NASCAR Thunder 2003

"Vroom! Vroom! Vroom!"

INTRODUCTION
Well, I've usually always been a big fan of NASCAR thanks to my brother. That's the same way with the NASCAR games. I put countless, COUNTLESS, hours into NASCAR 98 and 99. Then, skip a few years up to NASCAR Thunder 2002 and I was a huge fan of that. So, a few weeks ago, I was at a local pawn shop and I came across this game for $10. I bought it and took it home, and of course, loved it. So, let's get on to the review!

SOUND (8/10)
The sound in this game is just great. The sound effects sound very realistic. The engines sound great. And when ever you crash into someone, it sounds very realistic as well. The music in the game is okay. It has FOUR songs though. It kind of bugs me since in Madden 2003, they had a lot of songs. And it was made by EA Sports, of course. So I don't get it. The four songs are alright though. Two of the bands I never heard of. The other one I can't remember. But the one I do remember is Steppenwolf, the song by them in the game is ''Magic Carpet Ride''. But still, they could had used some more songs. And they could had also put in announcers too. The announcers in the earlier games didn't get all that bad repetitive. The technology has advanced a lot since then, so they could put even better announcing in. So, I'm going to give the sound an 8 out of 10.

GRAPHICS (8/10)
The graphics in this game looks awesome. The car damage is off the charts. And the cars look great. The tracks looks great as well. The skies look okay. The clouds look like water paint and the sun is still blinding as ever. I guess that they're trying to make the sun realistic, but I still find that very annoying. Especially since this is a game. But with the damage, it's as realistic as it has ever been. But as annoying too. You'll sometimes be driving and get a TAD bit close to the wall, bump it just very lightly and BOOM! You're out. Why do they have to make it THAT realistic? Granted, if you're going down through there 200 MPH and take on the wall, the wall will win. But if you BARELY tap it, you're out? That really sucks. And sometimes you'll be driving and someone will decide to get greedy and barely tap you and you get out. That annoys me as well. Let's say you get in a wreck and survive, well, once you get out of the pits, you will not be winning the race. Because they have it now that if you get in a wreck, there is no chance you will win. Because you'll now be going a whole lot slower. But oh well. They're making the game realistic now. It's a shame. I use to like it when ever you'd wreck, flip about 455 times, then get hit by twelve racers, and survive. You'd go into the pits, get your damage fixed, go back out, and win! But not no more. But other than that, I really have nothing to go on about. So, I'm going to give the graphics an 8 out of 10.

CONTROLS (10/10)
The controls in the game are great. The perfect Gamecube controller just fits perfectly with this game. A is gas, B is brake, and so forth. So, I'm going to give the controls a perfect score!

GAMEPLAY (10/10)
The gameplay in this game is just awesome. There's so much to do. As there should be since this is a NASCAR game. There's the season mode, the franchise mode. Which is from the last game. Also a new feature, which is Lightning Challenges. There's also a new feature called the Richard Petty Driving Experience. The franchise mode is also the same thing from last year, but more. You have to build up your pit crew. And you can sign new pit crew members, or release them. The franchise mode will take a while to get use to. Because you have to build up your car before you start winning races. Also, you have to sign sponsors. You start getting better sponsors once you start winning races and advance on into the career mode. This will be the place you'll spending the most time with. The Lightning Challenges is just a different sort of challenges, as the name suggests. The season mode is just the season mode. And the Richard Petty Driving Experience is where a driver coaches you every lap in the Thunder License. The multi-player I'm still a tad bit disappointed with. There is still 19 guys on the track. Why can't there be 43? I still can't understand that. Which, you can go up to four human players in the multi-player. Which is very cool. But the multi-player is still very fun. The game itself, it flows very smoothly. I've not noticed one single slowdown at all in the game. And I've put a lot of hours into this game, A LOT. And I've not noticed one slowdown. So I'm going to give the gameplay a perfect score!

REPLAY VALUE (10/10)
This is a NASCAR game! What else do you expect with replay value? You got the franchise mode to keep you going forever. Then the season. And the other two new features. The multi-player also can keep you going too if you have friends that like racing games. So, I'm going to give the replay value a perfect score.

FUN FACTOR (7/10)
Okay, even though I've praised this game pretty good, I will admit that the game can get boring after a while. Not to the point of death, but it can be boring. Sure, you have all of this to work with. Where the game can get boring is when you get into the lead and no one challenges you at all. Although, it can get frustrating when you CAN'T get into the lead. Also, the game can get frustrating when your car dies for no reason. I hate that more than anything. But with all of what this game has to offer, I can't give an extremely low score. So, I'm going to give the fun factor a 7 out of 10.

THE FINAL SCORES
Sound - 8/10
Graphics - 8/10
Controls - 10/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Replay Value - 10/10
Fun Factor - 7/10
FINAL AVERAGE: 8.8
FINAL SCORE: 9/10

FINAL THOUGHTS
This game is great if you're looking for a game with long replay value and don't mind driving around in circles. I don't mind if I drive around in circles. Seeing how that's what you're doing when driving in real life. But this game is just very great and not all that too tough. So, buy this game if you're a NASCAR fan. Rent this game if you like racing games but don't like NASCAR that much. So, that's what I got to say about it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/03/03, Updated 07/03/03