Auto Modellista

"Capcom revolutionizes another game genre: Street Bumper-Cars"

This game certainly takes the honor of the first review I've written for GameFAQs, but I'm not sure that's really a good thing. While it's often taught ''if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all,'' that's great for manners, but not for critics. Anyone can write a review of something they love, but while people do want to know what's good about the topic, they're mostly concerned about what is bad about it. So why does Auto Modellista take the honor of being the first review I've written since I've stopped publishing my videogame fanzine in the early '90s? Well, I'm just giving the people what they want.

Sometime at the end of the year 2002, as fond memories of the SNES X-Band floated through my mind, I managed to secure a PS2 network adapter from the local GameStop. I knew that one day I would be using it to play Final Fantasy Online, but at present day, there was simply nothing out that I wanted to play which was network compatible. Twisted Metal: Black Online was a great game, but there's only so much one can take of it. Then I learned about Auto Modellista.

''An online racing game!'' I thought as I dug up information on it, ''and it's from Capcom, too!'' I waited for its release, and on the same day as another cell-shaded game hit the stores, Zelda: The Wind Waker, I stopped down to the local strip mall to pick them up. I got home and immediately popped in Auto Modellista to get my racing fix, which had previously been sustained by my recent acquisition of the classic water racing game, Splashdown.

The Genre

I have played many arcade racers since I began playing videogames back in the early '80s (Yes, on an Atari 2600, Colecovision, and Odyessey2) and have fond memories of many of them; Super Mario Kart, Top Gear 2, Rock N' Roll Racing, F-Zero, California Speed, Wipeout, Splashdown, the Need for Speed games, and even Chocobo Racing and Lego Racers.

Unfortunately, Auto Modellista doesn't quite fit the same mold as other racing games. It tries to be a racer, but restricts itself to real-world physics, which causes the player to be forced to drive in a realistic, boring manner. Imagine Crazy Taxi, if you had to obey the speed limits, always drive on the (correct side of the) road, and still get a lot of passenger to their destination on time. It'd be more realistic, but horribly boring and difficult to play. Auto Modellista wants to be a racer, it has the rules of a racer, but it tries to force you obey real-world physics which includes coming to almost a complete stop before making even the simplest turn, and that's simply something not feasible in a racing game.

Having read the messageboards, I see many topics comparing Auto Modellista to Gran Turismo 3. Since I have been fortunate enough not to play the Gran Turismo series past the Jampack Demo, you will not see any comparisons in this review.

I like to review all the topics that I think should apply to every game on a scale of 0-10, so let's begin:

Story: 0

Unfortunately, Capcom chose not to give this game a story. While not something that many people may find important in a racing game, I still can't deny that games like Splashdown, Chocobo Racing and Lego Racers didn't benefit somehow because they had one.

Gameplay: 6

There are several gameplay modes in Auto Modellista; First, there's an arcade mode which basically allows you to race on a track using either a default stock car, or one from your sub-garage, in a one-player, two-player (split-screen), or time trial race. These modes are rather self-explanatory; so let's move on.

There's the Network mode which allows PS2 Network Adapter owners with broadband to go online to race people. More information on this can be found in the Multiplayer section. And then there's the one-player garage. This is where you'll be spending the majority of your own-player games, as you'll need to play it extensively if you plan on unlocking all the bonus cars and parts so that you stand a chance online.

If you're a car enthusiast, you're going to love this mode. You can choose from many different makes and models of cars, and then install different car parts, such as brakes, muffles, etc – also choosing the manufacturer of each. However, if you know nothing about cars, you're going to be extremely lost, as not even the instruction booklet explains exactly what these different parts do. Gameplay loses a few points for being too much for casual racing fans, but also adds a couple for being so customizable.

Once you've created your car, painted it and slapped your favorite label on it (that you can create) it's time to begin the garage race. In this mode, you race through seven different levels of difficulty, across eight different tracks (twice that if you count the reverse modes, two more when you consider a raining version of one of the tracks, and one secret level that's more of a novelty than a real track.)

The tracks are unfortunately very unimaginative. Two of them are one-way mountain tracks with constant twists and turns, causing you to either slam the breaks every two seconds in what's supposed to be a racing game or fly from wall to wall like a pinball. And all but two other tracks are basically complete circles, or rectangles with rounded corners, with the occasional turn indentation thrown within. There are no jumps to go off of, no forests to drive through, and no other track anomalies to spice up the race. The closest thing you get is a long straight tunnel on one of the tracks, but even that doesn't do much to make the tracks very different from each other. Points are deducted for lack of levels and lack of imagination in the levels.

Graphics: 7

As with most people, I'm sure, my first exposure to cell-shading was Jet Grind Radio. This style, for reasons unknown to me, has become very popular recently; even so much that Nintendo has decided to create their latest Legend of Zelda game in this style. Capcom manages to use this style brilliantly during gameplay, however, there is quite a bit of blurriness in the black outlines, which leads me to believe they chose to anti-alias the graphics. Anti-aliasing isn't the best idea for cell-shaded games, as they get the most of being crisp.

They also added anime-style speed lines, which try to give the illusion of driving fast, but they aren't that effective and I found became extremely annoying quickly. Thankfully, they can be turned off in the options. Points are also taken away due to the fact that pretty much every texture in the game is some kind of logo for a developer of cars and car parts. I often wonder why they bothered charging people for the game since they must be making a fortune off of product placement.

Sound: 5

Along with the level design, the sound is also very unimaginative. You get about 15 different tracks that range between rock and jazz. Only the first one truly stands out, and aside from this track, none of them get the adrenaline flowing, which is really something most people feel is needed in a high-speed driving game. You also have a very chatty announcer who sounds just like the guy from Street Fighter Alpha 3, who is constantly going back and forth between telling you that you have a lot of talent, and asking you why you're so bad/mad (whichever it is, I can't tell.) You can't turn off, unfortunately.

Controls: 3

This is where the game suffers the most. Due to the ''real-world physics'' approach, you can't turn more than 25 degrees while driving at even minimum speed, or you'll spin out uncontrollably. While such a concept might be a good approach for a SimDriving game, it simply has no place in a racing game, where the point is to slam the acceleration and not let go until you hit the goal.

Due to all the sliding and spinning you'll be doing when you try to turn your car, you'll be very thankful that your car doesn't take any damage when it slams into a wall. This actually becomes a blessing because the only way to compensate for the horrible handing and still have fun is to learn how to slam the side of your car into the walls at exactly the right angle to not only stop yourself from spinning out, but also continue racing without much a speed lose.

Did Capcom have wall bouncing in mind when they created the game? Probably not, but they didn't take into account combos in Street Fighter II either. Gamers all over discovered that you if hit a certain button fast enough after an attack, they can hit their opponent additional times before they get a chance to move. While some people were using this enhanced method of play, and other people where whining about how combos was an exploit that Capcom overlooked, Capcom had noticed these combos and were officially adding a combo counter to their upcoming Super Street Fighter II game.

Perhaps we'll see wall bounce combos added to the next Auto Modellista, where if you hit a wall from the right angle, a counter pops up, and if you hit another wall fast enough from the correct angle before the number vanishes, the number goes up a point and you get a speed boost based on how high the number is. I guess we'll just have to wait for some kind of Super Auto Modellista Turbo Racing Edition to see.

But, back on track, unfortunately, as much as wall bouncing helps fix the controls, it would have been much better if Capcom simply hadn't screwed up the controls to begin with. And since the controls are paramount in a racing game, a lot of points get taken away due to this problem.

Multiplayer: 7

The online multiplayer mode is really what this game was designed for, and will probably be the main reason anyone buys it. Getting into an online game is rather easy. When you connect for the first time, you run the built-in web-browser and set up a unique username. Then you fill in your name and password, and choose to enter either a chatroom or go into a game. A point has been deducted, however, due to the fact that the game doesn't save your password to memory and you're forced to re-enter it each time you log onto the network.

As the host, you choose the track, number of laps, and a few other options. Though, you don't get to choose any restrictions, which does seem to put off many players, as some games end up totally unbalanced. A friend of had bought the game and wanted to try a race with me right away. With my finalized Subaru Impreza, I ended up practically catching up to his Dodge Viper in a 2-lap game on a fairly straightforward track.

A couple points have been deducted for several reasons; Not only the lack of special restrictions for setting up the game, but also for the fact that the room has a timer that you must start the game in, which doesn't leave much time to talk, you don't get to view a replay after racing (only save it to card), and after the race, everyone is rejected from the room and back to the top menu, so you don't get to chat with the other racers after the game or begin a new race with them.

It would be unfair for me to grade the smoothness of the game, due to network latency, however, when I played, I didn't encounter any lag. And it would also be unfair to deduct any points based on the people you'll meet in chat. Since, like any online game of this type, you will always find those people who just want to start trouble, and of course, those children who aren't mature enough to simply not swear, but would rather devote their time to find a way around the censors.

Secrets and Bonuses: 8

The game is loaded with unlockable cars, tune-up parts, and other items such as posters or floor items for your garage. The game makes it easy to unlock the cars and car parts; as you select a track in the Garage Life mode, it lists down at the bottom of the screen what prizes you will win. Most races must be played two to three times to get all the prizes for that one race. However, once you finish getting the secret cars and tune-up parts, the rest of the items become more difficult to get. You'll find as you come closer to completing them, that they stop being award at the end of races, and then you have to play several of the different races over and over again hunting for which will be the ''magic race'' to seemingly randomly award you the prizes.

Also, there is one special track which you can unlock, but even though it's very cool novelty-wise, it's hardly a great race track, as your car go extremely slow and the track is extremely big, causing about 2 minutes for a single lap.

Replay value: 6

The game has plenty of replay value at the beginning, as the one-player mode is extremely short and you'll be playing it a lot if you plan on unlocking all the bonuses. And with the online mode, I'm sure there will always be someone out there who wants to play. Unfortunately, the lack of levels may make this game one of those ones you go back to on occasion, after the initial enjoyment wears off, instead of playing all the time.

Memory Card Optimization: Fails

In a practice that I personally don't like, Capcom decided to save all game data to the same memory card file. This is a hassle for those of us perfectionists who want to back up a clean save file which has only all the secrets unlocked. Since there is no way to delete your Garage from within the game, or even your current car from the garage, making a master save file is impossible.

Overall: 7 (Not an average)

Capcom made a great effort on Auto Modellista, unfortunately, it falls short in way too many aspects. A lack of tracks, not much track variety, horrible controls, and lackluster music prevents the game from reaching the level it deserves. However, the graphics and the online play definitely make it something to at least try once.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/03, Updated 04/02/03