Pocket Racers
A wizard did it.
Tags: Pocket Racers Categories: PSP Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Jake McNeill on Jan 21st, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pocket Racers (title page) | 1 - 4 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Racing | No | ||
 |
In previous reviews, I’ve mentioned how oversaturated the genre of racing games has become on the PSP, and how any new racing titles looking to make a name for themselves on the PSP need to do something different and interesting. Surprisingly, Pocket Racers actually had a good chance of accomplishing this task by bringing to the PSP a type of game previously unseen on the platform – specifically, the Micro Machines-style “tiny cars racing through the house” subset of the racing genre. Unfortunately, while Pocket Racers was poised to leap gracefully over the biggest hurdle before them, they managed to trip over it and plow headfirst into every other subsequent hurdle.
 |
Perhaps the most magnificent failure of Pocket Racers is its story, which is not only completely unnecessary but mind-bogglingly absurd. Basically, a group of friends are having a party at their house when, without warning or provocation, an evil wizard crashes their party and turns them all into small cars. He then forces them to race for their souls. If this were done in a tongue-in-cheek manner, it might have simply been sorta’ stupid, but the game tries to play it off as creepy and serious, which only makes the whole thing even more laughable.
Of course, the game fails in other areas as well. For all the potential the “tiny cars racing through a house” theme has, the cars never feel particularly tiny, and you never really feel like you’re racing through a house. Sure, there are obstacles shaped like giant cans and bottles, and every now and then you’ll see some sort of landmark that resembles a household fixture like a bathtub or an air duct, but the entire place is so cluttered it doesn’t ever feel like you’re in a large room, and the layout of the courses doesn’t really seem like the layout of a house. It’s almost as if you’re racing through a course that has simply been decked out with “big” décor, which kinda’ defeats the purpose.
 |
Graphically, the game cannot compare to the many great racing games to have graced the platform. While not especially ugly, the game doesn’t look impressive at all, and falls far short of even launch titles like Ridge Racer and Wipeout Pure. However, far worse than this are terrible framerates that make the game more difficult to play, giving it a washed-out look as if you were drunk. Furthermore, the camera isn’t particularly satisfactory, and doesn’t offer enough options – you can’t even view the race from a first-person perspective.
 |
Finally, the gameplay is just as disappointing as the rest of this package, with cars that turn unpredictably, and seem to be affected far too much when they run into each other. Furthermore, the course design doesn’t always make it clear where you’re supposed to go, and a “reset” button doesn’t always do its job and place you back on the right track. Weapon placement and usage also seems unreliable – why is it that in one race, the other racers getting the crippling “freeze” weapon when all I can find is the seemingly useless lightning weapon (that can apparently only target objects that aren’t the other cars)?
There really isn’t much reason to recommend Pocket Racers. It doesn’t do a good job following through on its premise, and everything else about the game is sub-standard at best. Perhaps this game would make a good conversation piece for its hysterically atrocious story, but aside from that I see no reason that anyone would want to buy it.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Hey, a micro-machines-style racer! A type of racing game I don’t already have on my PSP! + The story is so marvelously awful it’s actually amusing |
3.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- The “tiny car” theme is destroyed by level designs that fail to make you feel particularly small. - Terrible graphics - Horrendous framerates - Lousy controls - Poor level design - Poor power-up design |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Unless you have some sort of sheer morbid curiosity to see a game with what is one of the worst possible stories ever, there is nothing here worth buying. | |
[ Post the first comment | View related posts ]
Tags: Pocket Racers
Posted by Jake McNeill on Jan 21st, 2007 and is filed under PSP Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
