Road Trip

"A little bit of a lot of things."

Road Trip is one of the most refreshing racing games to come down the pike in years, and best of all, it’s only $20 new. This game, the latest in the legendary Japanese ChoroQ racing series, melds the racing and RPG genres together into a seamless blend of gaming bliss. Conspiracy Entertainment’s budget releases (like Metropolismania and this game) have been known to have a quirky feel to them, and that is primarily due to the oriental origins of each game. The unique Japanese take on things in this game gives a much-needed shot in the arm to the U.S. racing game genre, which has become stale due to the endless barrage of cookie-cutter racing games. Very few games out there attempt to push the envelope, even fewer are racing games. This game doesn’t just push the envelope, it busts it wide open and makes a genre all its’ own.

The meat and potatoes of the game lie in its’ adventure mode, which is where the racing and RPG genres combine into an unforgettable experience for the player. The core goal of this goal revolves around you becoming a grade-A driver to compete in the World Grand Prix competition, in which the winner will become the president. Along the way to accomplishing this goal, you will meet many other cars in every single one of the game‘s cities. Some of the drivers will become your teammates, so you can compete in the World Grand Prix, and others will ask you to run errands. The cities in the game are based around real-life areas, which helps to give the player some familiarity with their surroundings. You’ll start off your journey at your city (which is called My City, how’s that for innovation?) and then move about to any of the other cities. You can go to the Japan-ish Fuji City to take on the Emporer, or you can go across the world’s longest bridge (which is a Golden Gate Bridge knock-off.) At any given time, you could be put to use in an effort to help find someone, or maybe to bring something back to someone. Aside from meeting cars, the other key aspect to the adventure mode involves going from town to town finding new races to compete in and, as you complete every course from each town, you will come closer and closer to being eligible to compete in the World Grand Prix. The RPG-ish features from the game are executed quite well. Each car that you interact with has its’ own personality, which shines through via the conversations you engage with it.

Now, since you’re going to be spending quite a bit of time doing this, it would only make sense that you be able to, at the very least, add some personal touches to the car you will be driving around for hours on end. Road Trip enables you to modify nearly every single aspect of your car. You can modify the wheels, the body, the paint, and the engine. The body and paint changes are simple aesthetic changes that really enable you to put your stamp of approval on your car. The body changing system, in particular, is quite interesting due to the sheer volume of choices available to you. Odds are, you will find at least one body style that resembles a car that you have either used, or that you have liked in the past. The thorough color changing options enable you to alter the color of nearly every exterior part of the car. You can use the in-depth coloring system to add the most subtle of tones to the color of your car, or you can make a striking color that is sure to catch the eye of an opponent. The wheel color can even be modified in this game, which does enable you to add an extra layer of personalization to things. The engine upgrading will help fine-tune your vehicle, but be sure to get any essential upgrades, like engine upgrades and tire upgrades, before doing any aesthetic changes to your vehicle, after all, you don’t want to run out of money for the important things by doing too many frivolous things.

Thankfully, the racing portion of the game, which you might find kind of important given the fact that this is a racing game, is also done quite well. The racing engine is tight, and the action is always fast and frenetic. Given the fact that there are usually well over 20 cars on the screen at one time, that’s quite a feat in and of itself. Thankfully, the racing goodness doesn’t end there, oh no. In case you don’t feel like going through the arduous, but fun, adventure mode, you can just use the quick race mode to satiate your need for speed. In this mode, you will be given a pre-made car and put on a course of your choosing. This mode enables you to get familiar with how the gameplay works, and how the course design can both help, and hinder you. I’m glad that this mode was included since it gives beginning players a great opportunity to get used to the intricacies of the gameplay, while not holding their hand through the process like a traditional training mode would.

If you find either racing your car around the courses or trying to navigate through the cities to be a chore, you might want to try and unwind by just driving around the many locales in the game. Take in the sights of Fuji City.

The controls in Road Trip are just as solid as the gameplay. The button configuration is solid, and makes senses, which helps the responsive controls quite a bit. Being able to choose between using the d-pad and the left dual shock stick on-the-fly is small touch that can really get you out of a jam. Sometimes you simply won’t need to make use of the extra sensitivity that the dual shock stick gives you, and of course, sometimes you will. Now it might not seem like a big deal, but simply having this seemingly minute control option available to you does a world of good for the game, as a whole. It shows that this is a game that will let you have the freedom to do what you want, how you want to do it. Very few games on the market nowadays do this, but I’m glad this game does.

The graphics in this game, like all others in the ChoroQ series, use a super-deformed graphical style to depict the vehicles in the game. This visual style is certainly an acquired taste, and normally, I’m not one who enjoys seeing it, but the execution of it in this game is simply superb. The super-deformed look (which is done for the ChoroQ series since the Japanese ChoroQ cars are actually little toy cars) is pulled off to perfection since it appears that everything around you is normal. I like to think of it as a 3D version of the Micro Machines games, only using Matchbox cars and Hot Wheels instead of Micro Machines. Anyway, the graphics in the game are pretty solid. I doubt anything will make you fall out of your chair from a visual standpoint, but nothing will make you cringe either.

The sound is probably the weakest aspect of the game, sadly. While you do have a choice of two radio stations to listen to during play (a rock station and a kind of happy, cheery music station,) the music played on them is boring and monotonous. Thankfully, the sound effects do their part in attempting to minimize the musical shortcomings of the game. Every sound effect is either done in a realistic manner, or done in an over-the-top manner to add emphasis to the action that the sound effect represents.

Road Trip’s replay value is determined solely by the player. The game gives you tons of things to do, it gives you the tools needed for a long-lasting, and rewarding game. It’s up to the player to make proper use of those tools and get the most out of the game. Hopefully, you won’t let the game’s low entry price sucker you into thinking that you can just play the game once and have gotten your money’s worth. There’s a ton of depth in this game, and lots of fun to be had. You just need to use what the game has given you, and make it your own. Try to do whatever you can to make the game both fun, and long-lasting. If you don’t, you will only have yourself to blame if you end up disappointed.

All in all, Road Trip is a fantastic racing game that, while not perfect, adds something to the stagnating racing genre. The gameplay is innovative, the controls are intuitive, the graphics won’t offend anyone, and the sound… well, the sound may very well offend people. But the thing that matters most is the gameplay, and that’s something that this game has in spades. The sheer variety of things to do in this game is mind-boggling. Hopefully you will be able to make sense of it all and have a blast with the game, I know I sure did.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/29/02, Updated 04/25/03