Indy 500

Game.com

Review by Matt Paprocki

Tiger

Racing

Graphics: 3

Sound: 4

Gameplay: 1.5

Overall: 2


Ah yes, the racing game....a must for every console. What better way to show off the power of your companies new console than with such a demanding genre? The Game.com, well, doesn't exactly have much power and what better way to prove it than with a racing game?

Ok, let's make this one quick, much like the races portrayed in this game. You'll start by picking one of three cars, each with their own stats ranging from grip, speed and acceleration. There are also weather effects which include sunny or rainy. You'll proceed immediately to the track for a time trial. Up until this point, everything goes smoothly with lots of voice samples making it seem like an arcade experience. The actual racing portion of the game leaves so much to be desired, it's not even worth pressing start.

First and foremost, racing games need a decent sense of speed, not just a speedometer that tells how fast you're supposedly going. There is none in this game. Making things even worse, there is no scaling effect and seeing more than five feet ahead of you at any one point isn't possible. The clouds look like they protrude from the end of the track which is an unintentionally hilarious effect for the two people who enjoy playing bad video games.

Since you can't see more than five feet ahead of you, the designers have added arrows which warn you of the upcoming left turn. The more arrows, the harder the turn. Hit detection is spotty at best so you'll never know if you're going to hit the wall or not. Rear ending other cars either slows you down or spins you out on a completely random basis. Switching between the two available views actually affects the collision detection which makes no sense whatsoever.

Racing games don't get much worse than this. So many basic factors that are required in today's racing games are missing. Actually, many of the features required in yesterdays racing games are missing as well. Stick with Pole Position, it's at least 12.5 times better than this steaming pile.

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Last updated: Saturday, June 18, 2005 09:08 AM