AeroGauge

"Supposed to be futuristic but it doesn't feel like it."

I'm wondering why I spent 20 dollars on this game years ago at Best Buy. Certainly was a big waste of money. Aero Gauge is (supposed to be) a futuristic racer. You'd think that in the future there would be plenty of things to do. Not in this game. There's very few race courses, ugly vehicles (including a secret N64 controller. even that looks ugly), and boring 2-player races. Aero Gauge is too small and too boring to make it even worth a rental.

Sound: I got tired of the songs pretty fast. They're acceptable but I did hear them a lot. As for the in-game sound, that's actually decent too.

Graphics: Both F-Zero X and Extreme-G successfully used the courses to make it look like you were going very, very fast. I'm sorry, but seeing ''123 MPH'' does not make it feel fast. You know how when you're up in an airplane and you look down at the land below you that it really doesn't look like you're going that fast because it's just open fields of nothing but corn and whatever they're growing? Well, Aero Gauge has the same effect. In quite a few places it doesn't look like you're going that fast. In some places it does. But Aero Gauge doesn't stay consistent in making it look like you're going fast, and that's not a good thing for a game that's supposed to be futuristic and fast. F-Zero X and Extreme-G both have better graphics than this game. The environments could be a little better too.

Gameplay: There's not enough that's already in the game. Sure, you can do the Grand Prix and stuff, but that's really not too exciting. There's plenty of codes and secret tricks you can use, which is good. But I think Locomotive (the developers) forgot about the rest of the game. And why doesn't the multiplayer support four players? Well, doesn't really matter anyway, since there are better games to play when you have your friends over.

I didn't really explain the gameplay. Well, there's
Single Match- There's a qualifying heat, and that will determine your starting position for the race after the heat.
Grandprix- 4 races, if you make it that far. You need 1 point to get to race #2, 4 to get to race #3, and 11 to get to the final race. So, the worst you can do but still qualify for the final race is
6th place - 1 point
4th place - 3 points
2nd place - 7 points.
VS mode- 2-player.

To race you use Aeromachines. You race in one of four courses (there's also another secret course). That is pretty limited. Chinatown is my favorite because it's complicated and you need to choose the fastest out of several routes through Chinatown to win.

After you race you might set a record, but in order to save those records you need a memory card. I never understood why you couldn't save it to the cartridge.

Replay Value- Not much. There's several better games than this that you should buy/rent instead, like F-Zero X, Extreme-G, Extreme-G 2, etc. The 2-player is boring, and I got tired of the 1-player modes pretty fast. Not much.

Overall- The futuristic feel isn't there, the game is boring, it's pretty limited, and it lacks a 4-player mode. I would rent this for only one day if that were possible. The courses are creative but they don't exactly make the game feel futuristic. My opinion is to skip over this game. 3/10

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 08/15/02, Updated 08/15/02