A REAL racing game for the DS!!!
Or is racing about gas & brake, gearing and line, and trying not to cause any damage?
If you answered "Yes" to anything but the last question, move along... this game is NOT for you.But if, on the other hand, you like the idea of real-world physics, real-world driving rules, real-world tracks (from ALL OVER the real world!) then get down and do the Happy Dance... your game has arrived! Codemasters has been behind some of the best console racing titles of all time like "Colin McRae" and the "ToCA" series, and now they've set their sights on handhelds with the issuance of "Race Driver: Create & Race" for the DS.
If you've played "ToCA", then you'll be right at home here down to the menu screen music... all of the tracks are taken from real raceways around the globe and you'll spend most of your time climbing through the different leagues in the Career Mode, which is a tiered system of races you need to beat in order to unlock the series for Free Race or Time Trial. If you beat all of the challenges a Pro Tour will open up, which requires use of Manual Transmition - More on this later.
Opening tiers and other accomplishments give you points, which you use to unlock bonus championship races as well as track parts to use in the track editor which you can then use to design your own tracks... a brilliantly easy feature which easily extends the replay value of an already depthy title.
Even though there are no analog contrtols, the cars control handle well, giving you a great sense of speed and weight... for those of you into Sim-style racing the lack of analog may seem a bit daunting at first, but as with the other "compromises" in the game, once you get playing you hardly even notice. There are three views: Chase, Bonnett (Hood), or Bumper, all of them working exceedingly well without the slightest dip in framerate. The amount of in-game tracks is staggering - thirty-two tracks (not all of them available to all classes of car, mind you) spread across 24 types of car... the only classes missing from the console brothers to this title are Go Carts and open wheel or off-road racing... but there's all sorts of fendered racing, Super Trucks, and even a lil' NASCAR-style stock cars in the Dodge Challenge!!! Sorry, personal favorite, and Indy looks and drives GREAT, take it from someone who lives close to the real track and has seen it many times...
The drawbacks? Well, there are a few if you're looking hard enough... some of the scenery is kind of sparse on certain tracks making on-coming corners hard to judge, and the roadside distance indicators are a touch inaccurate in the scale... also, opponent AI is a bit unforgiving when they're in the racing line and they can thrash about a bit violently when jockeying for position at times... there are no car tweaking menus to adjust anything, and there are no parts to upgrade, but aside from those small grievances I have no complaints especially considering the platform this title is running on. Qualifying can be toggled on or off and the game saves after each race so if you're getting off the train your progress won't be totally lost in a championship... there are driving minigames to test your skill and unlock stuff, and a rediculously feature-filled online that works really well rounds out one of the best racers this system has ever seen.
If you want to knock the competition into next week with a mushroom bomb stick to "MarioKart", but if you want a handheld cousin of "Gran Turismo" and "ToCA", then look no farther 'cuz here it is!
8 out of 10.