to begin with.

Graphically the game is nothing special, although it's not as bad as it could have been either. The biggest issue is with the music, as every mode features songs remixed to include the Crazy Frog which tend to grate on the ears after the first 10 seconds or so. Having sat through Axel F, Popcorn, Hey Baby, The Final Countdown and I'm Too Sexy being thoroughly trashed, I'd have to say that the best way to play this if you're going to at all is on mute.

Overall Crazy Frog Racer 2 is exactly as bad as you'd expect it to be. The racing is shallow and bland, with a poor variety and quality of tracks, the minigames are pitiful and are essentially clones of existing games but with far less appeal and everything is set to the music that we were all sick and tired of 9 years ago after being bombarded with ringtone ads. All in all, not a bad way to start this look at 12 of the worst games ever.

Rating: 25/100
Grade: F

American Sports Masterpost (Excluding NBA)

Game: All Star Baseball 2003
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Acclaim Sports
Release Date: 26th February 2002

To begin my round-up of American sports, I thought I'd begin with perhaps the most foreign sport to those outside of the USA (myself included). I know quite a few NBA, NFL and even NHL fans here in the UK, but baseball is something that we don't seem to appreciate. After playing All Star Baseball 2003 however, I concluded that this may well be for a good reason. The game of baseball itself is fairly boring. 9 innings per match, where most innings consist of no home runs doesn't sound like the most appealing concept. I won't be holding this lack of interest against the game too much however, at least until the end of this review.

Like many other sports games, ASB 2003's main mode allows players to guide their team through a seasons of between 29 and 162 games. There's also a mode for creating an expansion league team, and developing their roster for as many seasons as players want. Other than these modes however, only exhibition, practice and high score hitting style modes are included, though I'm not sure what else could be done within the baseball concept,

Controlwise, the batting has a choice of two modes; regular mode allows players to control where they wish to aim the bat, whereas simple batting means that every swing will be a hit if timed correctly. Pitching is fairly simple too, with a choice of throw types and aiming options. The fielding could have shown a little more depth, but its adequate when there's a stray ball or something to catch. Overall there's a narrow range of gameplay which fits well with the simulation baseball theme of the game, but might put off more casual fans.

Graphically the game is good for its time; the ballparks, players and other features are fairly detailed; only the faces of individual players could use a little work. The announcing and sound effects can get monotonous as play goes on, but I can't think of a sports game of this kind where this isn't an issue. Overall if you're a big baseball fan looking for the ultimate simulation of the sport then this is definitely something to look into. If you're not up for sitting through 18 innings worth of baseball per match for 162 matches per season, then perhaps a game with an arcade style approach would be better.

Rating: 58/100
Grade: D

Game: Cyberball
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Tengen
Release Date: 1990

Moving onto games based on American Football now, my next two games are fairly similar and great examples of how less serious sports games can work well. Cyberball is based on an Atari arcade game of the same name. Set in the year 2072, robots play a destructive sport which is fairly similar to American Football. While I'm not perfectly familiar with the rules of the game, I think it's fair to say that the removal of the goalposts and move from "downs" to the ball heat meter are the most significant changes to be made.

The basic objective of the game is to score points; this can be done by scoring touchdowns, making conversions after touchdowns, or forcing a "safety" while in defense. In order to achieve these point scoring plays, players must choose which plays they'd like to make while in offense and defence, and execute them accordingly to score. The offensive team have until the ball reaches "critical" heat level to either score, or defuse the ball back to "cool" level. Each time a play is stopped by the defensive team, or an incomplete pass in made, the heat level of the ball rises. The game is fairly easy to pick up, even for players with limited understanding of American Football.

Controlwise the game is intuitive but still takes a little getting used to; different robots have different roles to play and thus a different set of moves for each button. It's still possible to get by without having a detailed understanding of each position though. After a few games most players should be able to make their team move as they'd like.

Choosing plays can be a little daunting for those who don't follow American Football, but it's a fairly crucial part of the game. Personally I went for the ones which had players running out wide in an attempt to get past the defending team while pushing forward, and short formations whilst defending. This combination seemed to work well, and seems to prove that you don't have to be an expert in strategy to enjoy these type of games.

Graphically the game is fairly simplistic, although that's unsurprising as the Mega Drive hadn't been out long. When there's a cluster of robots on the field, it can be difficult to make out exactly which of them has the ball, and there's not a huge amount of excitement in the animations when a touchdown is made. The game is accompanied by a track which gets faster as the ball's heat status increases. Conceptually this is a good idea, although it can get repetitive due to the lack of other tracks.

Overall Cyberball is a fun game for American Football fans and non fans alike. There's the choice to play an entire season with save passwords, and upgrade options for your robots based on how well the team do, and the general gameplay is pretty interesting although the removal of goalposts may have hurt the overall scoring options for players.

Rating: 73/100
Grade: C

Game: Mutant League Football
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Electronic Arts
Release Date: 1993

Designed using the Madden '93 game engine, Mutant League Football allows players to take control of 19 teams, each made up of aliens, skeletons, robots, trolls and more. Once again there are a few rules changes from American Football in real life such as the ability to bribe or kill the referee, kill players on the opposing team, and place bombs and mines on the playing field to stop opposing players.

Compared to that of Cyberball, the gameplay here is more similar to real world American Football, with 4 downs before a turnaround (unless the offensive team gains enough yards) as well as field goals and extra point conversions in addition to touchdowns, regular conversions and safetys as scoring methods. Player movement is also much more akin to the real sport, with tackles, dodging and dives.

Controlwise Mutant League Football is a little more simple than Cyberball; in offensive situations, the C button is used to initiate plays, and then to dodge once a receiver has the ball. The A and B buttons are used for passing and selecting special plays. Sometimes the handling of players can feel a little slippery, especially when they're knocked back by the defensive team but it doesn't impact on the action too badly.

In terms of difficulty, each team has a "skull rating" out of 5 which determines the skill of their players. When starting a season in the game, players can adjust the difficulty by choosing a team with a better or worse rating. Another option that can be adjusted is the brutality of matches, which determines how often players can be killed by tackles and challenges.

Graphically the game looks much more like a 16-bit title than Cyberball; the level of detail is much higher, the animations are better, and the player sprites are bigger overall for better ease of play. The strategy selection menu is also straightforward and easy to use. Musically the game features some exciting tunes which suit gameplay well, with enough variation to remain interesting for the duration of matches.

Overall Mutant League Football is a slightly better and more enjoyable game thanks to improvements in gameplay, rules and graphics. I'm also confident that it's more fun than Madden '93, as despite being based on it, the ability to throw bombs, drop mines and kill the referee definitely add excitement to the experience. If you need an American Football game on the Mega Drive, this'd be my pick.

Rating: 77/100
Grade: D

Game: Madden NFL 12

Console: Microsoft Xbox 360

Developer: EA Sports

Release Date: 30th August 2011

For a simulation American Football experience, there's never been much further to look than the Madden series. Named after the veteran commentator and beginning in 1988, the series has had annual instalments for the past 22 years. With such a wealth of games to choose from, spanning many console generations, it'd be inefficient to review all of them, so I decided to go for a more recent instalment and see how it plays. 

As with the preceding American Football games, gamers who aren't fans of the sport probably won't enjoy this too much. It's by far the closest you'll get to actually playing in the NFL with a controller in your hands, and although I had some questions about the rules of American Football before I started playing the game, after just a few games I knew most, if not all of what was going on, without any real need for a tutorial, and was able to make my players perform as I wanted and win games. 

The modes offered are as you'd expect for a sports game of this type; Exhibition match, Versus, Season and Be a Pro style modes are all available. Players are able to choose their team through the draft in a very detailed way in season mode, and can manage the running of their team in the off season. It's also possible to simulate matches you'd rather not play, and skip through to the Superbowl. In addition to these offline modes, there's also the option to go online and compete in matches.

Graphically the game is impressive in most parts; facial features and body modelling are the only real areas which could be improved. The game is mostly presented in the form a TV broadcast, with commentary and analysis appearing onscreen between plays. Although you'll hear the same comments over and over again, this is almost to be expected from sports games of this type. Overall this is everything you'd want from a simulation of American Football on a modern console. It's pretty clear that fans of American Football should also be fans of Madden 12.

Rating: 74/100
Grade: B

Game: NASCAR 98
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: EA Sports
Release Date: 1997

NASCAR 98 is a strange game. For starters it doesn't seem to bear much relation to the 1997 season of NASCAR, featuring 6 fantasy tracks which weren't on the calendar. Also it has adjustable sliders to control how realistically the cars handle and opponents drive. There are arcade and simulation default settings, but neither of these seems to provide a configuration that makes the handling or racing enjoyable. Finally the overall action is fairly unexciting in that there's only music to accompany racing, with no real sense of achievement or disappointment wherever players come in the final standings.

Racing games as a whole can have many unique aspects which make them enjoyable. I can understand EA's decision to try and spice up the available tracks from "just ovals" to some actual GT style tracks, but to leave the racing handling as strangely and inconsistently as it does means that there's no real unique selling point for NASCAR 98. It doesn't realistically simulate the speed or experience of NASCAR, and at the same time it fails to stand up to other racing games because of the hard to beat AI and lack of main game mode, save for playing an entire season.

Graphically the game is sub-par with blocky cars and textures all round. Although this is typical of the 5th generation of consoles, many games managed far better visuals. Musically the game features a frustratingly small pool of generic rock style tracks to accompany gameplay which don't fit the action particularly well.

Overall NASCAR 98 seems to have been released a little too early to be a good game. Thanks to the circuits featured it doesn't accurately allow players to simulate the NASCAR experience, as more recent games would do. The graphics aren't anything special and the handling isn't good in any of the preset configurations. Even for NASCAR fans this is one to avoid.

Rating: 40/100
Grade: E

Game: NASCAR 06: Total Team Control
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: EA Sports
Release Date: 30th August 2005

8 years later and EA's NASCAR series was still going strong; this time the main game mode feels like something out of the ToCA Race Driver series, signing contracts to race in different forms of NASCAR including the Whelen Modified and Truck series in an attempt to progress through the ranks and eventually race for your own team in the major NASCAR series. Other modes allow players to race through an entire season, play classic race challenges, and set up their own exhibition races.

With licenses for all of the NASCAR tracks and cars, this instalment definitely feels like it models the NASCAR experience more accurately, although the game feels like it has less variety in its track selection. Another slightly frustrating feature is the fact that there are only three settings for driving aids; full, limited or off. On full, the game brakes for players and essentially all they have to do is steer around the corners, on limited it's hard to tell quite which assists are on or off and the car's pretty hard to handle well. Finally, with all of the driving aids off the car is like an untameable beast, which I assume accurately reflects the real life machines.

NASCAR 06 changes up the controls from earlier instalments of the series, implementing L2 and R2 as brake and accelerate instead of the X and square buttons. There's also a team-control system which players can use, centred around the right analog stick, but there doesn't seem to be much point in using it at any stage of the game. Graphically the game is passable, though rather low quality at points; the frame rate is especially bad when there's a lot of cars on track.

Overall NASCAR 06: Total Team Control was always going to be a game which appealed to NASCAR fans predominantly. Many other racing games have more interesting tracks and car choices, but disregarding this fact the control, handling and overall presentation of the game is fairly mediocre. Luckily for fans of the sport, there's been plenty of other NASCAR games released over the years, so finding a good one shouldn't be too hard.

Rating: 59/100
Grade: D

Game: NHL 06
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: EA Sports
Release Date: 6th September 2005

The final game I'll be looking at today is NHL 06, the only modern hockey title I own. As with most EA Sports games of the time, there's the basic set of modes which allow players to lead a team through a single game, season or even more hockey. A nice addition to the normal options is the inclusion of NHL '94 as a playable game from the main menu. Despite lacking the usual polish of modern sports games, it's still totally worth a go.

The gameplay featured in the main mode of the game is fast paced and fairly exciting; it seems a little too easy to hold onto the puck at times and winning face-offs seems to take a lot of luck, but overall it could be much worse. Controlwise though things aren't so good; perhaps its just the difficulty of skating, but trying to make players move and shoot where you want them to is a chore, and actually scoring is near impossible, even on easy mode.

Graphically the players and rinks are impressive for a PS2 title, though the crowds and some other features are still a little lacking. Playing with a top to bottom view instead of side to side is also offputting, despite having worked well in NFL titles. The music included with the game is a strange selection of licensed tracks; some good, some not so good. I can appreciate that it's difficult to pick songs that'll go well with a hockey game though.

Overall NHL 06 is a little disappointing, if only because it doesn't simulate playing the game of hockey quite as well as the Madden games simulate NFL, or the FIFA games simulate football. This is perhaps owing to its fast paced nature and location on an ice rink, rather than being the fault of the developer, but it's still an issue the game faces. Perhaps I'll check out some later hockey games another time and see if things have improved at all. For now I think I'll stick to Blades of Steel on the NES.

Rating: 61/100
Grade: D

Truck Driving Games: 18 Wheeler vs Big Mutha Truckers

Game: 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Deveoper: Sega
Release Date: 14th November 2001

Running on the same Arcade hardware as Power Stone, Crazy Taxi, and The House of the Dead 2, 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker should have been at the very least enjoyable when ported to home consoles in 2001. Before its release in arcades, there wasn't really even a "truck racing" genre of video games, however the home console conversion doesn't seem to feature anything that should suggest a genre-defining title.

First of all, the number of game modes is very low; Arcade, Rival Chase, Parking and Versus modes being the only options. Arcade mode is the main game experience and allows players to race over 4 stages from Key West to San Francisco, with checkpoint racer style gameplay. Time counts down, and can only be replenished by passing checkpoints or hitting special bonus cars. If players don't make it to the goal in time, the game is over and they have the option of retrying the level.

There's usually only two checkpoints in total for each stage, with one of them being the end goal area. Parking minigames take place between each level, but aren't anything special. The main aim of each stage, besides finishing is to beat your rival to the goal, however given that there's hardly enough time to reach the goal, let alone worry about racing, this ends up being more of a side effect of beating a level. The AI truck also tends to drive very badly, swinging wildly across the road and stopping players from getting any real speed up. Despite trying my hardest, and setting the difficulty level to "Very Easy", I was only able to reach the 2nd stage of the game.

Graphically the game's textures are sub-par, and most of the visuals seem unimpressive. Character models are dated, as is the in game voice acting and the whole package seems to have a sense of little effort being put in. The music which plays behind races is of a generic country style and doesn't really help or hinder the experience in any way. Overall it's a disappointing arcade conversion which is far too difficult to progress through and offers nothing in the way of replayability.

Rating: 45/100
Grade: D

Game: The King of Route 66
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Sega
Release Date: 18th March 2003

Shockingly 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker was deemed good enough by Sega to release a sequel. While there were some changes to gameplay and more extra modes added than in the last instalment, it's still fundamentally the same game and fans of one are likely to enjoy the other. This time the game features King of the Road, Queen of the Road, Route 66 Challenge, Rival Chase and VS mode as options, though these offer less than you'd expect for 5 game modes worth of play.

The main two modes of the game are King and Queen of the Road. King of the Road mode guides players through an utterly contrived storyline about a trucking gang on Route 66, and features basic short mission type races against both the clock and opponents. Once again, the AI is horribly difficult to beat due to rubberbanding, even with newly introduced nitro boosts. Queen of the Road mode sees players completing different challenges set by the "Queen" of each state on Route 66. On most missions the time limit is very tight and overall the gameplay of this mode is pretty unenjoyable.

Graphically the game doesn't make the best use of the Playstation 2, especially given that it was released in 2003. Almost everything about the title feels like it should be a budget game made by the likes of Midas or D3 Publisher, rather than Sega. The Route 66 Challenge mode is particularly broken and doesn't even allow players to retry a challenge directly after failing. Musically the game is inoffensive, but utterly forgettable, so much so that I'm unsure of what type of tracks were included, mere minutes after playing.

Overall it could be argued that The King of Route 66 is worse than 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker. There are more stages, but they're shorter, there are more modes, but they're unenjoyable, there's more to do storywise, but there's almost no emotional investment for players and the gameplay is just as bland as the original game. On the whole I'd avoid both titles as there's very little to gain from playing them.

Rating: 42/100
Grade: E

Game: Big Mutha Truckers
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Eutechnyx
Release Date: 16th June 2003

The best way to describe Big Mutha Truckers is if I ask you to imagine a cross between the open world 3D Grand Theft Auto games and Euro Truck Simulator. The two of these are both fun games in their own right, but I'm not sure that they're the sort of game mechanics that should be combined. In Big Mutha Truckers' main mode "Trial by Trucking", players attempt to earn as much money as they possibly can by transporting various loads across the map. You're allowed to choose what's carried, and there are tips on which places are currently paying high prices for different cargo.

While driving to a destination, there's very little to do. The in-game radio is almost entertaining with GTA style humour and ads inbetween a few licensed songs. Other than this though the roads are pretty bare and there's nothing to see in any of the game's locations. The main mode lasts for 60 in game days, after which the amount of money players have made is evaluated, though I didn't make it that far into the game.

Other than the main game mode, there's a mission mode which plays a little more like the 18 Wheeler series, with checkpoints and objectives whilst driving. Unfortunately it plays a little too much like the other series as the difficulty and time constraints are through the roof. Graphically the game is pretty average, there are some parts which are bearable, but the locations featured are mostly barren roads between cities. The licensed music can be enjoyable at times and the radio humour isn't bad, but it's not a major selling point.

Overall Big Mutha Truckers feels like a bland mix of ideas and although the buying/selling of cargo works well when combined with transporting it from place to place, 60 in-game days is far too long to expect players to do the same things over and over. It's obvious that attempts have been made to spice the gameplay up, such as races and chases but it's not interesting enough to warrant playing for too long.

Rating: 47/100
Grade: D

Game: Big Mutha Truckers 2: Truck Me Harder
Console: Playstation 2
Developer: Eutechnyx
Release Date: 23rd August 2005

Big Mutha Truckers 2 sees Eutechnyx rehashing the formula of the first game, this time asking players to raise money in order to bribe jury members for Ma's trial, to get her out of jail. Just like the first game, players earn most of their money by transporting goods from one town to another, and earning bonuses along the way. There are also minigames which can be played to earn additional money.

The handling of the first game was strange, but definitely felt as if the trucks had a lot of weight. Players had to slow down before taking corners and although it could be a little boring to travel so slowly, the handling was somewhat realistic. In contrast, Big Mutha Truckers 2 has more of an arcade style to its handling, with extremely fast acceleration for its trucks, and no real need to slow down for corners. This aids players in their efforts to reach their destination before the time limit runs out, but also makes it far more difficult to drive.

Graphically the game is a small improvement on the first game and its locations are slightly more interesting, however journeys are now mad scrambles across town to beat the timer, rather than scenic drives of any kind, so there's no time to appreciate any extra effort put in. Musically the game features more licensed tracks and radio humour, although just like the rest of the game's humour it feels as if the creators are trying too hard to be funny.

Overall neither of the games in the Big Mutha Truckers series are particularly impressive. The first game is a boring, repetitive mix of game dynamics from other franchises, and the second game attempts to add excitement in all the wrong ways. If you enjoy these games then they're likely to be somewhat of a guilty pleasure more than a complete favourite, because there's way better driving and action to be had elsewhere.

Rating: 50/100
Grade: D

Game Review: Bram Stoker's Dracula (Master System)

Game: Bram Stoker's Dracula
Console: Sega Master System
Developer: Probe Entertainment
Release Date: 1993

It's always difficult to know quite what to expect from movie tie-in games, and especially those based on fairly well known books. Bram Stoker's Dracula was highly successful as a film in 1993, and as such a video game adaptation was almost inevitable. Despite the game being released on at least 9 systems, I decided to check out the Master System version of it.

Players take control of Jonathan Harker who is attempting to escape from capture in Dracula's Castle, and explore 3 levels, each of which have a night and day stage. Gameplay is in the form of a platformer; players can jump and shoot with each of the buttons on the controller, as well as moving with the d-pad. Weapons, health and bonus score coins can be collected from item boxes on the floor of levels.

Each of the weapons available has a different method of use; the sword (which is the default weapon) can only be used at close range, the hatchet is thrown in an arc from a distance, and fireballs and other projectiles fire straight forwards . The levels are fairly well designed if a little short at times, but are hindered most by the rapidly increasing difficulty. At times the game will present almost impossible combinations of enemies and obstacles which is likely to put some players off.

There are bosses at the end of each level, the first of which is pretty easy as long as players have some sort of projectile weapon, and the second of which is almost impossible due to the small space which players are given to fight in. This disparity in boss difficulty, added to the increase in level difficulty makes for a short game where players are almost certain to get stuck at some point.

Graphically Bram Stoker's Dracula is certainly acceptable in terms of the Master System library. Both indoor and outdoor locations are pleasing to the eye, and player/enemy sprites are fairly detailed and well animated. The music featured in the game is nothing special and isn't particularly memorable, but at times contributes to the horror theme nicely.

Overall this isn't the worst game that could have come from a Dracula movie tie-in, though it doesn't seem to follow the plot of the film particularly. Controlwise the gameplay is very responsive and with a greater number of more detailed levels, and a difficulty adjustment there's no reason that this game couldn't have been a classic for the Master System. Unfortunately it fell short of that mark and is decidedly mediocre.

Rating: 60/100
Grade: D