NASCAR Thunder 2002

"Well you can take Alabama, turn it sideways, and shove it into the backseat of Jeff Burton’s car. Hey, is that Daisy driving?"

OPENING STATEMENT
Ahh . . . NASCAR. The sweet smell of gasoline and burning tires. Yes, nothing epitomizes rednecks like NASCAR. And southern rock. And professional wrestling. And the Dukes of Hazzard. And family trees not forking. (Do not yell at me, send all angry letters to Jeff Foxworthy for the last one.) Yes, Tiburon got their act together for making NASCAR Thunder. They have got Lynyrd Skynyrd playing on all of the menus, definitely the epitome of southern rock. Now, all they need is a WWF car named General Lee driven by Dale Jarrett or some other guy to complete the feel. Well, enough of my redneck rants, on to see what driving in monotonous circles is like this time around.

GAMEPLAY--7
NASCAR Thunder 2002 takes a simulation approach to NASCAR, as opposed to NASCAR Heat 2002, which is much more arcade like. And, frankly, realistically driving through circles is a lot less entertaining than driving through circles with some of reality suspended. You have to keep an eye n the functions of your vehicle. You need to make pit stops when your tires get burned, when your gas gets low, when Jeff Gordon has to go to the can, just like in real NASCAR! Since I find real NASCAR boring as hell, guess how I find the gameplay! I am not faulting EA Sports too much, other than the fact that their name promotes the asinine, yet popular belief, that NASCAR is a sport. They tried to make the most realistic experience possible and they succeeded, all too well.

So, when rating NASCAR Thunder 2002’s gameplay, I am speaking from a point of personal bias. I do not enjoy driving in circles for hundreds upon hundreds of laps. I enjoy racing games, such as Ridge Racer, Gran Turismo, and Need for Speed with hairpin turns followed by more turns, rather than a turn leading to a straight-away leading to a turn leading to a straight-away in a monotonous cycle like there is in NASCAR. However, if you are a diehard fan of the ‘sport’ then you will find no fault with NASCAR Thunder 2002’s gameplay, because it is extremely realistic, and you will most certainly be impressed with the attention to detail.

GRAPHICS--8
NASCAR Thunder 2002 is slightly more polished than its competition in the visuals. The tracks have more detail than I have ever seen in a NASCAR title. Tire marks are burned on to the tracks after sharp turns. The environments look much more realistic and lifelike than in a NASCAR title as well, because now there seems to be a world beyond the track, something that no previous title ever conveyed with sincerity. These changes to the graphics actually do a lot more for making NASCAR Thunder 2002 look realistic than a few minor touchups to vehicle paint jobs would have.

That being said, the level of detail in the cars is astounding. I will be the first to admit that I know very little about NASCAR, but I’m fairly certain they have all of those logos crammed on there just where Jeff Gordon and Bobby Labonte do in real life. And that makes a lot of free publicity for companies, too. And despite the level of detail in these cars, they suffer from horrible anti-aliasing problems. The edges of the vehicles are not smooth at all, and they look like microscopic creatures built a massive staircase along their edges. This is due to the PlayStation 2’s hardware, so the developers really cannot be faulted, but it really takes away from the game more than any other aspect of these graphics.

MUSIC--2
SOUND--9
“Sweet home, Alabama!” - a phrase that you will grow tired of very quickly during the endless barrage of menus within NASCAR Thunder 2002. Lynyrd Skynyrd, or whichever of them survived after that plane crash, has agreed to supply their only song that people have actually heard of to fill the silence of the menus. And, yes, southern rock on paper would look good with a predominately southeastern sport like NASCAR, but the song never ends! So I hope you like it.

The sound effects are much more varied, and they add to the aesthetic appeal of the game. I cannot say that I have watched many NASCAR races (I will watch the Daytona 500 and that is it.), but the effects that EA have included certainly sound realistic to me. A wide variety of revving speeds are included for the engines, and there are numerous other noises, mike noises, gears switching, and the like, these things all make the sound effect package in NASCAR Thunder 2002 one of the best in the business.

CONTROL--9
Rarely is there an occasion where EA releases a game with shoddy control, and NASCAR Thunder 2002 is not about to be the exception to make the rule. Even at the highest speeds, control is as realistic as it comes. Once you hit the top end of your engine, controlling will waver a bit more, and you are far more apt to lose control, than if you keep driving at a lower speed. Drafting is hard to pull off, because it requires such minute movements of the analog sticks, but if you can pull it off, you will find out just how great NASCAR Thunder 2002’s control really is.

FUN--8
Even though I may not like NASCAR at all, I still appreciated all of the attention to detail that Electronic Arts included in this game. And any fan of the ‘sport’ will be ecstatic with all of the tiny details that they can change in every nook and cranny of NASCAR Thunder 2002. The Season Mode is really quite captivating, and it actually kept me hooked for the entire season, something I really was not expecting. You will be quite worried as you fall further and further behind Jeff Gordon and Dale Jarrett in the points standings, and, well, you may just be tempted to ram them into a wall during the race to prevent them from scoring. If a game messes with your mind that much, you know it is doing something right.

CHALLENGE--HIGH
You had better go into NASCAR Thunder 2002 expecting to get your butt handed to you the first few times you race. Mastering drafting and the other controlling nuances will at least take you five good races, and staying with the best computer vehicles can take even longer. I would recommend choosing one of the NASCAR stars, so that you have one less high quality opponent to race against. That will help make the difficulty curve a little less steep, so you can get into the action a bit sooner, and hopefully make a run at the points title in your first season.

REPLAY VALUE--MEDIUM
The replay value in NASCAR Thunder 2002 will really depend on how much of a fan you are of the sport. If you are obsessed with it, with the nuances, the drivers, even the conditions of Bobby Labonte’s tires, then I doubt NASCAR Thunder 2002 will ever leave your PlayStation 2. If you are less of a rabid fan, or not even a fan at all, the game will hold your interest for a while, but you will not play it more than any other racing game on the console. I would recommend that a more casual NASCAR fan go with a more casual game - NASCAR Heat 2002.

PROS
*55 NASCAR drivers and their vehicles.
*Licensed music from a real-live band!
*Extremely detailed vehicles and environments.

CONS
*Only one licensed song, which plays continuously on all menus.
*Horrible anti-aliasing problems.
*Gameplay is extremely realistic, meaning that it is boring as hell, just like the real ‘sport.’

CLOSING STATEMENT
The extreme realism may scare some gamers, but NASCAR Thunder 2002 is one of the best racing games to come around in a long time, especially one based on an actual racing league. Even if you do not like NASCAR in general, you will be forced to appreciate just how detailed this game is. I know I was.

OVERALL--8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 05/12/02, Updated 05/12/02