I still cant help but shake the feeling that Im playing Dirt Track Racing.
Innovation is one complete word to describe the bonus gameplay. Nothing new is what would describe the career racing. The bonuses such as the high jump, which involves your driver being ejected from the car in order to get the best air, is tricky at first. As for sticking with it and trying to time it just right: not happening. Different variations can prevent from making it over the 100 yd mark. The human bowling is impossible for me for some reason. The darts, forget it. The destruction derby is something I wish they had as a seperate part of the game. I could spend all day in derby mode if it werent for the lackluster levels.
The career racing is frustrating at some points. It will take some people a few tries just to get that one turn right on a track. While others may breeze through it. The amount of objects to hit seems countless, and that can be irritating. Its also almost impossible to move around in derby mode because of all the debris left on the track that really shouldnt be there in the first place.
One major bothersome point is the amount of time it takes you to reset your car. It seems like minutes at first, and then it seems like 30 seconds. When in actuality, its 10 full seconds. Believe me, I timed it. Thats also 10 seconds that you may not have to get your car going and back into the lead.
The graphics reminded me completely of Dirt Track Racing 2. Some points I couldnt help but feel that I was playing the game. Until I wreck into something and get ejected completely. The ragdoll fizix look like they hurt! The dirt effects are repetitive, but honestly, who pays attention to the dirt? The cars look like junkyard cars, which is how they would look in real life. Many of the cars are unidentifiable, but some of them are real-world cars. Like the Speedevil is the GTO. The tracks are amazing and really well put together. Although some objects in the middle of a track dont need to be there. The wrecks are fantastic and the car damage looks almost real.
(If youve ever read one of my other reviews, I played on a 19 inch mono tv. That tv broke and now Im using a 7 inch tv with mono also.) The sound is kinda hard to hear but the music is awesome. Except for the Killer Barbies. Whoever gave them a recording contract, please explode. Im split on whether or not this game should have had custom soundtracks. The current soundtrack is well suited for this game. But gets awfully repetitive. They could have added more to the song list. The cars all have the sound of ones that are about to die on you. Old clunkers that can still pull their own weight.
Im not sure how long this game will last me, I rented it just tonight and have only reached the silver level in career mode. So it might only take me a week. If I had two controllers, Id invite a friend over and we'd just go at it in derby mode. But I dont, so I have to stick with the former.
All in all, this game has something that not many other racing games have: originality. And FUN. Thats seems to be a big missing factor in racing games today. In a genre full of monotonous street racing and sim-racing, its refreshing to have something like this game where half of it concerns the destruction of your car.