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GT Advance Championship Racing
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Score: 90%
ESRB: Everyone
Publisher: THQ
Developer: MTO, Co.
Media: Cart/1
Players: 1 - 2
Genre: Racing
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Graphics & Sound:
If you look at the screenshot for THQ's Game Boy Advance racer, GT Advance Championship Racing and squint your eyes a little, you'll swear you're seeing some old PlayStation game. Yes, it's impressive, but doesn't each new GBA game get just a little more amazing these days? It's no surprise that Nintendo owns the handheld market. Looking at the car models closely, you'll see some tricks are used to make them animate more smoothly, like a bit of pixel slip-sliding as you steer left and right. But, you'll have to watch closely to even notice it, and you won't have much time to do that in the middle of a race. We're moving very far out of Pole Position territory here, since instead of simple horizon lines to indicate speed and perspective, we have some nice shading and detail that actually suggest a car moving across different terrain such as grass, asphalt, and dirt. The visuals correspond to the control, which has the net effect of making both more believable. The cars sport several different engine sounds, and you'll hear the shifting of gears when you run into an obstacle, motor by another car or step on the gas at the starting line. Everything about GT Advance mirrors the racing games we all like on the big consoles but never really imagined we'd be playing on a Game Boy. Car choice includes options to select different colors for each model. There's no fancy replay, but apart from that, you might think you were playing Gran Turismo. Even the heads-up display is styled like the racers on a big console, including small icons to tip you off to the weather conditions during the race. |
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Gameplay:
In keeping with the accepted canon, GT Advance starts you off with simple racing options, a few open tracks and some nice cars. Initially, only about 20 percent of the 48-car garage you might collect is available to be raced. The modes to begin with are limited to Practice, Championship, Quick Race, VS and Time Attack. Championship opens up tracks, cars and parts for customizing cars that will prove key to winning against tough competition later. There are 4 separate Championship series: Beginner, Middle, High Speed and Professional. As you might suspect, they get increasingly more difficult, and you'll need to be victorious in one to race the next in line. But, once you get through even the first Championship set, try going back and playing with the cars and tracks you opened up. GT Advance unfortunately has some awkward navigation features in the form of confusing menus or areas where you get locked in and forget how to get back to a race screen or the main screen. There's a lot of stuff packed on that small screen! When you have plenty of choice, take one of the cars in your garage out for a timed race around the track of your choice in Time Attack Mode. Quick Race is similar, except it actually features a full field of competitors, rather than making you just compete against the clock. VS Mode uses the GBA Link Cable (sold separately) to hook up another player and compete one race at a time with all the garage choices and upgrade options you'd have in Quick Race. It's a little limiting not to be able to at least go through a Championship season with a friend, but I'm sure that will show in another game soon. 2 semi-hidden modes are shown with nothing but question marks at first and opened up later. Not to spoil the surprise, but they basically let you race with altered cars. And, you'll be playing for a while before you unlock them. Racing includes not only different setup choices for tires, brakes, suspension and gearing but also lets you drive in varying weather conditions. How ambitious were these guys?! It rocks, really. Choosing equipment is simplified to adding an upgrade on many set items. It's clear how adding the upgrade can affect your car, and a simple chart shows you what adding and removing the item will do to your car. Since the 'garage' idea is here, you don't have to ditch a race to change cars. You aren't even penalized. If you find the Mazda just won't turn those tight corners, try the Daihatsu. That baby turns on a dime! Really, the only thing that drags down gameplay is the need to save with password. Why can't we just count on a battery save at this point? I understand it's probably cheaper, but how annoying to have to write down little codes and be sure you tote them around all the time? Annoying, to be sure. |
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Difficulty:
Some might say that GT Advance comes off a little too easy, and I'd have to agree. The reality of racing is all here, and more than a few times I cracked up on a tight curve near the end of a race and either lost the 2nd or 1st place I desperately needed to earn some elusive equipment or car, but generally you'll find it pretty easy to evade the competition. There's really no catch-up feature, so falling behind may well mean that you stay behind. Likewise, an early lead almost assures the win. Nobody requires that you come in first, but landing a place in the Top 3 is required to move on. Plus, if you practice and move up to second or first, the rewards will only help you on the next track. Power-ups are fine, but it still takes some strategic driving to do well in this game, including powersliding corners and accelerating smartly through turns and straightaways.
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Game Mechanics:
A healthy bag of options and intricate menu design in GT Advance is so nice to see for a small racing title, but even with smart design and crisp graphics, I sometimes found myself poking around in screens trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing. Browsing through the cars is lots of fun, and you have a counter showing how many cars you've earned out of the possible 48. Each car can be customized for color and usually several body styles will show up in any manufacturer's lineup. Some, like the Mazda Miata, are instantly recognizable, but most are cars released only overseas. It would have been nice to see a few other makes and models, but Japanese cars and Japanese models are what you'll get to race. The trucks offered won't be making the grade here in The U.S., since these are the little street-cleaner trucks that putter around, not big, burly Frontiers or F-150s. So, while there are many cars to pick from and a few familiar faces, I would have liked more high-profile domestics and even European imports like Mercedes, Bentley and others to show up on the roster. Which is not to say I don't want to see some of the vehicles shown off in the game come Stateside, 'cause they look sweet. And they handle like a dream. Control with Auto or Manual Transmission is available, and shifting is done on the only logical buttons, the L and R shoulder buttons. Could we live without those? More games are using them and we'll soon wonder what we did before shoulder buttons on our portable. Custom options like Handling, Top Speed/Acceleration, Tuning, Engine, Muffler, Grip, etc are added before the race, and work transparently. These parts are completely optional, and once you equip a special item, you'll need to adjust your package when you switch cars. I learned this the hard way after racing in one car for quite a while and then switching. I should have been much better, but it felt like I took a giant step backward. Turned out the reason was that custom parts don't automatically follow you from car to car. Which makes sense as you wouldn't want to put the best muffler on a car, move to several others and forget where you put the muffler. In the shop screen, you'll actually see which power-up slots are full on the car, and also see what areas don't have special parts yet. And all you need to do to earn them is race your butt off! Many things to love about GT Advance and very few complaints. Sure, there are little issues around design and navigation, but when 90 percent of the game is about racing, who really cares? Even though there will no doubt be more realistic racers down the road (there always are), this is fantastic stuff considering the limitations of size. GT Advance does its job well, and brings the kind of graphics, excitement and competitiveness to the small console that we used to get all excited about on our T.V. and in the arcades. With nothing but a GBA and Link Cable to your name, you're in the business of betting your friend he can't beat you in GT Advance which adds to the replay and the enjoyment of the race. Just moving the little cars around the track is so cool, and even though most of this showed up in F-Zero, I like seeing us move closer to the real-world realism found in so many great games inspired by or competing with Gran Turismo. Too bad the cars won't make it to our shores, by and large, but good for THQ for busting out a damn fine GBA racer! And as for your racing hopefuls, it's a long road to the top, but if you're driven, you'll make it. |
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-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
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