|
With Gran Turismo literally blowing away the field of competition, there
hasn't been much else on the PS2 to satisfy racers need for a good dose of
high-octane entertainment. Ridge Racer V wasn't terribly entertaining,
and after that stupid 99 lap mode fiasco, I wasn't all that happy with it.
Driving Emotion Type-S was a first class disaster.
There hasn't been a Gran Turismo killer yet, but so far I've been hard pressed
to find a Gran Turismo competitor.
So, out comes Capcom and throws their hat into the racing ring, with their
fantastic looking cel-shaded offering called Auto Modellista. Early on,
before I had purchased the game I had heard from one of my friends that the
physics were bad and that this was not going to be anywhere as good as Gran
Turismo. I went ahead and picked it up anyway, just cuz' that's what being part
of the old school is all about.
Despite
its cartoony looks, AutoModellista is actually a fairly serious racing game. The
physics aren't quite up to snuff, you can stop on a dime, and you make a lot of
turns that you normally wouldn't. Actually, the handling is very similar to
Initial D: The Arcade Stage if you happened to have dropped into an arcade
in Japan recently, or have a nearby arcade that brings over cabinets. (Really
cool game, btw, you get this ID card that will track your progress, and unlock
cars in the arcade.) It's not nearly as drift-heavy as Ridge Racer is, so I feel
there's a better feel of control in this game.
There are a large variety of license cars to choose from. For instance, if you
select Toyota as your manufacturer of choice, you'll get a range of cars from
the Supra, and the MR-S, to the Levin, '86 Trueno, and the Sport 800. The cars
in the game will scale to whatever you're using, so it's not like you can just
pick the NSX and go around racing a bunch of old style Civics.
You can start the game from two modes, "Arcade" and "Garage Life". Garage Life
is basically like what you'd start with if you were playing Gran Turismo. You
get a long campaign of races, and getting parts to modify your car. The
difference here is that in Auto Modelista, you don't need money to pay for the
parts, you'll just unlock them as you win races. These parts will allow you to
compete in the successive difficulty levels of races, because without the parts,
you simply wouldn't be able to keep up without racing a near flawless race.
Also unlike Gran Turismo, Auto Modellista will let you customize your garage in
addition to your car. AS you win races you'll get stuff to decorate your garage
with, shelves, oil cans, trophies, posters, and all kinds of good stuff. Haven't
found anything super cool yet, but it looks really cool to have your little wood
furnished garage and all the trimmings in the background as you take a look at
your car.
Of course, you're able to customize your car, from the paint and striping down
to the decals and even the license plate. Set up cooler rims (as long as they're
not those lame gold ones that the Subaru Impreza drivers like...ick.), mirrors,
body kits and the whole 9 yards. Customize your paint schemes, and you're ready
to take the cel shaded racing world by storm.
There's no training mode in Auto Modellista. You either figure out how to race
the course on your own or fail trying. (In which case the announcer will ask,
"Why are you so bad!?") The first few races are very easy, and you'll be blowing
everyone out of the water. I think my average victory didn't allow for the other
racers to even finish by the timeI had skipped the replay prompts. If you need
help trying to figure out a track, you'll get email that will offer racing tips
on thing like how to make a high speed U-turn to, key points on the tracks
you'll be racing on.
Speaking of the tracks, they're pretty nice. Shinjuku A will take you past the
JR station, and although I haven't been that deep into Shinjuku, manages to look
a bit like the actual city, so maybe they used real streets to make the courses,
which would be really, really cool. Uwe rokkou is a pretty cool downhill course,
and Akagi is pretty nice too.
The cel shaded graphics end up look really nice in this game, and are used
really well, as opposed to most games that use them where they're a gimmick,
like early 3D. Game developers want you to come over and say, "Hey look! Cel
shading! How hip and cool this game must be!" In Auto Modellista they do a
really good job of giving you that sense of speed, and the little dust clouds
the tires kick up and sparks that come off of colliding with other cars are done
really well. The replays look excellent too, although they need to do some work
with the cameras before they're in the same league as GT.
Audio for the game is ok, but nothing to write home about. The audio isn't as
pumping as GT, but it's way better than the American soundtrack that they end up
throwing into the US version of GT. The intro, as well is kind of a mixed bag.
At various points in time, they put text in the middle of the screen that gets
completely obscured by what's on the screen. That and they spell "vibration"
wrong in the center of the screen, too.
The level of Japanese required for gameplay is not very high. The only thing I
don't understand are all the various yes/no prompts when I want to save, but
nothing horrible has happened to my game so far. So if you don't know your
hiragana from your kanji from your French, don't worry about it. Driving is
international.
My only big complaints with the game thus far (halfway through according to the
trophy count.) are all with the stupid Capcom announcer. He's the same punk from
Marvel vs. Capcom 2. Can't someone just accuse him of soliciting a minor
like they do to all the politician in Japan and get rid of him? He makes
speaking English look bad. Sometimes, I can't even figure out what the heck he's
saying. Everyone once in a while he'll say something like, "Now done did it!"
Anyway, I hate him. If anyone in Japan knows who he is, tell him to take some
more English lessons.
All tolled, Auto Modellista is a fun ride. Don't expect the simulation oriented
experience of Gran Turismo, or the super-arcade drifting of Ridge Racer...expect
a middle ground...an incredible looking racing game with minimal tuning options,
but closer to real life driving than the strange world that Ridge Racer takes
place on...you know, the one where hot looking women get dressed up leave their
apartments hoping to get picked up by drivers in the middle of a race. I'd
recommend picking this one up if you can play import games.
|
