There are a wide variety of cars for the player to drive (which doesn’t make sense given the fact that you yourself are supposed to be a car…), each with its own combination of weight, acceleration, speed, and handling. These attributes definitely make a difference, and each car that I tried felt different from the others. Regardless of what car you pick though, you’re still going to experience many moments of frustration. Even the sturdier cars tend to get pushed around by gentle nudges from opponents, with the slightest bump or scrape sending your car careening wildly out of control more often than not. Same goes for making contact with anything in the environment, which is easy to do given how many interactive items there are.
And then there are the jumps, where you never know how you’ll land. Sometimes you land fine, sometimes you land on your slide and slide down the track, and other times you’ll land and then bounce around wildly as you struggle to regain control. There are also various random moments when your car can get out of control for seemingly no reason, such as transitioning from one type of surface to another (even though they’re at the same height vertically).
In fact, it’s so easy to wreck or run off the course that the game actually uses one of the four face buttons (Circle) as a reset button, instantly transporting the player back onto the track. Even this is poorly implemented though, since the game will often place you back on the track in a less than ideal spot, such as facing an obstacle or teetering on the edge. Several times I had to consecutively reset my car three, four, or even five times in a row before it finally placed me back in a way that I could start racing again.
Pocket Racers also supports wireless play for up to four players, including regular races, Domination (tag objects as you race around the track), and Soccer (use your car to push around the ball and score). Since the single-player experience is such a failure and there’s no game sharing (despite the fact that these levels don’t appear to be large in size), as well as a lack of Internet play, it’s doubtful you’ll even find others willing to spend $20 of their own money to join in on the “fun”.
The techno-ish soundtrack is forgettable, and a little too sparse when spread out over 15 different courses with the same tunes repeatedly. The sound effects are similarly minimal, but do their job.
Bottom Line:
Pocket Racers’ terrible framerate, inane course design, sparse weaponry, and numerous driving inconsistencies make it a bad purchase even at $19.99.
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 2.9 |
Posted: 2006-12-18 11:37:31 PST