Bumper bowling with EA!
I really wanted to like this game for the sake of he who bought it for me, but it is just plain BAD. The first noticeable trait when you start a race is the texture on the cars, or rather the lack of texture. Then, when you go to round your first corner or two, you’ll notice there is something seriously wrong. Your instinct will tell you to tap left on the d-pad to begin a left turn. Your tap has done nothing, so you hold left, only to hear the only tire screeching sound in the entire game, and you will hit the opposite wall. There seems to be only this one sound universally used on every tire-screeching turn. As you might guess, it’s only funny the first few times you hear it, then it gets old. After careening off the first wall, you’ll inevitably over-correct and hit the other wall, then the next, and so on and so forth. But that’s ok because little speed is lost by scraping the wall, ala gt3. The way the car behaves reminds me of a game whose name escapes me for the original game-boy. Instead of the car moving around the curves, the curves move around the car. Collision detection is hilariously non-existent, especially when barreling headfirst into on-coming traffic. Doing so will bring the car to a complete stop with no recoil from the impact. No congratulations are given after winning a race. Nor should they be if racing against the dim-witted AI cars.
In short, don’t buy this game. Buy Mario Cart or even NFS Underground, but just not this one. EA has given us yet another example of a cheap port used only as a means to extort hard-earned money from those uneducated enough to buy it. TELL THE WORLD!