|
At least there are a few things in life that I know for sure: Number one, having three major companies fighting it out in the game consoles market is really the greatest thing that has ever happen to the console market for the game consumers. Number two, learning Japanese is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. And number three is that ATVs are simply the coolest vehicles ever created by man, followed by, at a close second is the Mystery Mobile. So I was so pleased to find out that the guys and gals from Tantalus share my enthusiasm about ATVs and have continued on the series on the GBA that originally started on the PlayStation. ATV: Quad Power Racing is exactly what its name implies it is a racing game, which involves ATVs. Besides being your standard racer, ATV has a number of power-ups to give you the advantage over your opponents. Items like, Turbo, which gives you a quick boost of speed, and Super Air, which allows you to get maximum airtime when you come flying off of jumps.
Quad Power Racing has two modes of play, Arcade and Challenge. The Arcade mode allows you to get into the game quickly, picking what type of ATV you want to use, what track you wish to race on and off you go. Challenge mode allows you to unlock the extra ATVs and tracks that you can choose to use in the Arcade mode. My biggest complaint about ATV: QPR is that it is a password based game, making it a total pain in the butt to continue where you left off. The controls of ATV are really quite simple, making it easy to pick up and start playing. The downside to the simplistic controls is that the overall gameplay is not too deep. For example the lack of leaning into your turns via the right and left triggers is something that would have made the gameplay much more enriching, or the ability to pull the nose of your ATV back to get more airtime when coming over jumps also should have been added. Basically you control your turning with the control pad and you accelerate and brake with the A and B buttons. Graphically ATV: QPR looks very good on the GBA, the crashes are very well animated and the interaction that the rider has with the ATV does the sport justice. The tracks of ATV look almost completely 3-D and look superb for a GBA game. The biggest problem with ATV’s track designs is that the tracks are just kind of boring and tedious, making going through all of the tracks seem more like a chore rather then a diversion of time. Overall ATV is not the best racing game on the market, but has some appeal; graphically the game is a good looking one and it plays fairly well. If you are an ATV racing junkie or just a hardcore racing nut, this could be a game worth checking out. But if you are looking for something truly deep and innovated then it wouldn’t hurt you to past this one by.
|
