MotoGP

"The best motorcycle racer in years."

While racing games as a genre come at a speedy pace, racing games involving a motorcycle are much less frequent - if hardly at all. And as the Xbox system loads up on unique racers that don't fall into the run of the mill rut (Project Gotham, RalliSport), MotoGP fits the bill and slides right in as yet another racing game that sets out to do something a little different than most racers - even if it's something as small as taking a car and replacing it with a motorcycle.

Thankfully, like the other 2 games mentioned, MotoGP matches up the approach with excellent gameplay and plenty of things to do, making the game worth the $50 without even a second thought. Climax and THQ have assembled a great racer with plenty to do and see, and lots to unlock as you progress up the higher difficulty levels. Sure, the game isn't without its flaws, but once you get into the game more, the flaws become not only forgivable, but also forgettable.

Gameplay

MotoGP's 2 major modes of play consist of the Grand Prix and Arcade Championship. The Grand Prix is very similar to the real MotoGP series - but only 10 of the tracks are represented in the game. In this mode you create a rider and pick his bike, and get out against 20-something MotoGP riders (with a pit stop in between that I'll get to in a minute). Arcade Championship is an obvious nod to Project Gotham Racing; the main point is not only to win the races, but to get as many points as possible, by doing tricks and riding as close to perfect as possible. Getting so many points in the cumulative standings will unlock some extra goodies (you get more depending on your difficulty level), and once you beat the whole thing (all 10 tracks), it's possible to go back and race individual tracks again to beat your best scores to unlock even more.

Both of these modes will occupy time easily, but there's still more. An extensive and recommended training mode is put in - passing these training sessions (which include a test for doing wheelies, endos, along with normal things like cornering and braking) give you points that improve the skills of your rider - something essential to being able to compete in both major gameplay modes.

Finally, there's a quick race that can be played with up to 4 players; or if you're the online sort, you can use GameSpy Tunnel or XBConnect to take advantage of the System Link LAN play feature to play other gamers around the country. Online certainly does add immensely to the already pretty strong replay value, so it's worth checking out if you have the tools to do so.

MotoGP has 10 tracks and one unlockable track at your disposal - most are famous tracks like Le Mans (the small version of it), Suzuka, Donington, and Brno, along with a few other less known circuits. Each one is loaded with tough turns and plenty of places to get some major speed.

When you enter Grand Prix, you don't select one of the real riders from the MotoGP series; instead you create your own driver, as mentioned before. You can select name, colors, team, your number, and the kind of bike you want to race with (and there are plenty of them to choose too, from big names like Honda and Yamaha). From there you should hit the training to build up your skills, then hit the GP circuit. Winning a race in GP also unlocks points, up to 6 that you can distribute to the 4 categories of your riders' skills.

There isn't any customization to be had in terms of tweaking your bike - despite the very simmy feel of the actual racing, the gameplay style is much more arcadey. The developer, Climax, apparently decided that it would be better to keep it simple in terms of setting up the gameplay, yet make the actual races seem like the real thing. It creates a pretty strong gameplay balance.

If I was to find the closest thing to compare GP to gameplay wise, it would have to the king of racing sims, Gran Turismo. It's almost like GT on motorcycles, with all the realism that's spouted in each race. First off, there is no barreling around the corners without braking - instead learning the turns is necessary to win the races. The big hairpin turns are the ones that can only be done right by not only learning the correct time to brake, but also learning how to find the racing line to get through the turn with minimal use of the brakes. Usually it means that you do have to slow down (which of course upsets the people who prefer Ridge Racer because GT is 'boring' and makes you actually stop every once in a while) to a crawl at points, then hit the throttle right when you see daylight for the end of the turn. Against the tough computer AI (which isn't perfect, more on that in a bit), being as close to perfection as possible is one of the ways to really put the hurt on the competition.

MotoGP's controls are a little different than Xbox owners may be accustomed to - it maintains an old-school racing feeling. Instead of using the top triggers to accelerate and brake, the 2 triggers are used for front and rear brakes, which can be used to create a burnout and help make tough turns. Thus, MotoGP uses the A button to accelerate, and X to brake - very PlayStation-ish, but still familiar. These controls are tight and responsive, no matter which controller you plug into your console. And once you get used to the placement of the controls (after hours of RSC and PGR, it was tough to adjust), it becomes second nature and just as effective.

Only one small flaw exists the entire game - the AI. It's good - no doubt about that. But it's missing...a soul. The other AI riders, on all 4 difficulty levels, race around without even paying attention to you, and riding in their patterns lap after lap after lap. They don't even notice you exist when you get close, unless you manage to spin them out or mess up their pattern.

That said, the AI is tough on the hardest difficulty levels. Easy is of course pretty simple (though tough at first, with a weak rider even after the training), but the other 3 levels are extremely challenging and require almost complete perfection. Despite that it still is a blast to come from behind on the final lap to pull off a stunner against the computer - just as much of a blast as it is to completely dominate the race and win 1st by 10 seconds or more.

Finally, because of all the different modes, the replay value is through the roof. The GP is endless - after a season, you start right over again looking to win the points championship year after year. The Arcade Championship is deep enough, and with the unlockable incentives, has plenty of reason to keep on playing until you get each track down to a science. 10 tracks may seem like a small amount as compared to most racers these days, but there's so many ways to play the game that it never gets old.

Graphics

As you'd expect from an Xbox game developed specifically for the console, MotoGP is beautiful to look at. It's loaded with bump-mapped textures like the exceptional roads that almost look like the real deal, and the great and detailed environments around the tracks, like perfect trees and great looking grass effects. The sun pounds down onto the track making some turns hard to spot and navigate. And when you reach a top speed, the game kicks in a blur effect that is probably as close as it gets to what a racer sees and feels when he's at 150 MPH or more. It all ties up into a 60 FPS visual wonder.

Yet, to get the most out of the awesome graphics, you have to play in the rain. The rain effects are simply stunning, and worth playing through just to see the effects. The downpour hits the camera behind you, plugging up the screen making it hard to see. The roads look even more real, mixed with the textures & rain. And when behind other riders, the water they kick up racing around will also handicap your view of the action. Just stunning - one of the few times graphics have ever wowed me into a state of amazement.

Also, the unlockable graphics filters are great too. There's a wireframe filter that makes the game look like a racing version of Battlezone. There's a sketch mode that makes the effect that an artist is hand-drawing the action on the screen - which unfortunately makes the game unplayable, but fun to watch. The best filter in my opinion, however, is the Toon Mode. This is MotoGP's tribute to the latest gaming fad, Cel-Shading. The cel-shaded look makes the game look like MotoGP Set Radio, and already has a leg up in the category before Capcom's PS2 racer Auto Modellista even has been released. There are a few more filters, but they aren't really as fun to look at - but you have to hand it to Climax for trying something different such as this.

Sound

The sound gets high marks for one simple reason - custom soundtracks. As the most creative feature in the Xbox, being able to rip your favorite songs to the disk drive is a feature that not only makes the experience more personalized, it gives the game more replay, simply because of being able to listen to your own songs as you race the tracks. There is some music that comes with the game by default, but it's best to just switch the music over to your custom soundtrack and get out there and race to it - it is a much more rewarding experience.

Besides the music, the sounds are pretty good, but nothing outstanding. The bikes all sound pretty much the same, with a high-pitched squeal that can get irritating if not for the music that drowns it out. Little touches such as the sound of a rider whizzing by you or the sound of the engines of the guy you just passed slowly fading away are really nice and give a surround-feel even if you don't have a sound system such as that. The roar of the crowd is nice and every time you pass up a rafter of fans, they cheer - and will cheer louder if you do a wheelie for them; or so something to that extent.

There's also a sound filter that you can unlock called the ''Brrrrrrring Ding Ding'' mode. What this does is completely change the engine sounds, into something somewhat amusing to listen to. Instead of the engine, you get little kids making the engine noises that they make when playing with Matchbox cars - either that or they're The Chipmunks tuning up before their latest show. It can get annoying after a while, but it's worth hearing once or twice to get a laugh out of it, because it is pretty funny.

Overall

The Xbox isn't starved for racing games, but that's no reason to pass up MotoGP as just another racer. As an accurate representation of the real MotoGP series, the game will impress fans of the circuit, along with fans of the 2-wheeled beasts known as motorcycles. Racing gamers will also find the game to be a blast, with plenty of replay to keep the game spinning for quite a while. A sequel could probably tune up whatever is lacking (AI, not all tracks included in the game), but for now MotoGP is easily one of the best Xbox racers out there, and one of the best motorcycle games in years.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/25/02, Updated 06/25/02