Auto Modellista

"Initial D meets Gran Turismo 3!"

Auto Modellista is one strange racing game. The graphics which scream ''arcade'' yet the options it throws at you then screams back ''GT3''. Mixing the two gives a very distinct feeling which in my opinion is well worth having.

Graphics:

As you've seen from the screenshots, this game was inspired by anime. Namely Initial D. The cars look superb in their cel-shaded glory. I never saw a RX-7 look so good. The tyre skids all look like they were lifted from some cartoon and once again are superb. Also the rain is very nicely done, shame there wasn't more tracks with this weather effect on.

10/10

Sounds:

All the cars sound very nice and suitably loud. Sounds in most racing games are very good and this really is no exception. The background music is mostly your usual rock/techno stuff and it fits in well with the racing. But don't expect to be humming them the next day as you walk down the street.

And the announcer is typical Ridge Racer like. He'll often say ''I've never seen such technique!'' if your corner well before saying ''Oh my God.....'' when you wipe out. He'll annoy you, but there has never been a good announcer on any racing game which doesn't fail to annoy.

9/10

Gameplay:

What do you expect? This is racing my friend,except this game has a fairly quirky handling system. The game allows you to drift well (a la Initial D), or the more traditional option of grip driving. The combination of GT3 and Ridge Racer provides a somewhat interesting combination but sometimes you will end up just un-able to turn as your car tries to slide while the other half decides to stick like glue. But you'll quickly over look that.

AM's main problem is the way its ''garage life'' mode works. This is the so called ''meat'' of the game. You basically start off with a car and you customize it, then go race it. Come back make it better, and then repeat. This sounds an awful lot like GT3. But(and this is a big but) GT3 did it right. AM doesn't. It allows you to jump straight into a Skyline, Lancer or RX-7 and then allow you to tune it up somewhat. Result? The earlier races will be so easy, it isn't funny. You'll breeze through them. How can a stock Civic compete with a race ready Skyline? The latter races are somewhat harder, but by then you have all the best parts ready to chuck in your car, or if you have a slow car, switch to a car which is capable.

However if you take a break from the track you can actually go about making your car look the part. You can add/change spoilers,hoods,wings etc. , as well as adding lots of stickers! What is a boy racer without his stickers? Screwed. You just about add any logo you want from the racing world and if that is not good enough for you, you can create your design and save it for later use.
Another design feature, is you designing a garage with posters and various racing trinkets such as Steering wheels and oil cans. It is pointless but for those aesthetically minded among you may enjoy making your garage the works.

Your arcade mode is your standard affair. Pick a car,track race. This where you can change play in your 2-player split screen affair with certain cars.

And the special VJ mode, gives you the chance to add some silly effects to your replays. And then watch them. Fun feature, but it can hog up to 2 meg of space on your card(this doesn't include the 245kb of space needed just to save your game)!

Overall the racing is very fun if a tad easy unless you use a slightly lesser car instead of the big label cars.

8/10

Replay value:

Once you've unlocked all the hidden stuff, which sadly won't take long, you may not come back. The PAL version(which I have) does not have the online racing function that was promised which might hurt replay value in terms of gaming. Of course since most of you reading this are probably in the US, where you will have online racing which should boost the lifespan a little bit.

4/10

Overall

This game is a very solid racing title. It is certainly not the best racing title and they were stupid enough to cut online play from the PAL version(and if you own the PAL version, don't play at 50Hz, the didn't make a very good job at it, with huge black borders) which hurts this title a lot. But the offline play is great and the anime style gives it a really nice character. You can always pretend it is Initial D. The Trueno and Levin are in the game, so why not? I assure you will enjoy it. Have fun....

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/01/03, Updated 03/01/03