Rumble Racing

"A racing game from hell itself"

I'll admit, when I first started playing this game I wasn't too thrilled. Actually, I was kind of disappointed. I didn't like the way the cars handled and I thought some of the courses were boring. But then I played it some more. And some more. And some more. And then I played it even more, and I'm still playing it. Quite simply, I can't put this game away, because it's one of the funnest, wackiest games I've ever played. All it took was a little patience and a little bit of adjusting to how the cars handle and how the courses should be run. And that's when you know you've got a good game on your hands--when you don't have it pinned down in the first hour or the first two days or even the first week. It's like the developer is saying, ''We're takin' you for a ride, so you better hunker down and hold on, because you don't know crap.''

Rumble Racing is the ''sequel'' to Nascar Rumble, released on the original Playstation. The reason I've got ''sequel'' in quotation marks is that it's not really a sequel, but actually a much better version of the first game. The courses look very similar to those in Nascar Rumble, and many of the power-ups are the same, but this time the Nascar affiliation is gone, and you race in souped-up street vehicles that are given funny names like The Banger and Tiberius. The courses are a combination of off-road and asphalt, with several shortcuts to be found and exploited. Most of the courses are set in wacky locales like an airport or a mining operation. Perhaps what most distinguishes this game from its predecessor is the ability of the cars to stunt when they catch air. Doing stunts allows you a nitro boost, which is one of the things that makes this game so crazy. A big part of mastering the game is learning to keep your car under control during your nitro boosts, which can be a handful. These cars are also capable of firing all kinds of dangerous objects at each other, such as bombs, oil slick cans, rocks, and in rare cases, a tornado. These weapons are picked up on the track by running through them. Each car is rated on its acceleration, handling, and stunt ability, and choosing the right car for the course is essential for winning.

Let it be made clear at the outset that this game is absolutely nuts. The brilliant course designs are engineered to knock you off your pace in any way they can. You will be thrown around, slammed into, pooped on, left in the dust, blown up, and pushed to the limit in order to win. It is chaos, it is mayhem, and prepare ye to be a bit frustrated at times. It is unlike any racing game I have ever played, and it's funner than hell.

The ''meat'' of the game is the championship mode. In it you race several series of races with three races in each series. You can only advance to the next series if you take the gold cup. But the cool thing is, you don't have to win all three races to take the series. You just have to come out on top in the overall standings, which basically means you need to have the fastest overall time. The series are divided into rookie, pro, and elite classes, with major changes in the look and speed of the cars from class to class. There is also a single race mode where you can race any unlocked course with any unlocked car against as many cars as you like. The single races are necessary for getting practice on the tracks and finding all the shortcuts before you do the real thing in the championship mode. Then you have Showdown, a one lap race against one car, with only one chance to get it right. So far I haven't really seen the appeal of this mode. There is the Stunt Challenge, in which you rack up as many points as you can doing stunts on one of three stunt tracks in the game (which have to be unlocked). This mode is great for just letting loose and having fun. And last but not least, there is a multiplayer mode, which sadly I cannot comment on because none of my friends are into video games.

The graphics in the game are quite good. This is one of the best looking PS 2 titles I've seen. The lines are sharp and there is a decent amount of detail. Even the particle effects, such as smoke, dust clouds, and fire (is fire a particle effect?) look very good. Cars leave accurate skidmarks when they slide. This is cool because it kind of lets you know where on the track you're getting plenty of grip and where you're loosing it a bit. Textures look good: water looks like water, dirt looks like dirt, asphalt looks like asphalt. But one of my favorite graphic elements is how they've made the rocks look that often obstruct your path. They totally look like large, heavy rocks, and what's even cooler is the way the collision physics work when you smash into one of them. You really get the sensation of weight and solidity, and they even roll like they weigh a thousand pounds.

Object interaction is one of the neatest things about this game. Unsuspecting objects such as chairs, tables, barricades, sofas, and umbrellas get knocked hundreds of feet down the track and retain their hit detection. If you slam into a car, you don't just see it get a little jolt--the thing will go flying into the air (they can also send YOU flying into the air). Race along a railroad track, and that's the sensation you get--bumpy as hell and slow. Racing in the dirt has a completely different feel than the road, and I dare you to try to recover from a slide on the grass--no doing. Lamp posts are solid as a rock and you can't cheat by hoping to run right through them. Will all this environmental stuff to impede your progress, you've got to make sure your jumps are lined up right, you've got to be able to handle the nitro boosts, and you've got to know when to back off the accelerator a little bit and slide. It took me a while to get the feel of it, but once I did, I was having a blast.

As far as control goes, no problems. It is very simple, and if you really wanted to the game could be played entirely with just the two analogue sticks. The only other buttons you really need to use are the two left shoulder buttons to launch power ups (power up use is optional), and the R2 button to stunt. I really think this game could be made twice as fun if they had included a handbrake to allow instant powerslides with minimal loss of speed. But alas, there is no such control option. The courses in this game beg for it, though.

The sounds in this game really impressed me, with one glaring exception: the announcer guy who comments on the races. He's got a dorky, annoying voice and he doesn't hesitate to tell you how stupid you are for not being a better racer. Luckily, there is an option to turn him off. The sounds the cars make when they go off jumps is very cool. It's kind of a deep, thunking sound that tells you your undercarriage isn't too happy about what you just did. The sound the cars make when they're in the air is cool too. You hear the whistle of air like you're in a wind tunnel, and there is a deep, descending bass tone that sort of sounds like the noise the Death Star was making when it was powering up to destroy Alderaan. I was playing with my headphones on and it sounds totally cool. The engines sound great-- ballsy and raspy at the same time. And you can always hear them coming up behind you, which means you better do something fast--power up, shortcut, whatever.

I really hope they do a sequel for this game, because I've played this one to death. It's just a great arcade racer with good graphics and easy control. Hopefully we'll see the addition of a handbrake, and I'm sure they could throw some hot babes in there somewhere. If you're into arcade racers that are done right, you can't pass this one up.

There is one nasty thing I have noticed about the game that I neglected to mention earlier, and it is something that really irks me. Quite simply, the AI cheats. Very often, power-ups that you fire at your opponent racers will have little or no affect on their car. In some cases, your power-ups will actually help them out. For example, the freeze bomb usually has so effect at all on your opponents, or it will have only a very brief effect and then your opponent will immediately regain control of his vehicle, even while their car is still frozen. Or take this for instance: I once dropped a grenade power-up onto the road so the car behind me would hit it, and it actually blew his car up over mine and deposited him two or three car lengths ahead of me. And the Bad Gas power up? Forget it. No effect at all. The only power ups that seem to be fairly reliable are the Oil Slick and the Shockwave. Sometimes the Grenade power up will really send them flying, but most of the time it doesn't really help.

What it really takes to be successful at this game is complete balls-out, no-holes-barred racing. You can't be cautious, you can't hold back. You've got to risk it all, especially on the No Mercy difficulty setting. Sometimes this means taking that turn at full speed where you used to break into it. Sometimes it means trying to squeeze one more spin out of a stunt than you used to. If you try to rely only on power-ups you won't make it. Yes, sometimes when you risk it all you loose. You completely loose control in that turn, or you land on your roof after a stunt instead of your wheels. But sometimes, you win. And that is sweet.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/16/02, Updated 08/16/02