Test Drive 6

"A complete travesty of a game."

Test Drive 6 is one of Infogrames many Dreamcast games. And it’s hands down the one of the worse games I’ve played in my entire life, if not the worse game I’ve ever played. Sadly, just about everything is wrong with this game. Anyway, Test Drive 6 was released around December 1999, Pitbull Syndicate developed it and Infogrames published it. Steve Snake the author of the Sega Genesis emulator Kgen and the game NBA Jam is credited with the development of this game. Not even his fame can make this game look good.

Graphics: I have no clue of what happened here, but I have one thing to say about the graphics: Ugh. The graphics are really bad. The cars look like boats and are pretty poor looking; the backgrounds also look really poor. A poor frame rate is even more insult to injury.

Sound: Sure the soundtrack is okay; it has its moments but is nothing great. The Sound Effects are what you expect from a racing game, nothing special, and anything else. They’re just serviceable.

Gameplay: This is the games main falling point. A lack of options and features is the first main problem. I mean Test Drive 5 is one of my all time favorite racing games. And this sequel contains less features and options than the respective prequel. Now that’s not as bad as this main fall. The game is a simulation and arcade hybrid – where the game plays more like a really poor arcade game.

Now, Gran Turismo 2 did a great job of mixing both types of genres. Gran Turismo 2 encouraged you to play the simulation mode, to unlock cars and tracks for the Arcade disc. Now, this game forces you to play the simulation mode to unlock a really poor single race and the cop chase mode. It’s a rather big problem, because when you have no choice to have the game be a simulation or arcade racer is one big problem. You just can’t go halfway with racing games. Every time you decide to play a single race, you have to bet cash on it.

Now if you wanted you can just play a practice mode, but you don’t get a good selection of cars and tracks. It sounds like a time trial, but it’s actually not, just a single race where you don’t bet cash. Even worse, the cop chase mode is pretty limited in options. Well, the biggest problems are that the handling of the cars is really bad, and they drive like boats.

Replay Value: None. Ok, I lied, the game might keep you busy for a while, but in my case… You will want to destroy this game ASAP. Just nothing to speak of to extend the time you will spend on this game. Good luck finding a friend to play this game with you, I sure couldn’t find one.

All in all Test Drive 6 is a really bad game. I had the misfortune of buying the Dreamcast and getting 2 copies of the PC version. I can’t believe Sega approved this garbage can worthy game. Is the game worth buying? No. You can buy it cheap but don’t bother. You have better games you can buy with your hard-earned cash on. If you do want to try it, then go ahead and buy it. It’s pretty cheap, if you dare!

Reviewer's Score: 1/10, Originally Posted: 11/29/03