Somehow, somewhere, the PlayStation 2 port of RC Revenge Pro took a wrong turn. The original PlayStation version of the game, RC Revenge, pushed the system to its limit in terms of visuals and variety, while delivering a fun, albeit light, kart driving experience. Other than a few additional cars and tracks, the PS2 update is barely an improvement. In fact, thanks to a plethora of graphical problems, the flaws inherent to the game's overall presentation are much more apparent now.
On the surface, RC Revenge Pro appears to have the makings of an excellent kart-style racing game. The game boasts 19 different vehicles and 24 tracks, a tally that reaches 96 if you count every mirrored, reversed, and mirrored/reversed variation. All the expected standards of the genre are present. Control is slippery but responsive and forgiving. Cars turn on a dime, and there is a major emphasis on hand braking. The game's physics provide an amusing and bumpy game experience. Heavier cars are slower but don't spin out as often, while smaller vehicles give up stability and recovery in favor of raw speed. The game's 12 weapons range from simple items namely, rockets, heat rays, oil spills, and mines to more extravagant artillery, such as immunity shields, water bombs, shockwaves, and thunderstorms. You can only carry one weapon at a time, but there are plenty of item boxes spread throughout each track.
Once you actually get into a race, RC Revenge Pro quickly shows its limitations. Although there are eight increasingly difficult cups to earn in the game's championship mode, there's little to no challenge in getting them. CPU opponents tend to follow non-optimal preset routes through each course and only put up a fight in terms of weaponry, never through the exhibition of racing skill. Each course has a number of time-saving shortcuts to unearth, which is nice, but these same shortcuts also guarantee first place finishes once you ferret them out. As is common in games of this type, there is always one CPU opponent who takes a better route than the rest, and it is this one opponent with whom you'll constantly battle for first place. However, this competitor's propensity for greatness won't stave off your rise to the top. In roughly eight to 10 hours, you can, should, and will unlock all of the game's secrets.
A lack of difficulty isn't necessarily a bad thing, but to add insult to injury, RC Revenge Pro isn't terribly exciting either. Since you're usually pulling up last place or in firm hold over first, the constant jockeying with skilled opponents that you'd expect from a good kart game never materializes. Other than the usual first-lap battling, you'll rarely get to witness or put to use many of the game's power-ups. Coupled with a lack of nonpower-up abilities, such as jumping, turbo boosts, or zipper pads, RC Revenge Pro feels more like a remake of Micro Machines than it does the successor to Re-Volt. If you get bored of the game's championship, single-race, and time-trial modes, there's also a multiplayer option that lets two people race against CPU opponents. Combined with a remarkably full-featured track editor, this breathes some additional replay into the game. Smarter opponents or a battle mode would have been much nicer inclusions, though.
In addition to its subpar gameplay, RC Revenge Pro's visuals are reluctantly disappointing. On a pure design and charisma level, everything seems wonderful. The game's 24 tracks center on various themes, such as monster world, horror world, pirate world, or planet adventure. Each cup competition samples tracks from a number of these environments. For the most part, tracks are a pleasure to race on, replete with multiple paths, interactive obstacles, and a number of fun things to watch for, such as flying bats and sea monsters. Car and boat models are also whimsically detailed and do much to emphasize the game's lighthearted feel. Similarly, the game's power-ups add a visually pleasing twist to the game.
Beyond this smattering of kudos, the game has many graphical shortfalls. First, other than the addition of transparency effects and an increased level of background detail, overall texture quality is barely above that of the PlayStation version of the game. The overall polygon count seems a bit low as well, with caves, buildings, and hills exhibiting a cubic quality usually reserved for Nintendo 64 games. Oddly, the stages within the horror-world and pirate-world parks also exhibit a bizarre form of pixelation, as if you took a low-resolution video clip and stretched it to double the size. Compounding these issues, the amount of slowdown within each race is ridiculous. At any given point, the action seems to jut and jitter with little correlation to what's actually happening onscreen. Whether it's four or eight cars, no power-ups or a few, or just a cannonade from the pirate galleon, something, somewhere is going to make the game choppy.
RC Revenge Pro for the PS2 also borrows much of its audio from the PlayStation version of the game. As such, realistic engine noises, a paltry smattering of sound samples, and corny background music is about all you get. The one thing you don't get is oomph. It would have been nice if the developer had given each vehicle its own unique horn, engine, damage, and recovery sounds, but it didn't. There is some variation between large and small vehicles, but not much. The game also would have benefited greatly from an in-game race announcer, but there isn't one. What audio that is present is satisfactory, but altogether it is too plain compared to other PS2 racing games.
RC Revenge Pro isn't a bad game. In fact, despite its graphical and gameplay shortcomings, it can be a fun and wacky ride. The ride is short, however, and poorly suited to stand the test of time.
