Speed Racer Preview
By Matt Kelly
If you've already read our Speed Racer Wii preview you'll know it's been a bit of a quest to make this happen, but Speed Racer fanboys have prevailed! And as a bonus we also scored some time with the DS version too. Both the Wii and the DS version share the same basis of racing around in fast cars in a candy colored landscape destroying all those who oppose your racingsupremacy. However the two games have been created by different developers and do have some differences.
The core racing element of the game is pretty solid, though as with any D-Pad driven game the steering isn't the most fluid thing ever. However the streamline design of the tracks still keeps the race going smooth for the most part. But that being said given Speed Racer does have a massive stunt element to it and the tracks feel maybe just a little too narrow for drifts, flips, spins and such. On a visual level the tracks are great to look at, featuring the slightly dull hyper color design of the movie. The actual course is pretty defined and enclosed but the surrounding environments vary from narrow tunnels to wide open spaces and are really rich to look at.
One of the game's major focuses is stunts which play a lot more in the process of unlocking new stuff in the game. There is a wide varity of moves to be pulled and what's really cool is none of it is really canned animation rubbish and a flashy sign saying 'you did a trick!'. Jumping, spinning through the air, doing drifts and the rest are all controllable and you will be judged on how well you pull it off. Landing is pretty important as well, land all four wheels, land two and just land one will have an impact on how many fans you score from the trick.
Oh and speaking of fans, they're really cute and unlock new stuff for you. During each race you will score a certain number of fans based on your moves, which count as point to unlock cars and tracks. Funnily enough it makes more sense than most unlocking point systems.
Car-Fu is radically different from the Wii version, where you'll be doing your moves on the fly during the race. On the DS you'll be presented with a kind of mini game for Car-Fu, which relies on timing a button press to land on your opponent. Both you and your enemy racer will be given a line with a center point to it, whoever gets closest to that center point will win the mini game. Either you'll land the move sending youropponent crashing or he'll dodge it and the move will fail. This also the case when someone is Car-Fu-ing you.
Speed Racer doesn't feel as fast as it's Wii counterpart, but there's still a lot of neat stuff in there to look forward to. A/V is pretty solid, with a lot of the audio carried across from the Wii version, including all the music which is a nice touch. Like the Wii version, if you're looking for a combat racer that isn't Mario Kart, Speed Racer is gonna be a new flavor which can be really fun. We'll have the full review for you when it launches in June.
07/05/2008
1952
13
Join MyDS to vote for your favourite story!
Tags:
Preview
racer
speed
More Info:
Speed Racer
Related News:
Related Reviews: