Antz Extreme Racing

"About as extreme as a two hour yoga session."

This game has gotten a lot of bad reviews from critics, as you can see if you go on Gamerankings. However, I just had to see if it really was as bad as they claimed it was. So one day when I was in an electronics shop, I found this game cheap and bought it. Was it as bad as I thought it would be? Read on to find out.

Story: NA/10
The characters from Antz have decided to race each other for no particular reason other than to have fun. Fair enough, but here is something to consider. The movie came out in 1998, whereas this game came out in 2002. Why such a large time gap?

Graphics: 2/10
This game looks like it could have come out on the Playstation five years before this game was actually released! All of the characters in the game are blocky and lack detail, the animation is choppy and objects in the background have the habit of morphing into each other. It does go at a steady framerate, but with graphics this bad, it would have been unforgivable if it didn't. Overall, the graphics are terrible.

Sound: 1/10
Don't even get me started on the music of this game. It seems to be a lot of sombre instruments playing the same tune every five seconds, and every track sounds the same. The sound effects are as annoying as you would expect from a game based on a cartoon film, or in other words, very bad.

But the worst part of it is that there are absolutely no voices. None whatsoever. OK, maybe hiring the actors from the film would have been too expensive, but they didn't even bother to take some voices from the movie. It makes the game sound too quiet.

Gameplay: 2/10
Since this is a racing game, you probably guessed that what you have to do is mostly go around fastest in three laps. But the key to success is how the players have to do that, and this game fails terribly in that aspect.

As well as the standard ‘three laps' scenario, you can also race on your feet, fly through the sky on an insect, or go down a slope getting from point A to point B. All of these involve different vehicles, such as bees, leaves and grasshoppers. Overall, the concept of these different races is quite good. But the execution is awful.

The first thing you will notice is the rubbish control. It takes a second for your racer to even start going, and when you try and turn a corner, the vehicle won't turn quickly enough, and you land smack into the wall. This happens a lot in every single race, and makes the game a struggle to play.

Apart from this bad control, there isn't much challenge at all. The other racers are stuck to one specific route, regardless of what is in their way, and almost never successfully hit you with a weapon. Basically, this means that if you can master the controls, this game is a cinch.

The third major flaw with this game is how the single player works. Instead of doing a single race, or a group of three or four for a tournament, you must instead go through several challenges. The challenges that you get vary depending on what character you pick. It may be going around in a set time, doing slalom down a slope, or simply beating the other racers within three laps. However, due to the loose control and dumb A.I., this ends up being no fun at all.

The final nail in the coffin is that there is no differentiation between any of the characters. All of them race in exactly the same way. This would have been OK back in 1990, but it isn't for a game released in 2002! Did the developers even try? On the plus side, there are a lot of tracks, over forty I think. It's a real shame that the design for them is so bland.

To summarise, this game is about as fun as extra Geography homework. On second thoughts, I take that back. I would rather do Geography homework any day. Seriously, it's more fun to play catch with the box than to actually play the game.

Replay Value: 3/10
Most gamers could easily complete all of the challenges in a day, and most would have given up due to the severe boredom of it all (like me).

Pros:
Different ways of racing.
Lots of tracks…

Cons:
… that are incredibly boring.
Terrible graphics.
Awful music.
Horrible sound effects.
No voice whatsoever.
An Antz game in 2002?
Really bad control.
The control is so bad it counts as two cons!
Stupid A.I.
No differentiation between characters.
Rubbish single player options.
Simply not fun at all.

Buy, rent or avoid: There are some games out there that are so incredibly bad that it's worth renting them just to see how bad they really are. Unfortunately, this game stops just short of being that bad. Put simply, avoid. This game is a waste of money if you buy it for more than a quarter.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 06/30/08

Game Release: Antz Extreme Racing (EU, 07/26/02)