N64 Racing Double Header: Re-Volt vs Wave Race 64

Game: Re-Volt
Console: Nintendo 64
Developer: Acclaim Studios London
Release Date: 31st July 1999

While Micro Machines pioneered the genre of tiny cars racing around huge everyday household environments, there were more than a few challengers and imitators in that field also. Re-Volt seems to me to be somewhere inbetween the two labels, with enough differences to have merely been influenced by earlier games and with enough similarities to land it in the same pile as other R/C racers and toy car games.

In the Bronze Grand Prix players race around the streets of a neighbourhood, a supermarket, a museum and a botanical centre. While there's not much detail in any of the environments it's pretty obvious as to where the races are meant to be taking place, and really the slightly confusing directional nature of some of the tracks is far more of a concern. This is compounded by the fact that there are 2 or 3 different variants of each track featured in the game, and each of them feature many crossroads at which players must remember which is the right direction (though there are arrows to direct players, there's enough going on elsewhere on screen to make them easy to miss).

There's a fairly big selection of cars to choose from which increases as players beat each grand prix, but the variety between cars is limited as most simply look like remote control vehicles, with slightly different handling and acceleration stats. This being said, the handling of all vehicles feels pretty much the same; they stick to the floor and turn in the way you'd expect a remote control car to. The racing action can be hard fought at times, but as players get better at the game, there is a tendency to leave the AI cars behind.

Also included in the game alongside the Grand Prix mode is a track editor, as well as some other racing modes that are fairly similar to Grand Prix. There's a good amount of variety and things that can be done with the track editor, and it's fairly easy to use. The only downside is that a memory pak is required to save any tracks that are created, and any progress in the game as a whole.

Graphically the game isn't the best; this is evident both before and after comparison with the Dreamcast version of the game. As a late N64 game, I'd have expected better from it, but many issues including fuzzy textures and a poor draw distance tend to hinder the enjoyability somewhat. Soundwise, there's electronic music playing behind the racing, but nothing that really stands out or contributes to the overall experience of the game.

As a game, Re-Volt on the Nintendo 64 has the bare bones of a fun title; the racing can be competitive at times, and the tracks have interesting real world inspirations, but there's always a sense that it could be better. I'd like to check out the Dreamcast version at some point, because it seems as if it holds more promise, but for now I'd steer clear of this average title.

Rating: 61/100
Grade: D

Game: Wave Race 64
Console: Nintendo 64
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 1st November 1996

Unlike most conventional racing games, Wave Race 64 takes place on water and sees players riding jetskis around preset courses, on the correct side of buoys against 3 other AI competitors to score points and eventually win the championship. There are 4 difficulty modes, Normal, Difficult, Expert and Reverse, Normal mode has 6 races, with one added for each difficulty up to Expert which has 8, as does reverse, though all courses are backwards.

One of the most annoying aspects of the game is that whilst there's a choice of 4 jetski riders to choose from, one of them is undoubtedly better than any of the others, and must be tuned to his optimum setting via fiddling with the tightness of his grip. There's honestly no reason to use any of the other riders, unless you're playing in stunt mode where there's another clear favourite from the four.

Racing action is fun, and arcade like; players are allowed 5 mistakes before they're disqualified for going the wrong side of buoys. The power meter builds up for each buoy players go the correct side of, and other than this it's all out racing action. There's a danger of falling off the jet ski, with too harsh of a collision with anything but for the most part, hitting objects and scenery is avoidable.

There's a good variety of tracks, and with each increase in difficulty level, slight changes are made to each track layout, to keep things fresh and interesting. The stunt mode offered by the game isn't as good; players ride their jetski through hoops in order to earn points, and can do various stunts with combinations of buttons. Unfortunately there's not very many stunts available to do, and overall the whole experience feels like an add on, rather than a fun and alternative mode to try.

Graphically the game looks great for the time of its release, and there's some nicely rendered scenery and water effects. With the fast pace of the game, and the high intensity of the racing action, the visuals hold up well. Musically the game's funky 90s soundtrack adds to the experience and fun loving extreme sports vibe, fitting the action well.

Overall Wave Race 64 is a fun and refreshingly different racing game that despite its flaws manages to embody the era of gaming that it came from, both in visuals and audio. Multiplayer is obviously another advantage, with the ability to fight it out with up to 3 other friends for the title of jet skiing champion.

Rating: 75/100
Grade: B

Gameboy Racing Double Header: Super R.C. Pro Am vs Woody Woodpecker Racing

Game: Super R.C. Pro Am
Console: Nintendo Game Boy
Developer: Rare Ltd.
Release Date: October 1991

Before they were making N64 classics, and way before they were making Xbox Kinect games, Rare released a little R.C. racing game on the NES where players competed in a top down view in races contested by remote control cars, with weapons and power-ups. Super R.C. Pro Am is the Game Boy version of this, and probably the best console for it to be on, considering the fun action and limited scope of the Game Boy cartridge in terms of tracks and modes.

Players attempt to come in 1st or 2nd place in each race to progress to the next circuit. On their way around the circuits they can pick up upgrades for their car, as well as various weapons to use in the race against their opponents such as rockets and mines. While the races is fairly easy to win, it's pretty fun to experiment with using the weapons against opponents in order to finish in the top 2 also.

Graphically the game isn't particularly bad, though the cars aren't very detailed and the tracks are basic. It's easy enough to see what you're doing, and in a Game Boy game, that's not always a given. There's some menu music, but other than this it's simply the engine sound effects which feature in races, leaving the race action a little empty.

Overall while it's not going to break any records or even become anyone's favourite racing game, Super R.C. Pro Am could have been a lot worse, and the smooth movement and fun racing action is something to be appreciated from an original Game Boy game. It's a decent approximation of the NES game, with a fair few tracks to try out and a decent progression/upgrade system.

Rating: 61/100
Grade: D

Game: Woody Woodpecker Racing
Console: Nintendo Game Boy Colour
Developer: Konami
Release Date: December 2000

Kart Racing games were unavoidable after the release of Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64, they've popped up everywhere ever since and can still be found on today's consoles at times. Unfortunately 99.9% of kart games without the Mario prefix are nowhere near as good. Something that is true of Woody Woodpecker Racing for Game Boy Colour. There are four modes, Extreme (an elimination competition), Grand Prix (a regular championship with points), Sprint (a single race) and Time Trial (a single race, on your own). Counting the four unlockable racers, there are a total of ten to play as. The racing action is some of the worst in video gaming, there's absolutely no sense of speed, the karts are incredibly slow even with this considered and there's almost no chance of winning because the AI have faster karts than you for whatever reason, even on easy mode.

There are items, all of which are unimaginative and do very little to help players gain an advantage. Strangely the item related music plays whenever anyone uses an item in the race, so get ready to hear the enemies getting a boost on the other side of the screen, because someone at Konami didn't know how to program the game not to make noise when that happens.

Graphically the game is about as basic as can be; Woody and friends are literally heads on top of a set of wheels as they go around the track. The scenery is boring and repetitive and the tracks are just as uninspired. The most exciting thing in the game is the fact that the character's face, displayed in the bottom middle of the screen changes when reacting to certain in game events, like overtaking another player. The music is bearable, but it's no consolation for the gameplay.

Overall Woody Woodpecker Racing is a terrible Game Boy Colour game and kart racer. Oddly, when it was released it got a 9.1/10 from GameSpot who were no doubt in on some sort of promotion deal with Konami, since no-one in their right mind would give this game even half that score.

Rating: 10/100
Grade: F

The Worst of PS2 Part 2: Stock Car Crash and Wild Wild Racing

Game: Stock Car Crash
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Brain In a Jar
Release Date: 28th April 2006

It might appear that I'm rather picking on Midas Interactive for my Worst of PS2 review series, but it's important to remember that between their own awful games and publishing the Simple Series, there's got to be at least 100 poorly developed games by the company. Oddly they're not to blame for Stock Car Crash as much as Brain In a Jar, the developers who were also behind Golden Age of Racing, another terrible racing game.

It'd odd though that where Golden Age of Racing suffered from a complete lack of the ability to turn cars around corners, Stock Car Crash suffers the complete opposite, cars will drift quite easily and for the most part hold the road fairly well. This isn't to say that the handling is anything to shout about though, as it's a strange mix of not being able to take corners without slowing down quite a lot and having absolutely no sense of speed, leading to the AI overtaking you as if you're a pensioner who's found their way onto an F1 track.

Annoyingly crashing is also part of the game mechanic as it fills the boost bar at the bottom of the screen. Particularly large smashes fill the boost bar completely, giving players a completely inconsequential 3 second accelerator tap before emptying. The sound effect for this boost sound like a car failing to start on a cold morning, and overall the entire mechanic is best avoided, as is crashing at all.

Unfortunately almost every circuit is set up in order to encourage large pile-ups and vehicular crashes, with many crossroads and sections featuring oncoming opponents. The AI is pretty stupid as well, taking every opportunity to crash into walls, and eachother, sometimes literally blocking the road. To progress through the game, players must win trophies for winning on each circuit with every Class of car, winning tournaments which consist of 5 races, weekenders which are locked so I'm not sure what the idea is there, and Destruction events.

Graphically the game looks awfully basic for 2006; it could have easily been on the original Playstation (it's even on a CD-ROM rather than a DVD). The physics are incredibly wonky, with the smallest hit against a barrier sometimes flipping cars completely, and the driving is particularly frustrating too. The engine sounds are basic and there's no music (as far as I can tell) playing behind the race.

Overall Stock Car Crash just about fits the criteria for being a video game; players can almost control their cars, and compete in tournaments and race weekends, but it's the bare minimum that can be expected from a racing game. There's no fun or unique selling point to the game, just bland and generic stock cars racing around bland and generic circuits until someone wins. I don't think they could have put less effort into this one.

Rating: 35/100
Grade: E

Game: Wild Wild Racing
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Rage Software
Release Date: 25th October 2000

Although it was admittedly an early PS2 game, Wild Wild Racing doesn't deserve to escape my sights. Players control what appear to be miniature dune buggies and race them across some indiscernible real world locations including the USA, India and Iceland. The main game modes are Challenge mode, which unlocks new vehicles after the player has beaten 3 short and fairly boring challenges, and Championship mode which unlocks new challenge mode levels.

The driving in the game is terrible with massive amounts of understeer and the cars feeling nothing like the 4 wheel drive machines they're supposed to be. The handbrake can be used to turn corners, but it also has the undesirable effect of almost completely stopping your buggy. There's no real way to corner properly save for slowing down to a crawl and gently turning around the corner whilst the AI cars zoom past, apparently possessing a far greater level of grip somehow.

The AI cars are also so incredibly incompetent at driving that if you do manage to pass them on a straight, they'll run you into any hard objects they can find when they catch up, and catch up they will because the rubber banding is intense; there's really no getting away from them. Track layouts are incredibly uninspired and usually consist of several hairpin turns one after the other in a grey or brown wasteland. There's tons of checkpoints on each track for no particular reason, and these only serve to remind you how badly designed the game is.

Graphically it doesn't look bad for having been released in 2000, there's some definite shape to the dune buggies and the tires even get a little muddy after a while, but I could have done without the tyre smoke effects; it'd have been more likely to be dusty in the racing conditions featured. Musically the game features some electronic music behind the racing, but all that can really be heard is the drumbeat.

Overall Wild Wild Racing isn't wild at all. It's an incredibly mediocre and frustrating experience with boring tracks, idiotic AI, poor handling, no real sense of progression through the Championship mode, no sense of speed and decidedly average presentation. This is definitely one to stay away from unless you're looking to award a title for world's most forgettably average PS2 game.

Rating: 36/100
Grade: E

Game Review: Shenmue II

Game: Shenmue II
Console: Sega Dreamcast/Microsoft Xbox
Developer: Sega AM2
Release Date: October 28th 2002

Before I start this review, I should probably disclose that this is currently my favourite game of all time, and has been for as long as I can remember, since I first played it. That's not to say that it can't be beaten, but it'd definitely take a lot to make a game that appealed to me quite as much as this. As such this review may appear fairly biased (and it is, considering that it's my personal opinion of the game), but the series tends to be one that people either love or hate, and difficult to get into for those who haven't played at all, especially if you start with Shenmue II, having only watched the Shenmue movie disc included with the Xbox version of the game, or worse still with no knowledge of the original.

For those who haven't played Shenmue I'll explain briefly what has happened in the story up to the beginning of Shenmue II. Ryo Hazuki, an 18 year old Japanese High Schooler is seeking revenge on Lan Di, the head of a Chinese cartel who murdered Ryo's father, whilst in search of a mysterious stone mirror. Using the clues left by Lan Di, Ryo slowly tracks him down through the events of Shenmue, before deciding to leave for Hong Kong in an attempt to seek revenge. With just the name of a man who knew Ryo's father, and a temple master who may be of help, the young protagonist boards a boat as the credits of the first game roll.

As with the first game, players are allowed to progress in the game at any pace they wish; if you're the exploring type there's plenty to see and do in Hong Kong, as well as the later areas of the game which Ryo's journey extends to. Many minigames and extra features are present in the game such as arm wrestling, street fights, capsule toys to be collected, Lucky Hit stands and jobs to earn money. While it's possibly to almost completely ignore these in the context of the main storyline, they bring the city alive in a way that gives it personality and a distinct feel.

Whilst following the story, players will have to participate in freeform fights, QTE's and a new style of Quick Time Event, the CQTE. New freeform moves can be learned at various stages in the game and used to great effect as the game draws near to its conclusion and the fights become more frequent. A fair amount of the game is dedicated to gathering information in order to get nearer to meeting Yuanda Zhu, and finally defeating Lan Di.

The controls are much the same as in the first game, though there's a new button display in the bottom left of the screen which reminds players of the functions of each button, and some new uses for them, within context such as asking passers-by about places to earn money nearby, and using various services when available. Every now and then controls can be a little difficult with movement, especially when inside of a building, but its nothing that's too frustrating.

The locations featured in the game are pretty massive in size, especially for the time of release, and the fact Ryo must travel them on foot. Not only is their size impressive, but also the level of detail put into much of the signage, lighting, and general aesthetic of buildings. Roaming at night gives a real sense of the lull in business on the streets and a more dangerous side of the city revealing itself. Both Kowloon and Hong Kong feature interesting buildings and features of 1987.

Shenmue II sees Ryo follow Lan Di to Hong Kong, inadvertently to Kowloon whilst seeing Yuanda Zhu and then finally to Guilin, a far more rural locale which brings a big change of pace in the game. Until the trip to Guilin, the story is a tense and concentrated effort to further Ryo's quest, infiltrating gangs and dangerous places in order to gain information and get closer to the people and revenge he seeks. With the epilogue in Guilin, players are given a chance to relax and learn more about the lore of the mirrors, and what will presumably form the events of Shenmue III.

It's fairly difficult to describe the appeal of Shenmue, the atmosphere and buzz of Hong Kong and Kowloon are captured well, and though it can at times seem slowly paced, it's a refreshingly realistic approach to an action story taking place within everyday life. The characters met in Hong Kong, and the events leading up to the trip to Guilin are reminiscent of a martial arts film in some ways, there's a lot of tension built leading up to the game's final fight.

When Shenmue II is undoubtedly my favourite game, there are still some aspects which could be improved. There are a few events where despite knowing the way to the destination, you're forced to follow a far slower guide with whom the action needs to take place, also there's a couple of fights which Ryo is unable to win, which black out with the assumption that he's been beaten up. While necessary for the story to progress, these should really be cutscenes if they're not able to be won.

With regard to the Xbox version, there are some definite sound glitches, and the English dub is a little off at times, in tone and delivery. The d-pad on the Xbox isn't ideal for QTE sequences, and attempting to load the Hang-On minigame will completely freeze the entire game. The Dreamcast version is the recommended one, as I've played and completed both, though the Xbox version is bearable if you're not able to source a DC copy.

Graphically the game looks great, even today. There's a few moments where things might not look quite right, but on the whole, its very impressive. The depiction of Hong Kong and Kowloon in as much detail as Yokosuka and Dobuita in the original game are part of the reason that this game is so enjoyable. Musically there's a great variety of interesting and stylish accompaniments to gameplay with many authentic instruments and pieces as well as a good mix of tense music of the action scenes.

Overall Shenmue II is a brilliant continuation of Ryo's adventure which improves on the original with such features as the time skip when waiting for an event, and the ability to save anywhere in game and continue. The tone and feel of the game is unparalleled, even today in my view, and the action really builds to the final rooftop fight scene, before the gentle epilogue leading onto the events of the next game. Having replayed this game after a few years away, I eagerly await Shenmue III, and the chance to replay the first two games before I continue Ryo's journey.

Rating: 98/100
Grade: A

The Worst of PS2 Part 1: Eternal Quest and Daemon Summoner

A year or two back, I did a set of reviews called "The Worst Of Master System" highlighting lazy home computer ports and generally crappy games that made it onto the Master System. While there's crappy games on every console, I feel like the needs to be a special quality shared by a set of games to make them worth posting about in a set. The PS2 enjoyed huge popularity, selling over 155 million units and this meant a potentially huge audience for any games published on that system. Budget publishers like Midas, D3 Publisher, Davilex, 505 Gamestreet and Phoenix Games took the approach that they could make whatever they liked with a tiny budget, and put it onto shop shelves for £9.99 an they'd definitely make some money. Unfortunately the games that they put on the shop shelves have to be some of the worst PS2 games ever, if not some of the worst games ever, and this is what I'll be looking at in these posts.

Game: Eternal Quest
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Tamsoft
Release Date: 21st May 2003

Eternal Quest is a primitive Action RPG game published by Midas and part of the Simple Series by D3 Publisher. Players begin their quest at the top level of a 50 level dungeon, on a mission to beat the final boss on the lowest level. At the start of their quest they have only a basic sword and a bell that takes them back to the top level of the dungeon. There's only one attack that can be used with sword, and a simple defend command which is far too difficult to use, timing wise. Later on in the dungeon, throwing weapons can be acquired, which are limited in number but can be handy.

There's a few different enemies than can be encountered such as "Wing Bones", "Poison Bug" and "Magic User", all of which look like incredibly generic fantasy game enemies that could easily feature in another game and not look out of place. Players gain Exp for defeating enemies and can level up, though there's not a noticeable difference in power level. There's also quite a few items and weapon upgrades that can be collected by players to aid them in beating enemies. The real issue with the game is that none of the exp, items or weapons collected whilst exploring carry through with players for use in later runs through the dungeon.

This may sound fairly standard for some Action RPG games, but the enemies are fairly hard from the start, and actually causing any damage to them can be difficult with the game's controls and limited attacking options. If you're unlucky enough to be facing more than one enemy at once, not only will they all attack in sequence, essentially blocking your character from even attacking, but if you are lucky enough to attack, your character will only focus on and attack the last enemy that hit them, making it almost impossible to strategise.

The dungeon itself is a randomly generated series of halls and passageways with some warps and only one pathway to the lower level on each level. The textures and look of each level is slightly different, but only thanks to a randomised colour tint on each level, which when combined with the rave like electronic music that accompanies gameplay makes it seem more like a nightclub than a dungeon. Everything about the game is graphically unimpressive, and it's honestly difficult to see what you're doing at all times in the game.

I suppose this style of game is most easily compared to "The Binding Of Issac" in that players make their way through decending dungeons, attempting to beat enemies and collect items in order to power up, but there's really no motivation for players to continue; at any moment your progress could be erased by an unfair random generation of 3 enemies right next to you. The fighting mechanics hardly work and the storyline is about as uninteresting as they come. Added to the fact that the game sounds more like a 90s warehouse rave than an Action RPG, it's easy to see that there wasn't much effort put into this. This wouldn't even make a particularly good flash game.

Rating: 33/100
Grade: E

Game: Daemon Summoner
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Atomic Planet
Release Date: 31st March 2006

Set in what appears to be Victorian England, Daemon Summoner presents a gothic tale of vampires and monsters as a backdrop to its first person shooter style gameplay. Players attempt to unravel the mystery of a fairly boring and nonsensical story about a man's wife who was turned into a vampire. Much of the game is spent chasing her about directly, attempting to get rid of monsters who get in the way, but ultimately the game isn't interesting nor rewarding enough to consider continuing.

The gameplay itself is boring, forcing players to wander around maze like levels, killing easy to defeat monsters and attempting to fulfil level objectives that are vague and easily failed if players get the wrong idea. While the horror mood is good, there's nothing legitimately scary about the game as a whole, and nothing particularly fun about the gameplay.

Graphically the game is decidedly average at best for 2006's standards, and the environments are very wooden and 2 dimensional (sometimes literally as you can occasionally see through them). There's limited music and although sometimes the sound effects do a good job of creating a tense atmosphere, the voice acting lets the game down completely and makes it more comedic than anything else.

Overall Daemon Summoner is an attempt at a survival horror/first person shooter mix that suffers from a lack of imagination, graphical quality, voice acting talent and general story interest. There's tons of better horror games on the PS2, and tons of better shooters. While it's playable, there's really no appeal to any kind of gamer, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Rating: 40/100
Grade: D

Series Review: Test Drive II, 4 and 6

While I don't yet own every iteration of the Test Drive series, it's a little unsurprising that I've managed to pick up only the evenly numbered instalments. The first Test Drive game was only for home computers, the third was only released for DOS and after Test Drive 6, they gave up with numbering the games, opting instead for subtitles.

Game: Test Drive II: The Duel
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Distinctive Software
Release Date: 1992

The concept of Test Drive games, at least at this point in gaming history was fairly unique; players choose from 3 cars which differ slightly in top speed and acceleration, and then race either another car or the clock through 3 sets of 5 stages set throughout America, whilst avoiding crashes which lose them a life. The cars have semi realistic handling, similar to that of Hard Drivin' and other early first person driving games, but overall the feel is far more enjoyable than that of other contemporary simulation style titles.

The three cars players can choose from are a Porsche 959, a Ferrari F40 and a Lamborghini Diablo. While there's not a noticeable handling difference between the three cars, their interiors are lovingly modelled for players to observe whilst driving. On their way through stages players will encounter the police, who can be slowed down for to avoid pursuit and possible arrest or players can chance their luck with outrunning them. For the most part the police aren't too much of a problem, but if players happen to accidentally overshoot or miss the gas station at the end of each stage, there's a 20 second penalty and it's far easier than it sounds to be penalised with one of these.

Graphically the game looks pretty good for its time of release, especially the car interiors. The terrain and tracks are generally good although there's times when it's a little difficult to tell what's the edge of a cliff and what isn't. Soundwise there's a choice of three tracks to accompany gameplay, as well as the engine sounds and other sound effects, and these are fairly entertaining on the whole.

Overall Test Drive II: The Duel is an interesting driving game for the Mega Drive in that it isn't in the style out Outrun, and it doesn't utilize a top down view, instead going for the first person almost simulation feel. While the challenge level and driving aren't perfect (often players are presented with impossible overtaking challenges as both lanes are blocked whilst attempting a pass), there's some enjoyment to be had with the game, and it's just a shame there's no 2 player option.

Rating: 64/100
Grade: C

Game: Test Drive 4
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Pitbull Syndicate
Release Date: 30th September 1997

Moving away from the forumla of Test Drive II a little, Test Drive 4 featured a more simcade handling style, with a choice of 10 cars and 4 cups to compete in against 5 AI opponents. Police are still a factor in the game, though they are rarely able to catch up to players, unless there's already been a crash up ahead. Petrol stations no longer feature in the series as players are allowed to continue to the end of races without filling up.

The biggest difference between the games is the handling of the cars; in Test Drive II, cars stuck to the road ahead and it was possible to weave in and out of oncoming cars, but in Test Drive 4 players are given the choice of either controlling acceleration with the X and Square buttons (my preference) and turning with the d-pad, or controlling acceleration with the right analog stick and turning with the left analog stick (my preference). There's no option to use the X and Square buttons in conjunction with the left analog stick, and this is a major factor in the game's poor handling.

Steering with the d-pad gives an on/off approach to turning; holding down any longer than a second or two will cause the player to spin out and crash, requiring players to pepper the d-pad around turns. Steering with the left analog stick is better, as players can input smaller turning instructions and adjust their direction in a more minute fashion, but accelerating with the right analog stick is very frustrating as it's harder to switch between braking and acceleration, which can lead to crashes and spinning out from going too fast around corners. Whichever control style you pick, you have a disadvantage.

The racing action is interesting as each car has its own strengths; picking a car with high top speed on a long and straight track will give a huge advantage, but on a later track with many turns, it can be a nightmare. With many different tracks in each cup, there's no way to pick something that'll excel in all areas. Unfortunately though there's no real variety in terms of the gameplay modes as there's only the 4 cups, drag racing and a single race option available.

Graphically the game looks blocky and undetailed; the cars and environments all seem to lack attention to detail and even though this is common in original Playstation racing games, there's no excuse when you're offering just 10 cars to choose from. Musically the soundtrack is fairly boring electronic stuff that never really gets going or fits the racing.

Overall Test Drive 4 is a bit of a disappointment as by 1997 there were already 3 Ridge Racer games for the arcade crowd, and Gran Turismo for those into Simulation. Even as an inbetween this is pretty disappointing and there were many other Playstation titles that were better in that field of racing.

Rating: 44/100
Grade: E

Game: Test Drive
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Pitbull Syndicate
Release Date: 31st October 1999

After such a poor effort with Test Drive 4, I'm assuming that Pitbull Syndicate really pulled it together in the following years as Test Drive 6 manages to impress from the start. There's an opening video featuring Gary Numan, after which players can begin a proper career mode, choosing a car to buy from a plentiful selection and then racing it in tournaments against the AI to earn cash and move up a performance class, buy another car and do it all again.

The driving is far more arcade style than in previous games, with cars sticking to the road for the most part and the brakes only needing to be used around the tightest of corners. This makes the racing far more action packed, and takes the focus off driving perfectly. There's a mixture of track circuits and road circuits with traffic on, both of which are done nicely, especially the road circuits for London and Paris.

In addition to the career mode there are time trial challenges for 6 of the city circuits, and a police mode where players must catch up to and stop other racers in order to earn money. Overall these modes come together nicely to form an exciting arcade racing experience. While the AI can be tough to beat due to rubber banding, they provide close finishes and nail biting action throughout races, even if sometimes the action is a little crash-heavy.

My only real complaint of the racing featured in the game is that traffic cars coming in the opposite direction tend to swerve out of the way (which is completely believable of course), in random directions and sometimes for no reason, leaving players at a disadvantage having tried to avoid whatever's coming their way.

Graphically the game is pretty nice for the late PS1 era, it doesn't push the console to its limits, but there's no trouble with recognising hazards, other cars or what's going on in general. The soundtrack is mainly electronic music, which is bearable, but there's also a Gary Numan track on there too which is fun to race to.

Overall Test Drive 6 is by far the best game in the series that I've played. There's a wealth of cars of different performance levels, a fun career mode with a nice gradual progression of difficulty, many nicely designed tracks that lead players through the landmarks of different cities, and a fun police chase mode to top it all off. If I had to sum this up in a phrase it'd be a PS1 arcade racing fun fest.

Rating: 81/100
Grade: B

Mainly Mega Drive Sports Games Roundup

Inevitably when you collect video games, you'll acquire games that may have fitted nicely into other series reviews, had they been purchased at the time. These are collection of such games that I've picked up since doing the perfect review series for them. Before we get into the Mega Drive titles, there's a Game Boy Colour game that I'd like to discuss.

Game: Nascar 2000
Console: Game Boy Colour
Developer: THQ
Release Date: 2000

I'm no NASCAR expert, but I've seen my fair share of NASCAR games here and there. Obviously being on the Game Boy Colour wasn't a good start for this game, as the other versions were on PS1, N64 and PC, but several other factors hampered any sense of fun that could have been gained. Firstly, even the title screen looks as if it's been put through several compression cycles and tinted an odd shade of green, and the menus all feature tiny text and options.

While there's a good selection of drivers and teams available in the game (presumably the same as the real life NASCAR lineup of the time), it's almost impossible to tell the cars apart save for a few specks of colour in the game, so players needn't bother spending too long considering who they'll choose. The racing is presented in a 3D view from behind the player's car (essentially the same as the NES classic Days Of Thunder), which is preferable to a top down point of view, but severely limits visibility into the distance.

Driving is difficult for the most part, and crashing into barriers is hard to avoid, not to mention other cars and AI pileups. For those lucky enough to be able to pass other cars without crashing into the back of them, it's pretty easy to gain positions, but staying in 1st can be a challenge. While some of the AI cars seem to drive defensively as if they were protecting their position, it's hard to tell whether this is intentional or merely a side product of them driving like complete baboons.

Graphically the racing sucks, it's hard to make anything out of the grey mess that is each track, and there's barely any difference between any of the circuits featured in the game. The music and sound effects are pretty poor also, and there's no point mentioning other gameplay modes since the insufferable racing affects every mode. There really wasn't a reason for bringing Nascar 2000 to the Game Boy Colour, but they did and this is what we got.

Rating: 30/100
Grade: E

Game: Summer Challenge
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: MindSpan
Release Date: 1993

Summer Challenge is an olympic style video game that allows players to compete in up to 8 events; Archery, Horse Riding, Kayaking, Hurdles, Pole Vault, High Jump, Javelin and Cycling. With such an odd combination of events, you'd think that the control scheme would be complex and hard to remember, but the game literally uses the d-pad and the B button only. Since there's a lot of events, I'll be running through this one as I play through a single tournament. I had a little practice on some of the events beforehand, but there's no telling what'll happen once the AI is introduced to the mix.

Archery was my favourite event in practice, and I quickly found my feet using the d-pad to aim and the B button to shoot an arrow when the reticle was over a good area. Finishing with 99 points, I got a gold medal which made this an early favourite event overall. In the Horse Riding, which had been a complete disaster in practice, I was able to jump the fences pretty easily for a few jumps despite the awful frame rate and Outrun style turns on the course. On the 6th jump though, I managed to miss and the game abruptly disqualified me. This minigame's a little too fiddly to be fun, and the jumps feel too difficult to estimate correctly.

Kayaking was another disaster, with a frame rate of 1 fps and difficult movement in the water, my attempts to pass through each gate were in vain as I accidentally hit a wall after a gate in the middle of the course and capsized. Amazingly I retained 3rd spot in the medals table after my archery win, so all was not lost yet. Hurdles proved just as difficult as the horse riding event to judge and I ended up headbutting the first hurdle and falling over, which ended the race. Annoyingly the Brazillian at the top of the medals table managed to add another medal to his tally here also.

Pole Vault was another hard to judge event, with none of my eleven practice goes achieving anything, and all 3 of my competition attempts also failing. It seems that wherever the player attempts to vault from is either too far or too near, and the faster they run, the less chance there is to estimate the vault distance correctly. Having cleared 1.70m in my practice attempt, I decided to aim low for the High Jump and managed to clear that height once again. After running into the bar three times at 1.80 I concluded that I would never be as good as my rival Brazillian.

Finally the javelin event came and something that I was good at in practice. I proved even better at it in the tournament, beating my closest rival by 10 metres. This game utilised a simple "Tap B and throw before the line at a good angle" approach, and had far less tight judgement to be done than the previous games, which aided my win. With 2 gold medals and no hope of catching the Brazillian man at the top of the medals table, I turned to the final event, cycling. The cycling event consisted essentially of mashing the B button and steering the bike a little around the track for 4 laps. With a sore arm, I took first place and the gold medal, giving me a total of 3 gold medals and 9 points in the medals table, with 2nd place overall, behind a certain Brazillian.

It's amazing that after being disqualified from 4 out of the 5 events I didn't win, I still managed to place 2nd in the medals table, but I suppose that's a characteristic of these type of Olympic games. If you can master a few of the minigames then you're pretty much set to win. I'm sure if I gave it a little more time I could work out some of the more difficult games, but there was definitely a recurring theme in these events, which was the challenge of actually judging when to press the button to avoid catastrophic failure.

Graphically the game isn't amazing, players can just about see what they're doing, but faces and animations are incredibly basic, and overall it feels much more like a home computer title. The pixel effect works well on some of the backgrounds of the game, but not for the action based sports. The music featured on the menu screen isn't bad, though it's a little short in terms of its loop. The sound effects are pretty basic, however.

Overall Summer Challenge is a pretty average Olympics game; it's pretty hard to compete in many of the events because of the technical limitations at the time of the game's release, but some of the events are okay, and the opportunity for up to 10 players to compete, albeit in turn taking multiplayer mode is somewhat of a bonus.

Rating: 45/100
Grade: D

Game: Brian Lara Cricket
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Audiogenic Ltd.
Release Date: 1995

Starting with a grammatical error ("This game [in] not endorsed by any team or player other than Brian Lara"), Brian Lara's Cricket doesn't exactly inspire confidence in players from the word go. Nonetheless there don't seem to be any further errors of this proportion as all the players and teams have their correct names (unlike later Brian Lara's games). The options offered by the game are somewhat limiting but fair for a game of this age.

All matches are played in a test match style, with breaks for lunch and tea (even if it's just a 10 over game per side); players can choose from 1 or 2 innings of 10, 20, 50, 55, 60, 90 or unlimited overs. There's also a difficulty setting which has three levels to set the AI at. There's also the option on the main menu to play a Test Series which is already preconfigured, leaving players to simply choose their teams from the pool available (all test playing nations from 1995).

Gameplay is fairly simple for batting and bowling. Whilst at the crease, players choose their shot direction with the d-pad, and type of shot with the A button for a regular hit or the B button for a harder but more risky shot. For bowling, players aim a dot on the pitch, and then set the Power/Spin and Speed meters as desired. On the whole the simple gameplay dynamic works well and allows players to do as they wish whilst bowling and batting. Fielding is the only exception to this, as it's a little more complex but luckily there's an automatic fielding option to save any bother.

Graphically the looks very much more simple than later cricket games, but still manages to contain as much information and clues as are necessary for a fun game of cricket. The sound is a bit of a let down; I wasn't expecting commentary but complete silence until the crowd decides to applaud isn't that impressive either. Overall Brian Lara's Cricket is a decent game for the time, and a good stepping stone towards later cricket games.

Rating: 55/100
Grade: D

Game: FIFA Soccer 95
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: Extended Play Productions
Release Date: 1994

The second game in the now all too prolific FIFA series, and the only console exclusive instalment out of all 23 main series titles, FIFA '95 is an interesting look at football games of the past. While there's Action and Simulation modes, both play fairly similarly with the action focusing on rapidly shifting possession and long range attack rather than strategic plays and movement. It's certainly not the most serious of simulation football games ever; fouls can be turned off, and the cheats menu is only a few codes away, but this lends a sense of fun to the title.

Players can choose from playing a single game, a league, or a knockout tournament. The game features national teams and club sides from a surprisingly large number of countries for the time. As someone who remembers playing a Dreamcast game from 2000 with just 16 European teams, having complete leagues from France, Germany, England and more would have been quite the treat in 1994.

Gameplay can be a little chaotic at times as the ball is catapulted around the field from player to player between teams in search of the ball. There's not often too much of an opportunity to shoot as enemy players crowd you for the ball, often with an iron defence. The controls are fairly simple, though doing anything strategic or advanced might be a little more difficult. On the whole things are intuitive and easy enough to use.

Graphically the game features a good camera angle for the time; some games were still in overhead view, and others completely from the side, but this seems to work nicely. The sprites and players aren't as impressive as they could have been, but do their job well enough most of the time. Soundwise, the game is fairly average apart from the ability to spam your opponents with the word GOAL! and horns upon scoring. Overall FIFA 95 is a fun orientated football game, and that's the best way it could have been considering the technology of the time.

Rating: 62/100
Grade: C

Game: Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe
Console: Sega Mega Drive
Developer: The Bitmap Brothers
Release Date: 1991

Speedball 2 is a fantasy sports game, set in a future where the only sport is a violent and fast paced goalscoring game. Players compete for possession of the ball, which they then hold onto until their either pass, score or it's knocked out of their hands by the opposing team. The game is controlled with the d-pad and just one button, as all the mega drive joypad buttons have the same function in game. The button is pressed to pass, shoot, tackle, slide or do anything else that's possible.

Gameplay is difficult to process due to the high speed at which the action takes place. Only a small section of the pitch is displayed at any one time, so players can't prepare for hazards of any kind, nor strategize in order to get a shot on goal. It also feels like there are too many players on the pitch at any one time, so things get a little crowded.

The worst issue with this game is that the computer automatically swaps between players for you, so often you'll be running completely the wrong way before realising that there's been a swap, or worse score an own goal accidentally. There's an upgrade mechanic presented before and after games, but the format is incredibly convoluted and there's no way to tell whether what you're doing is right.

Graphically the game is okay, if a little basic. My main complaint is the amount of pitch on display at any one time; other than this there's not too much to worry about. Soundwise, there's some nice musical accompaniment, but nothing particularly exciting. Even after a few games of Speedball I wasn't exactly clear on the rules; scoring gives a team 10 points, but extra points are available for hitting targets at the side of the play area (I think).

Overall Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe offers what can definitely be called a fast paced and violent futuristic sports experience. It's probably some fun to play against humans as both players will struggle to get the game to do what they want, but with the AI there's no leniency at all. For me, this game was pretty much unenjoyable, though it might get better with a lot of practice, I simply don't have the time for that.

Rating: 45/100
Grade: D