Pocketbike Racer

"So Much For the Promise to Have it My Way"

Have you ever been playing some generic cart racer and thought to yourself, “Boy this is fun! The only thing that could make this experience better would be the opportunity to play as a giant chicken. Or maybe a burger with a head!” No? In fact you can emphatically say that you've never had the desire to play any game as a burger with a head? Weird. Unfortunately, that appears to be the only niche that will be drawn to Burger King's game Pockerbike Racer. Pocketbike Racer is one of the three games that was released by Burger King, and features gameplay and production values that you would probably expect from a video game made by a company that specializes in burgers. However, compared to the other two games Burger King has punished us with, and taking into account this game cost four dollars new, Poketbike Racer is probably better than you would expect it to be. However, despite a couple of well executed concepts, this is still probably one of the worst cart racers released in the past five years and just because it is cheap isn't a particularly good reason to waste your time on it.

If you've ever played any of the multitude of cart racers that have been released throughout the years, Pocketbike Racer doesn't really veer too far from the basic formula that is commonly used. You drive around in pocketbikes, which look pretty much like the name implies: tiny bicycles. However, this game does feature four distinct modes of gameplay, which, had they all been good, might have made Pocketbike Racer a surprise hit. The best mode in the game, by far, is the conventional race. You drive around the track as a variety of Burger King mascots, including the King himself, Whopper Jr., and the subservient chicken (there are a couple of other random employees, a mysterious and lame biker character, and model Brooke Burke thrown in for good measure), trying not to focus on the fact that you're racing around as Burger King paraphernalia. The object in this mode is to simply drive your pocketbike around the track before the other Burger King characters can. While it lasts, this mode is actually fun to play, even against the computer controlled characters. The controls for the pocketbikes are, for the most part, fairly solid. Turning can be a bit frustrating at times, but once you figure out how to implement the braking and work out the drifts, the control scheme featured here is actually good (!). On top of that, the item system in Pocketbike Racer is one of the better ones I've encountered in any of these type of racing games. As you progress through various gates, a meter on the side of the screen gets charged up. Smaller gates that are more difficult to pass through (and in some cases are hidden) charge up the meter more, and larger ones give only tiny increments. Better items require more of the bar filled to use, but you can use your special at any time either on any of the weapons below where the bar is charged up to, which will empty the bar entirely, or on a boost, which only takes out a certain portion. This is actually a well thought out system and rewards players who are skilled enough to pass through the gates while driving and does not haphazardly reward the worst players with the best weapons. In fact, Pocketbike Racer does a much better job than some of its competitors at not dumbing down the gameplay and forcing everyone to pretty much play on the same level by repeatedly rewarding the worst players to keep the race close.

However, while the fundamentals of the game are solid, everything else is put together so poorly that it dooms Pocketbike Racer to be a second rate cart racer. While the racing is put together well and in theory should be fun, it quickly unravels once you realize there are only five total tracks to race on. Worse yet, most of the levels aren't even that fun to race on the first time. While the construction yard has a very nice open feel and gives you tons of opportunities to make your own path through the course, and the neighborhood level, while more structured, is designed well enough to still be entertaining, the other three courses are all absolutely awful. One level is a Burger King parking lot, which takes about twenty seconds to race through and is less fun that actually racing around a real parking lot on foot. Perhaps the worst course is the Tender Crisp Ranch, which is apparently the ranch where Burger King farms its sandwiches. Most of the course is narrow and gates, and contributing to the awful ambiance is the gigantic monster sandwiches that are in the background of the entire course (which should serve as an eerie reminder to the subservient chicken as to what will happen if he loses the race). While you can compete in 50, 100, or 150 cc matches, this doesn't change the overall course at all and there really isn't much difference between the speed or difficultly in any of these. Thus, with only two likable courses and only five total courses, you'll end up getting bored about ten to twenty minutes into the game.

Additionally, while the game offers three other race modes, you might end up playing them once to find out what they are (or to get the achievements), which is exactly how many matches it will take to figure out how boring each is. There is a battle mode, where you must hit the other drivers with some sort of weapon a predetermined amount of times in order to win. And, while it might sound like fun to hit Burger King employees with a missile, it turns out to be far less satisfying than it sounds. In another mode you must drive through more gates than the opposition. There really isn't anything fun hawking around an already used gate, waiting for it to recharge and drive through it again. It removes the whole fun of these sorts of racing games, and the most difficult part is not dozing off while you're waiting for a gate to become usable again. Finally, there is the “hardcore” racing mode, which is about as hardcore as you would expect from a fast food conglomerate. Take everything you like about the normal race mode, like the hectic action, scrambling for gates to build up your boosts while dodging attacks sent your way by lesser Burger King employees and mascots, and remove it and you're stuck with hardcore mode. This is essentially a basic race, without the frills of the gates/weapons/boosts (and without any of the entertainment either). While the game does offer four distinct modes, only one is worth playing (and with the limited amount of tracks it is unlikely you'll even be playing that one for very long).

In addition to the modicum of actual content in the game, and the fact that most of the little content there isn't very good, Pocketbike Racer has some other issues that should dissuade most from spending much time with it. The graphics featured in this game would be bad by the standards set by the last generation of consoles, and the music in the game is repetitive and annoying. While the control scheme itself is solid, your cart can get stuck on some random items and it becomes difficult to unwedge yourself. This can become frustrating as it happens more frequently than it should and can prove to be a detriment if you are racing other people. However, on single player the game itself is so easy that even the occasional glitch isn't enough to stop you from winning most tournaments by upwards of twenty points. Single player mode isn't really bad, but with so few tracks to choose from, the lack of difficulty even on the highest setting means this is a game you'll get tired of playing by yourself within a day. Multiplayer mode is fun, and online mode is great, but both of these rely on the assumption that there is somebody else out there that actually wants to play Pocketbike Racer (which turns out to be a faulty assumption).

All in all, Pocketbike Racer is surprisingly almost playable. The fundamentals of the cart racer featured here are actually fairly strong, and the problem is that the game built around the concept just isn't good enough to warrant repeated playing. Sure, the single player races can be fun for a couple of hours, but you can only race around a Burger King parking lot so many times before you start craving other locations. All of the other modes are boring and really do not work well with the basic premise behind this game. The fast paced action sort of unravels in the other modes and you'll be bored before you finish the first match. This game is actually mildly entertaining if you can con somebody else into playing it with you, but even this drags soon with so little content to explore. It is a shame that so little is included with this game, because with more content (and less Burger King characters), this might have actually been an enjoyable game. As it stands, there are very few people that will be satisfied with the experience offered by Pocketbike Racer and the game should really only be purchased if you're after the novelty value of owning the infamous Burger King games.

King of the Tracks (THE GOOD):
+Fundamental control scheme featured in the game is impressive
+Weapon/item system used in the game is nicely done
+Racing against friends can be fun while the novelty lasts
+Inclusion of online mode would be nice if anybody ever played
+Probably worth the four dollars they're charging for it

Joker on the Road (THE BAD):
-Besides the normal race, there isn't anything remotely interesting to do in this game
-Only five tracks to play on; you end up getting bored within a couple hours of starting the game
-Mildly entertaining for about a day (at most)
-Most of the sparse number of tracks included aren't very good
-Graphics are about two generation behind (music even worse)
-Single player experience undermined by the lack of difficulty
-Playing any game as the Burger King mascot is enough the crush your self esteem

…Was that a giant burger that just drove through our pool? (THE UGLY): Each one of the characters has numerous taunts, most of which are so lame you'll actually feel worse after taunting. One of Brooke Burke's is something along the lines of, “You only want to get close to me because I'm a celebrity!” …Really Brooke? As somebody who is featured in a video game next to Cristina, somebody who works the fries at Burger King, a giant chicken, and a mutated monster burger with a face, I'd be very careful about throwing around that celebrity card. Somebody might just come by and revoke it.

THE VERDICT: 3.50/10.00

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 03/23/09, Updated 07/31/09

Game Release: Pocketbike Racer (US, 11/19/06)