Surprisingly good fantasy racer. Very addictive, well worth playing.

User Rating: 8.5 | GripShift PSP
Gripshift

I'm really astrounded by the quality of this game. Released back in September 05, Gripshift is a hybrid game of four genres, Puzzle, Platform, Driving & Action. A strange combination to be sure but a very successful one. At first Gripshift seems like a strange racing game with crazy tracks. The controls take a little getting used to, the car physics are by no means real, they feel much more floaty than games such as Burnout. For this many reviewers called the controls broken but this is by no means true! They take a little getting used to but once you're passed the beginner levels you should be fine.

Now let's go through how it blends the genres together. Driving is self-explanatory. Puzzle comes into play in figuring out how to collect all the stars, how to get to the Gripshift symbol and how to finish the course as fast as possible in order to get the gold. Platforming refers to how a lot of the time there are gaps on the course and you must boost over them or in getting the Gripshift symbol where much of the time you have to drive your car off the beaten path as it were, in order to land on one of the surrounding cliffs where the GS symbol is. An example of this would be when doing a vertical loop, as you're going up you may have to drive off to the side in order to get enough height to land on the cliff. And lastly action refers to the races you have against the AI, which follows a similar pattern as Jak X or Wipeout where there's boost and weapons in order to beat your opponent.

In Single Player there are 3 modes, Challenge, Race and Bonus. Race is as described above, similar to Wipeout or Jak X. Bonus games consist of Playground (a large skateboarding bowl with stars and boost, collect the stars as quickly as possible), Penguin Bowling (Drive the car and knock them down), Bomb Pool (Pot all the balls with a car and the longer you take the more boms will litter the table). There are also Snaker, Ice Hockey and Soccer Crazy but I haven't unlocked them yet. The 1st 3 are fun diversions from the main game and you'll probably play them from time to time when you want a little break from the Challenge mode.

Challenge mode is the main mode in the game. Here is where you find the combination of the four genres. Each track has 3 criteria, get the gold medal (time), get all the stars and get the GS symbol. You complete one at a time, you don't have to complete all 3 criteria in one run. It's actually impossible to do so on most tracks as collecting the stars will destroy your time. Anyway the tracks are all extremely well designed. Some will take you a number of tries to complete each criteria and even in the Easy section there are one or two pretty challenging ones. You do not need to complete everything to proceed though you will need to complete a certain amount to access the more difficult sections. In order to finish a section all you have to do is cross the finish line of each track but you get credits when you complete the criteria and these are needed to unlock the later sections.

The challenge mode is ridiculously fun. It is challenging, fast-paced, the graphics are pretty simple but the game is really nice to look at and the combination of the floaty physics and the powerful boost function mean you can make some pretty epic leaps, some of which will be necessary but not altogether obviously in order to get the gold. Each criteria has it's own challenge and you'll play each track differently depending on which criteria you're trying to complete. This makes each track playtime three times as long but it doesn't feel that way at all. For the gold you'll try to boost and cut huge chunks out of the track by jumping off inclines. For stars you'll play it totally differently. And for the GS symbol you'll play it differently again. It's the variation in the gameplay that I find the most rewarding and the fact that any of the three criteria could be the most challenging in any one track.

As well as the single player the game supports ad-hoc multiplayer. I haven't played as very few people I know have PSPs and none have Gripshift.

And lastly comes the track editor. Yes you can create your own crazy tracks and it's incredibly simple to do. You don't even need instructions to figure it out. It a powerful editor, very streamlined and easy to use and you'll seriously be creating your own tracks in minutes. You can also download some free tracks from the official site if you wish.

As I said I am astounded at the quality of this title. The average on Metacritic isn't the best but this is a truly excellent fantasy racer, challenging in an enjoyable way and I'm having more fun playing it than I ever did playing Wipeout or Burnout. I highly recommend you pick up a copy.