SBK'07 - Superbike World Championship Hands-On

In recent years, the high-performance bike racing genre has been well represented by the likes of THQ's MotoGP series and Polyphony Digital's Tourist Trophy. Now there's a new game in the works from Italian publisher Black Bean that focuses on the Superbike World Championship. While it may be one notch down from the MotoGP series, SBK'07 - Superbike World Championship is still massively popular.

The game is being positioned as something not just for fans of racing games, but something for real bike enthusiasts as well. Therefore, there are two game modes available--arcade and simulation--which should give everybody a comfortable level at which to play.

Regardless of which setting you choose, the racing options are all the same for each, and there are plenty of them. You can jump into a quick race, participate in a full race weekend or championship season, try to beat your fastest lap times in time attack, or attempt to complete some of the preset challenges.

The game makes good use of an official SBK license, which means that all of the tracks, teams, and riders from the 2007 season are represented with accurate layouts, liveries, and skill levels. Some of the teams or riders will be locked when you first play the game and will become accessible only after you've completed certain targets. This is represented by a series of cards, chosen at random, which open up some of the teams and riders, as well as videos of real-life racing and photos of the famous "brolley girl" models.

If you're familiar with racing games that copy real-life tracks, you will immediately recognise the likes of Monza, Magny-Cours, and Silverstone among those available. But there are also a decent number of tracks that are more or less well known. While learning the various layouts is less important when you're starting out, it is crucial if you want to get the most out of your ride.

If you're not such a serious racer, jumping into the arcade mode on any track is a relatively simple process. The game is forgiving at the lower levels of difficulty. Even if you've had no previous experience playing bike racing games, once you get used to the way that bikes handle in general, you should be able to string some decent laps together. Essentially, the racing is all about precision and consistency, sticking as far as possible to the racing line and choosing your braking points wisely. Of course, this does take a little time to get really good at, but the arcade mode seems to do a nice job of familiarising you with the basics.

The gear change between the arcade and the simulation mode is quite noticeable. And it's here that falling off your bike becomes a much more common event. SBK's intention seems to be to provide the two-wheeled equivalent of what SimBin has recently done for GT and Touring Car racing, giving the really dedicated racers of the genre an even greater racing challenge.

As well as basic aspects such as tyre wear and bike damage, you can toggle various driving aids, including powered brakes and automatic gears. If you try to play through even a practice session with all of the help switched off, you'll begin to understand just how hard it is to ride the bikes in real life. And that's just in the dry. The game includes a full wet-dry weather model, which translates into a really tough time just remaining seated. During the course of a season, the weather can change dramatically, and there's no doubt that wet races are much more difficult, even in arcade mode.

At this stage, the game is still a work in progress, but the graphics of the riders and environments are almost finished and look quite nice for a PlayStation 2 game. OK, they're not up to the standard of the Gran Turismos of this world, but the frame rate is smooth, and there's a good sensation of speed. There's also a pumping rock soundtrack to accompany the menu screens and a handful of relevant sound effects.

Controlling the bikes is straightforward, and the rumble sensation of the Dual Shock pad is effective at letting you know when you're on the edge. Getting used to the way that you need to lean into corners doesn't take too long, and the analog stick models it fairly well. There are also several camera views to choose from, including a couple of straightforward chase cams and some nice rider perspectives. These latter views do take some getting used to, but they give you a good sensation of speed and momentum.

Overall SBK'07 is shaping up quite nicely into a full-on bike racing game. There's still a fair amount of development time to come, and we'll have a lot more on this game before its May release. So, if you're a fan of bike games, keep checking back!