Truck Racing Double Header: Truck Racing 2 and Super Trucks

Game: Truck Racing 2
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Brain In a Jar
Release Date: 28th October 2005

For those of you familiar with Midas Interactive, I shouldn't have to explain too much more about this game. For those of you who aren't familiar with them however, imagine if 99p Stores were a video game publisher. As well as publishing the Simple Series in the UK market, they oversaw the making of far too many poor quality titles to list, with nearly their entire output being crappy budget games.

Truck Racing 2 is the sequel to Truck Racing on the Playstation, another Midas offering that I've not yet played. While there's no evidence to suggest that the original game is of particularly poor quality, the screenshots on the back of the box for Truck Racing 2 show trucks flying off the track at all angles, a lapse in quality that you wouldn't have thought they'd want to advertise. Upon booting the game, it's fairly obvious that the game engine and much of the game's content is shared with another Midas title; Golden Age of Racing (review here).

Golden Age of Racing suffered from a few gameplay issues; no amount of braking was ever enough to turn a corner (which makes a little more sense with trucks), and collisions were always oddly hilarious with the small racing cars flying up into the sky. Truck Racing 2 shares these issues and more, with collisions looking all the more ridiculous thanks to larger vehicles, and the ability to get stuck in the floor (as shown above) which I achieved within the first 10 minutes of playing.

If this wasn't a Midas Interactive game, I'd have been shocked at the sheer cynicism of repackaging an existing game with different vehicles and selling it again, but the fact that this game includes most of the courses, physics and assets from Golden Age of Racing is to be expected of Midas. I'm just sorry that there's not any further hilarity to be had with new glitches or issues. The main modes of the game are Championship and Challenge; a few race series, and a best lap competition, both as frustrating as the other given the handling featured in the game.

Graphically the game is fairly poor with low resolution tracks, backgrounds, crowd effects and trucks. It's a struggle to maintain a decent frame-rate, and crashing trucks only slows the game down further. The sound is pretty average and will soon be drowned out by laughter when one truck sends another off into space, only to land out of bounds and get stuck in the floor. There's a relaxing track featured on the menu screen, which I'd say is the best part of the game.

Overall Truck Racing 2 is a poor game when taken as a standalone and a lazy re-use of a game engine when considered within Midas's release schedule. The amount of fun that can be had with this title is minimal unless you're planning to exploit all of its bugs with a friend, and even then there's really not much content.

Rating: 30/100
Grade: E

Game: Super Trucks
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Jester Interactive
Release Date: 29th October 2003

Released almost a full two years before Truck Racing 2, Super Trucks was an officially licensed game of the FIA European Truck Racing Championship which continues to this day. With a good choice of licensed trucks and their drivers, the game beats Truck Racing 2 with it selection, despite some being locked at the start of the game. The modes available are still somewhat lacking though as Arcade is a long string of races with a target position for each, and Championships range from a 3 race, 3 lap series with 5 opponents to the full championship schedule once unlocked.

The handling featured in the game is far better than that of Truck Racing 2, with most corners being easy to tackle with just a little braking. There's a little bit of drift if corners are taken too fast, but overall the steering feels slightly too loose for such big trucks being raced. The collision physics are probably the worst aspect as there's no real impact when trucks collide, and it's too easy to be spun out from the back by an AI opponent.

With many real world tracks featured in the game, there's a great variety of layouts to experience and some will really test players ability to handle such a large vehicle. Another interesting feature is the brake cooling meter which shows players the temperature of their brakes, which increases each time they're used and can be decreased by pressing the L2 button to release water, cooling them. In longer races this must be used strategically in order to avoid overheating the brakes and thus being able to corner less effectively.

The AI in the game aren't the most intelligent and will frequently go off course or bunch up on the corners in an odd way. This makes most of the racing too easy for players to win as getting past the AI clusters will save a lot of time. With a maximum of 10 trucks on track at any given time, there's a good sense of exciting racing though, and the frame rate isn't as affected by having to render more trucks as you might think.

Graphically the game looks dated to modern eyes, but at the time of its release wouldn't have been too bad at all. Compared to Truck Racing 2 it looks a lot sharper and more realistic, especially the trucks and circuits featured within the game. Unfortunately there's not a lot to hear music-wise, despite the fact that tracks play behind the racing action. If there'd been a few more songs, I probably wouldn't have minded as much, but turning the music down in the options menu is a must.

Overall Super Trucks isn't an amazing racing game by any means, but there's far more of a sense of controlling a large truck than with any other truck racing game I've played, it's fully licensed with a good range of tracks, trucks and drivers, and the championships are a legitimate if slightly boring progression through the game, which Truck Racing 2 sorely lacks.

Rating: 62/100
Grade: C

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

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

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games): Day 12/Fighters Month - Spectral vs Generation

Game: Spectral vs Generation
Console: Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Idea Factory
Release Date: 30th March 2007

There seems to be very little information available regarding what this particular game is based on. Certainly there's influence from anime and other video games produced by Idea Factory, apparently two series in particular; Spectral Force and Generation of Chaos, which are part of a label called Neverland. There are also various other game releases which range from fighting games to RPGs and strategy titles featuring characters from this crossover.

From what's revealed of the story in cutscenes, each fighter has different reasons for wanting to eliminate the others, most of which involve thinking that other fighters are using "demon swords". The boss fight once all other characters have been defeated seems to always be against an incredibly powerful godlike creature called Earth, who is strangely a selectable character from the start of the game.

The gameplay seems to be a mix of  different games, resembling Street Fighter games most closely in the 2D cartoon style and controls, with elements of Soul Calibur (most characters have some sort of weapon), and perhaps other anime based fighting games. Fighting is fairly fast and responsive, with each of the face buttons controlling a different type of move, and quarter turns used for special moves and combos.

The difficulty is generally good, with no real challenge in getting to the boss fight. The fight itself however can be tricky, as Earth is overpowered and has many health-draining special moves. It's certainly less tricky than most Street Fighter games, though. On the whole the action is somewhat tedious, with no real flow or skill to moves and combos, but the combat does at least work as you'd expect it to.

Graphically the game is good; both by the PSP's standards and in general; characters are well drawn and animated, and you'd have a hard time convincing me that this was actually published by Midas in the UK. The music is a pretty generic rock accompaniment to fights, but it fits well enough and doesn't get repetitive enough to grate on players.

Overall Spectral vs Generation is a mediocre fighting game at best, giving players a sense of playing Street Fighter, without the speed customisation options, wide choice of characters or interesting character motivations. It's by far one of the best games Midas has ever had a hand in publishing, and I could recommend it without feeling too sorry for whoever had to play it, but it's nowhere near classic as a fighter.

Rating: 63/100
Grade: C

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games): Day 10/Fighters Month: Battle Construction Vehicles

BCV: Battle Construction Vehicles
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Artdink
Release Date: 28th November 2003

While strange game concepts and budget Japanese developers are nothing new to Midas's publishing library, I draw the line at a fighting game for construction vehicles. With a 16 stage story mode, 15 playable characters, and 20 special attacks, Battle Construction vehicles seems to have a lot to offer. The characters featured in the game are drawn in an anime style, with both animations and still pictures used in cutscenes.

The plot itself is pretty contrived and pads itself out with ridiculous attempts at humour, irrelevant events and any other excuses it can make for a 'Construction Vehicle Battle' to occur. The dubbed voice acting in story sequences is of very low quality, and the faux British accents only serve to make things worse. Every now and then there are even grammatical errors in the large sequences of text between battles.

Battles always take place inside of a fairly small (compared to the vehicles themselves) construction site arena, with many obstacles which only serve to get in the way whenever they can. The turning circle of almost every vehicle is absurdly large, making it hard to execute any real strategy. After almost completing the game I'm still unaware of what the controls exactly are; the d-pad is used for movement, but sometimes stops working and seems to boost at random. The X button is used for a defensive move which brings girders out of the ground, and the remaining face buttons are supposedly used for attacks, although I can't say they ever seemed to work for me.

Special attacks can be used sometimes, but they seem to be available randomly as I pulled one off once without even touching the controller. These special attacks darken the screen so that only the vehicles are visible before pulling off all manner of strangely themed moves which seem to do less damage than you'd anticipate. Every now and then, enemies are also able to regain some of their health, which can be annoying. All in all, battles are won almost randomly as very little strategy can be used; especially towards the end of the game.

Graphically the game is fairly poor for PS2 standards, despite the fact that it comes on a DVD-ROM, unlike most Midas games. The cutscenes and animated parts do look decent, however. There's nothing of note musically to accompany battles, and even if there was, the sounds of crunching metal and badly dubbed Japanese men would soon drown it out.

Overall Battle Construction Vehicles has a badly thought out plot, poor core gameplay, horrific controls and an almost laughable concept. The most enjoyable part of the game is being amused at its utter absurdity, but past this I can see no reason why it should have ever been released. This has to be a candidate for worst game idea ever.

Rating: 21/100
Grade: F

12 Days of Midas (and other Budget games): Day 9 - Super Slammin' Dodgeball

Game; Super Slammin' Dodgeball
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Access
Release Date: 2001

As the only entry in the 12 Days of Midas to be from the Simple Series, you might expect Super Slammin Dodgeball to be slightly worse than even the most hideous budget games featured so far. At first glance that definitely appears to be the case, with mediocre cartoon images featured on the box art and menus, and a choice of Single Game, Tournament and Tutorial modes available from the main menu.

As tutorial mode is literally a slideshow of images detailing the game's controls, and Single Game mode is essentially playing just the first round of a Tournament mode game, it's safe to say that there's not a great deal of content included. Even the options menu has a pitiful amount of things to fiddle with, difficulty being the only one that affects gameplay in any way.

Gameplay follows the general rules of Dodgeball in that any player hit by the ball without catching it is out of the game. Catching a throw doesn't result in elimination, however and players often cross the centre line of the court without consequence. The strangest change to the rules is the inclusion of three players from each team along the sides of the court who are also able to eliminate opposing players with their throws, but don't need to be eliminated in order to win a match. I can only assume these players were included in order to speed up gameplay and eliminate the need for rules regarding out of bounds throws.

The controls are simple and allow for anyone to quickly master the game, but this also means that there's no advanced strategies to use. Beating the game is fairly straightforward; players must win 6 games to become champions and then play a final game against "The Elementals" who appear to be a race of alien Dodgeball players, to become the best team in the world. Once the game has been beaten once, players can play as The Elementals.

Graphically the game uses 2D sprites which while more primitive than other games of the time is probably a good decision as budget games never really got the hang of good looking 3D graphics. The art style is bearable, and although there's a lot of reused sprites throughout the game, there's a strange Mega Drive era feel to the visuals. The music behind gameplay doesn't really fit the action in any way, but its better than complete silence.

Overall while the Dodgeball action is generally enjoyable in a flash game sort of way, the lack of depth and unlockable content cripples the game's replayability. I felt like I'd experienced everything the game had to offer after 20 minutes or so, in which time I'd completed Tournament mode twice. Perhaps with a little more to do, and some deeper strategy, this could have been a hidden gem, but that's a lot to expect from a Midas published title.

Rating: 38/100
Grade: E

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

Simple Series Quality Test: Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 vs Rollercoaster World

Game: Rollercoaster Tycoon 3
Console: PC
Developer: Frontier Developments
Release Date: 26th October 2004

As one of my enduring favourites in the 'tycoon' series of games, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 has many fun features and enjoyable aspects, whereas games which attempt to imitate its success without even putting in half as much effort do not. In this double header review I'll first take a look at RCT3 and what makes it fun, and then assess whether or not Rollercoaster World, published by Midas Interactive quite lives up to the same standard.

In Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, players attempt to either build a successful theme park within a specific scenario with cash, theme and time limitations, or  play in sandbox mode where money is no object, and players can go about building anything they like. There are many preset buildings and park features that can be selected and placed, such as gift stands, thrill rides, scenery, preset rollercoasters and even smaller items such as bins, plants and themed items. In addition to this, rollercoasters and park transit rides can be custom designed by players, to pretty much any specification they'd like.

The game screen may seem a little cluttered with options on first glance, but there's a lot of options which need to be accessible when designing parks. At the top of the screen, information is displayed about the time of day, general mood of guests, the current financial situation and speed of the game. The options at the side allow players to check the park's finances, staff, rides and other stats, as well as build new coasters, rides, attractions or park features. Each of these menus has various submenus for themeing and different kinds of options.

The bubble in the bottom left appears when players are placing paths or building a new rollercoaster, and allows various options to be changed. Guests will generally only walk in areas where paths are laid, allowing players to direct them through the park in a sense. In the bottom right bubble, options for the selected ride are available such as opening or closing it, pricing information, the colour of its cars and track, stats and break down information. There's a lot of detail featured in the game, but it serves to allow players to make better decisions in scenario modes.

The scenarios featured in the game are interesting, and worth a try if that's your sort of thing. Personally I prefer to play in sandbox mode and create whatever I can think up, both in terms of parks and rollercoasters. Players are given a huge area to build their park in, and although there are height limits, they're pretty extreme and you're not likely to hit them unless you're trying to. There's several types of coasters to choose from, and almost anything is possible with the creation tool.

The business simulation aspects of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 are also enjoyable; better parks attract more guests, and advertising campaign or getting awards also contribute to the number of people passing through. Players are able to click on any guest they wish to see their thoughts about the park and rides they've been on. The hiring and firing of staff for the park is another aspect of gameplay (especially in scenario mode); entertainers or park officials who are in a bad mood may have a negative influence on guest moods also.

One of the best and most charming aspects of Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 is the ability to ride the rollercoasters you've created in a first person view. There's some fun to be had in attempting to copy a real world coaster and then seeing how well it matches up. The build mode is well balanced; it's not so freeform that building a functional rollercoaster is difficult, but it's not so rigid that every creation seems to be similar either.

Another great feature of the game is the ability to plan events such as fireworks displays, at a certain time of the day in any part of your park. Coupled with the themed rides, objects and scenery, this makes for a good way to personalise your park. Each time I've played the game, I've been able to explore different ideas, layouts and ride possibilities, which is hugely important to replayability.

Graphically the game looks very nice, with a mix between cartoon styles up close and a more realistic look when zoomed out. The menus are clearly laid out and although sometimes it can take a bit of digging to find the required options, this is only due to the large amount of variables. The day/night cycle is a nice touch, especially for players wanting to emulate "Fright Nights" with a horror theme. Musically the game features an upbeat accompaniment to park building and overseeing events while allowing players to experience the atmosphere when zoomed in. These combine to provide a general feeling of excitement.

Overall Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 has all the content, options and design tools to give players a huge amount of control over how their theme park turns out. Whether playing to the limitations of scenario mode in an attempt to run a successful park or just building the park of your dreams, the game has all of the tools needed to shape a unique and personal experience. There's not much more you could ask for from a theme park building simulation game.

Rating: 78/100
Grade: B

Game: Rollercoaster World
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Bimboosoft
Release Date: 21st May 2004

And so to Rollercoaster World; surely even a simplified version of RCT3 would be the best game I've played in the Simple Series so far. Well, just like Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 there are 2 main modes; Challenge Mode and Management Mode. They're somewhat different to Scenario and Sandbox mode, however. Challenge Mode has players designing different types of rollercoasters to meet certain speed, thrill and safety ratings, in a sort of grid based view, while Management mode is a little more like RCT3, though not a lot.

There are 5 challenges in total in Challenge Mode, each with its own type of rollercoaster to construct. Players must stay within certain height and turn angle restrictions while building in a strange quadruple view; showing the coaster from above, beside, onboard and another view which I couldn't quite get my head around. Once the track reaches the station players may test their creation, and if the car gets back to the station they're then scored against the target ratings to see if the level has been passed.

Needless to say, this mode is pretty shallow with only 5 challenges, as well as being restrictive in terms of what can be built, and not a lot of fun. After quite a few tries, I wasn't able to get past the second challenge and so decided to give "Management Mode" a go. After a fairly long and boring tutorial (there's one for Challenge mode, but it's shorter), players are allowed to place attractions and custom rollercoasters in a style vaguely resembling RCT3, but there's no real depth to anything as the burger stands, restrooms, arcades and other attractions cannot be interacted with by guests.

Even guests themselves can't be viewed from the overhead mode and require players to change to "Free Walk" view to be seen. It's not worth the effort though as in this mode, despite being able to walk around the park as you please, everything is a low resolution 2D picture. Attractions, scenery, facilities and guests alike are blurred, immobile and generally unimpressive. There's some element of being able to earn money for guests entering your park in Management Mode, but it's really not worth it when you can't see, hear or get feedback from them.

The only thing the game does seem to have going for it is the ability to ride the rollercoasters you've created, just like in RCT3. It's just a shame that the camera is far shakier and the action far less exciting. Graphically, nearly everything else is a low resolution 2D image and even the few things that aren't could have been rendered on the original Playstation. The music featured in the game is annoying and repetitive.

Overall Rollercoaster World can hardly even be called a Rollercoaster Tycoon clone, due to the gap in quality. Neither Challenge Mode nor Management Mode has any hint of excitement, and the "Quickride" Modes where players can see the sort of coasters they can make almost seems to be taunting me with the type of creations it claims are possible. Yet again a Simple Series game fails miserably at something which should have been easy to emulate.

Rating: 30/100
Grade: E

Pinball Games Roundup

Recently I've noticed rather a lot of pinball games in my collection, so what better way to review them than with a cross-console comparison roundup? There's a good spread of eras, starting with the NES and if you're really into your pinball games, I've already covered Pokemon Pinball and Sonic Spinball in a review.

Game: Pinball
Console: Nintendo Entertainment System
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 18th October 1985

By no means the first pinball game (the Atari 2600, Intellivision and probably several other consoles had one), Pinball on the NES is the first to my knowledge that could be defined as genuinely enjoyable. While it's still pretty basic and visually unimpressive, the core gameplay and table features are in place to make an interesting pinball table. There's a choice of 2 game modes, A and B, the difference being that A has floatier and less challenging ball physics than B which seems to be for more experienced players.

Although there's only one table to play it, it's full of features including a slot machine style bonus display, a multiplier button, targets, cards to turn into a royal flush, and chicks which can be used to gain extra ball savers for the sides of the table. The control is decent in both modes, although I personally prefer Mode A as it usually leads to a longer game.

Graphically the game is very simple, but it's possible to see all that's happening and each feature of the table is clearly laid out. The music of the menu screen is pretty average, and the sound effects in-game are standard NES fare. Overall this is at the very least playable, and could possibly provide an hour or two of fun for players, though there's not a huge amount to do as there's only one table on which to play.

Rating: 34/100
Grade: E

Game: Psycho Pinball

Console: Sega Mega Drive

Developer: Codemasters

Release Date: 1994

Psycho Pinball ups the stakes for the 16 bit era by providing 4 different pinball tables, sub games, mini games and speed/difficulty options to suit every player. The table themes are wild west, underwater, halloween and amusement park. While the first three are played as single table games, the amusement park table can provides access to any of the other three through tents which transport the player's ball to its destination table. This can be a fun feature to chain together many turns, as long as the player has the skill to actually get to another table.

Controlling the main game is simple, as the left direction button and C are used for the left and right flippers respectively. When a sub game is initiated, it's usually controlled with the A, B and C buttons, and can range from a shell game, where players must guess what cup an object is under, to a game of skill where players must catch ghosts. The final type of control is used for the minigames which are much more elaborate than the subgames, and require regular platforming controls. All aspects of the game control fairly well and at no point does it feel unintuitive. 

Graphically the game is colourful and in somewhat of a cartoon style; the design gives a good overall atmosphere to the game and links each of its tables together well. The music of the game is very enjoyable and adds a lot of character; each table has its own theme which reflects its theme. My only complaint of this game would be that aside from the minigames, all players can try to do is get a high score; there's no bonus goals, objectives or unlocks to keep one's interest.

Overall this is an enjoyable, if slightly shallow pinball game, with a small but interesting range of tables and minigames. The amount of options offered is a nice bonus, with everything from Slow to Psycho speed. While there wasn't much like it around at the time of its release, I'm sure there are better pinball games to come in this review.

Rating: 61/100
Grade: D

Game: 3D Ultra Pinball 2: Creep Night
Console: PC
Developer: Sierra
Release Date: 23rd September 1996

Creep Night was the first Pinball game I played as a child, as a demo of the game had been included on some educational software I had. The game has a horror theme and features goblins, ghouls, skeletons and more over its three tables; Castle, Tower and Dungeon. All 3 play fairly similarly as the object of each is to complete 5 tasks, assigned to the player once the ball is accurately hit into a series of gates. While this may sound complex, it's not particularly hard to do.

One of the main draws of this game is the amount of extra bonuses and areas there are on each table; the castle alone features 3 sets of flippers as well as a singular one on the left hand side. There's also plenty of targets, doors and other things to hit, in addition to the 5 tasks required which range from protecting your ball from a wraith to squashing zombies, to chasing a goblins on an atv. The amount of imagination that seems to have gone into designing this is impressive.

Graphics are probably the game's weakest area overall as most textures and effects look fairly dated. It's still easy to see what needs to be hit, but an HD remake of the game wouldn't go amiss. The musical accompaniment to Creep Night is stellar and forms a lot of the game's uniqueness. The mischievous feel to the theme of the castle level hints at the coming chaos brought about by all manner of monsters and ghosts.

Overall Creep Night hasn't aged particularly well as a game; it's three tables seem pretty similar to each other and the graphics could easily be improved. At times the ball feels as if it magnetically gravitates towards certain items which may help or hinder the player. Despite this, the gameplay, music and design of the tables are still enjoyable and hold at least an hour or two of fun for players who are new to the game. If you're into 90s PC games, then this is definitely a game to check out, otherwise it's an interesting curiosity.

Rating: 64/100
Grade: C

Game: True Pinball
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Digital Illusions
Release Date: September 1996

True Pinball features 4 different tables which can be played in 3D or from a top down view, and feature police, baywatch, extreme sports and viking themes respectively. Each table is fairly small and most feature a lot of ramps and ball runs, with a few minigames here and there. Overall they're not as exciting as the tables of Creep Night or Psycho Pinball.

Controlwise, the game is a little strange; the right d-pad button is used to control the left flipper, and the square button is used for the right flipper. While this isn't too hard to get used to, it'd be nice if players could redefine the controls as desired. Each turn seems to be significantly shorter than most pinball games also, with some only lasting around 20 seconds, despite players best efforts to keep the pinball in play. When playing in top down mode, the ball seems to move far faster than it does in 3D mode which, when added to the scrolling effect makes gameplay even harder.

Graphically the game looks nice, especially for an original Playstation game. There are bright colours and nicely detailed graphics on each table. The music which accompanies gameplay is different for each theme and most, if not all music is enjoyable and fits well with its table. Besides getting a high score on each table, there's not a lot more to do in the game, nor anything to unlock which means there's not a great deal of replay value either.

Overall True Pinball may have featured impressive graphics and gameplay for its time on the original Playstation, but to me it feels devoid of many features and its tables feel far too restrictive for fun gameplay. Of course if you're into pinball games then it's worth a go, but if you're searching for the most fun pinball game out there, it's safe to give this a miss.

Rating: 54/100

Grade: D

Game: 3D Ultra Pinball 3: The Lost Continent
Console: PC
Developer: Sierra
Release Date: 1997

The sequel to Creep Night Pinball, The Lost Continent boasted 15 tables worth of pinball excitement as well as a fully fledged story adventure to accompany gameplay. In terms of control and play style, the game is similar to its predecessor and generally features target areas which the pinball needs to be hit into, and minigames which require the player to do a little more than in Creep Night, often using the same controls as the main pinball sections to navigate paths, shoot dinosaurs and more.

Unfortunately it's not all good news; there are three sections to the game and the first table of each section is a large and fairly difficult one. Assuming players are able to progress, the next four tables are far smaller and feature easier goals, acting more as mini-tables and objectives than a fully different table. The best way to experience the game (or so I found) was to play in Practice mode, and work through each table that way, otherwise it was too easy to run out of lives attempting to beat the first level.

Graphically the game is a little more impressive than Creep Night, but retains some of the 90s PC game feel in its visuals. The music isn't quite up to the standard of the catchy tunes of Creep Night either, but there's some solid tracks, and the voice acting that's included isn't terrible. Although it's not easy to play through the game as intended, even playing the levels in the correct order in practice mode allows the player to view how nicely the story ties everything together into more of a pinball/adventure game.

Overall the enjoyment of this game comes from both the pinball aspects and completing minigames which allow the player to progress. Although pinball purists (they must exist somewhere) won't be impressed by the smaller, shorter tables, I think that they add a far more exciting adventurous feel to the game than if it had just been 3 tables, as Creep Night was. If you're looking for something more than just a pinball game, this is recommended.

Rating: 70/100
Grade: C

Game: Pro Pinball: Timeshock
Console: PC
Developer: Empire Interactive
Release Date: 30th September 1997

Pro Pinball: Timeshock features one fast paced table with a time travel theme, in addition to several minigames and modes. The object of the game is to get the high score as usual, however exploring various continents, visiting different time periods and completing dot matrix minigames are also secondary aims which contribute towards getting the high score, and players completion of these is displayed after each ball is lost.

Table features include several ramps, a crystal in the centre, a multi-ball storage and distribution system on the left, and the dot matrix style screen which displays minigames. These range from controlling a minecart and collecting "awards" to climbing up Mount Rushmore; some games are controlled via the flipper keys and others progress according to the events happening on the pinball table itself.

Graphically the game looks very sharp and crisp in its detail and seems to be well ahead of its time, compared to home consoles. There's a different musical theme for each time period as well as some bonus themes, all of which are fast paced and enjoyable. Although the overall difficulty may seem a little high at first, it's easy to build up a lot of bonus points and rewards from minigames and objectives.

Overall while Timeshock only features one table, compared to Creep Night's 3, or The Lost Continent's 15, the table featured is of high quality and was designed to excite players. This doesn't quite make up for the lack of variety once you're used to the table itself, but with great music and graphics, coupled with the fast paced action of the game, there's still a lot of enjoyment for those who enjoy pinball.

Rating: 66/100
Grade: C

Game: Pro Pinball: Big Race USA

Console: PC

Developer: Empire Interactive

Release Date: 31st December 1998

Big Race USA unsurprisingly plays very similarly to Timeshock, as they're both in the same series. The table has as many if not more features and the graphics has received quite an upgrade also. There are more settings including difficulty, table angle, flipper strength and appearance of wear and tear which are nice to see, even if games are usually played on the default settings.

Despite matching Timeshock for features, I found the action to be less interesting and mainly centred on one or two parts of the table. This table was also harder to pick up than some others, requiring a quick read of the rules before starting to gain an understanding of what could be done in its two modes; In The City, and On The Road. Despite the ability to move between cities whilst playing, after the first two or three it began to feel rather samey. 

Graphically the game is slightly better than Timeshock, which is impressive; the level of detail and reflections in the pinball itself give some extra polish to the visuals. Musically I found that the game struggled, playing tunes and voice clips twice as fast as they should have been, resulting in a strange low quality sound most of the time, though this could have just been my computer.

Overall Big Race USA isn't a bad pinball table/game, but it does suffer from monotony at times. The graphics are the biggest draw, though gameplay is also fun for a while. Of the four games included in the Valuesoft Pinball 4-pack (the 4 PC games in this review), I'd say that I enjoyed it the least.

Rating: 60/100
Grade: D

Game: Pinball Power
Console: Sony Playstation
Developer: Littlewing
Release Date: 1st September 2000

While the PC pinball games in this review seem to have had decently sized budgets, Pinball Power is the first budget game of the roundup. With just 2 tables, a Knights of the Round Table theme, and RPG elements it's an interesting idea that doesn't ever really take off. In each table there are objectives to complete, most of which are as simple as hitting a certain part of the table. Once an objective is complete, the table enters multi ball mode for a brief period, allowing players to score more points.

The controls for the game are pretty sound; the left button on the d-pad controls the left flipper, and the circle button controls the right flipper. The ball feels as if it moves too slowly to replicate proper physics, and there are often awkward pauses when the table holds onto the ball for longer than you'd expect. High scores are easy to achieve, and there's no real challenge to the game as a whole.

Graphically the game doesn't look too bad, but I'm not a huge fan of the decision to block half the screen with an information banner, as the play area is significantly smaller because of this. The music that accompanies gameplay is fairly generic and doesn't fit particularly well with the Camelot style that the game purports to have, though in truth neither does the first table.

Overall the game doesn't play particularly well or fast; the only real enjoyment comes from multiball mode. Everything else about it is decidedly average and to be expected of a budget game. There's very little to do on each table and it ends up being about as exciting as pinball on the NES, only with much better options available from the same time period.

Rating: 30/100
Grade: E

Game: Kiss Pinball

Console: Sony Playstation

Developer: Take 2 Interactive

Release Date: 25th April 2001

2 and a bit years after the release of Big Race USA came Kiss Pinball, a Playstation pinball game based on the band "Kiss". Featuring 2 tables and extremely fast paced gameplay, the game uses a top down 2D style rather than the 3D style of most modern pinball games. Especially considering the large time gap between this and the PC games/True Pinball, you'd have expected Take 2 (who were about to release GTA III in the same year). 

There are four game modes offered on each table; Novice, Regular, Arcade and Tournament and these change the number of balls players are allowed, how long the ball saver is on for, and random effects on the table. Unfortunately due to the speed of the game the only real useful mode is Novice, which allows the ball saver to be on for quite a long time, otherwise games last all of 2 minutes, with each pinball quickly heading out of play. This isn't just a skill issue either, the game is incredibly difficult to play at the speed given.

The two tables are fairly varied but don't feature nearly as much to do as the Timeshock or Big Race USA tables, leaving players to hit the same few targets over and over again. Graphically, the game isn't up to scratch, looking as if it could have easily been on the Super Nintendo. The music isn't bad, though it isn't licensed kiss tunes, but rather generic rock n roll. 

Overall Kiss Pinball is pretty poor; without the Kiss theme you'd be left with a tepid pinball game that's hard to control and doesn't even feature that much to do. Unless you're a mega Kiss fan, I can't see a reason to even play, let alone own this. There's far better pinball games out there, and I'd rather play anything else. 

Rating: 31/100

Grade: E

Game: Play it! Pinball

Console: Sony Playstation 2

Developer: Play it

Release Date: 10th November 2003

Featuring 11 unlockable tables, challenge and freeplay modes, and an american theme, Pinball by Play It seems to offer a little more than your average budget game. Table themes vary from Baseball to Cowboys to Space Exploration, all with a nice amount of features and unique twists, though remaining fairly straightforward in comparison to Creep Night and Timeshock. The gameplay is solid although the ball can seem to travel slowly a lot of the time. 

Challenge mode sets players a target on a set table, which when surpassed will unlock another table and target in its place. The first 8 tables or so are fairly easy and hold a decent level of challenge on the whole, but after this things get rather difficult due to new features which make scoring harder. In all the time I've owned this game, I don't think I've managed to get past a certain point because of this.

Graphically the game is bright and cartoonish, but lacking detail in places. It's never too difficult to see where the ball is on the table, but some targets and features can be hard to spot. The music chosen to go behind the game seems to have been inspired by the american theme, with 50s and 60s style swing and blues music accompanying the action. This helps the game achieve a retro feel and portray the age of pinball popularity a little better.

Overall while it still feels a little budget in places, Play It Pinball provides a good level of challenge, progression and variety to pinball gaming. The controls and tables are good, though the ball speed and graphics could be improved a little. If you're looking for a cheap, varied game then this is probably your best bet. 

Rating: 74/100

Grade: B

Game: Pinball Fun
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: HuneX
Release Date: 25th June 2004

With some of the frankly mediocre titles already featured in this roundup, you may wonder what sort of things a Simple Series game could do to be even worse. For those that don't know, the Simple Series is a set of around 150 Playstation games which were developed on the cheap and released by D3 Publisher in Japan. Some of these were then localised and brought to Europe by Midas Interactive or barely localised and brought to Europe by 505 Gamestreet. This game falls into the latter category.

There are 3 pinball tables to choose from; Attack the Dragon (an RPG theme), Love Songs/Idols (a dating sim theme), and Operation Thunder Storm (a generic action theme). Each of these tables is as desolate as the next, featuring at most 8 things to hit, and no real direction as to what players should be doing. Taking the Dragon Attack table as an example, players must hit a target 6 or more times to bring out a dragon which must then be hit a few times, in multiball mode. Once this has happened, it disappears and the process begins again.

Graphically the game is incredibly poor and could probably have been handled easily by the original Playstation. Textures are low resolution and detail, and there's very little in the way of effects. The music featured is a very short loop for each table, and really isn't anything special. The control isn't that bad, but as there's nothing much to aim at, it may as well not be.

Overall this is the least complete pinball game I've played, despite featuring 3 tables. Pinball for the NES at least had interesting features and things to do; there's a complete lack of that in this game. I've come to expect the worst of the worst from 505 Gamestreet published Simple Series games, but this really is a poorly translated, horribly designed, badly programmed piece of trash.

Rating: 5/100
Grade: F

Game: Gottlieb Pinball Classics
Console: Sony Playstation 2/Sony Playstation Portable
Developer: Farsight Studios
Release Date: 26th July 2006

Owning a game on two platforms is often interesting as there are differences between the two versions that can make them better or worse than their counterparts. In the case of Gottlieb Pinball classics however, there's very little difference between the two versions, so for the majority of this review, I'll be talking about the PS2 and PSP versions as the same thing. Both games give players a choice of 10 tables, based on real tables manufactured between 1932 and 1993.

Because the tables are based on real world models, gameplay on most, if not all of them are enjoyable due to the different features and themes on display. The game uses the shoulder buttons to control the flippers, with the analog sticks being used to control the plunger and tilt functions. The pinball feels slightly too light at times, which is disappointing from a game calling itself "The Most Accurate Simulation of all Time" on the cover.

Graphically the game is impressive both on the PS2 and PSP, although the home console version has the upper hand when comparing them directly. All of the tables are bright and interesting and feature good themeing and variety. Musically the game is bearable, save for the pseudo "Pinball Wizard" theme on the menu, which made me wish they'd just licensed the song if they had wanted it so badly, instead of teasing at the chords of it.

Overall Gottlieb Pinball classics acts as a museum for classic pinball tables, which can be played in a selection of different modes. While I feel that this sort of pinball suits handheld games consoles better than home consoles, the slight improvement in graphics and frame rate on the PS2 version mean that both are fairly matched.

Rating: 71/100
Grade: C

In conclusion there's a wide range of pinball games on offer, across a large range of consoles. The best games seem to have a variety of feature packed tables, or at least consistently good themeing, and great gameplay. Surprisingly a budget title came out on top, as Play It! Pinball received the highest score, but it was able to set itself apart from other budget pinball titles in this roundup by offering the best gameplay.