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February 3, 2006 | 6:06 PM PST
by: Sean Kennedy
Should you head to the races?
To answer the question proposed above, the answer is yes and no. Hot Wheels have been around for a long time and it is almost certain that most people owned one as a child. Playing with Hot Wheels was not just about collecting cars, but about creating stunt race tracks and trying to pull off crazy tricks with your cars. Realizing this, THQ has set out to try to mimic the feel and fun of playing with real Hot Wheels with their new game Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge. Have they been successful with their attempt? It depends on how you look at it.
Features
Gameplay
Believe it or not, but THQ has managed to create a story behind Hot Wheels, which goes something like this. Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge is the most popular and extreme Game Show on the airwaves today. In the show drivers compete against each other performing death defying stunts and racing on outrageously designed tracks to become the Hot Wheels Champion. As players complete through the series they will earn points with the winner being declared at the end of the season. Essentially, Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge is Hot Wheels cars meeting the popular TV show “Fear Factor.”
Once booted up, players are able to select from three modes: Game Show, Arcade, and a multiplayer mode. The main mode in the game is of course the Game Show itself, with the Arcade mode only allowing players to race on tracks they have unlocked. Game Show mode places racers into six distinct worlds, or Danger parks as they are called in the game, each with a series of challenges. Since the Game Show is a television series, each of these worlds represents one episode of the series. The challenges presented to players in each episode consist of four stunt challenges and two actual races. In order to be declared the champion of the episodes, players will need to earn the most points throughout the challenges.
Of the challenges, the weakest are the Game Break challenges. Within these challenges players will rush around a course using a top-down perspective collecting a set number of tokens in the time given. These challenges are very simple, quick, and actually come off visually like a Micro Machines game. The only real benefit of these challenges is that the tokens are used to unlock new decals for your cars. The races are clearly where the real fun lies in the game. Track designs include what Hot Wheels fans would expect to find, such as Rumble Strips which slow you down and Zip Strips which speed you up. The developer has also included other obstacles on the tracks for players to deal with, such as crates, bombs, and barriers. Some tracks also include shortcuts for players to find and of course a large variety of jumps to perform stunts off of. Unfortunately these stunts are where the game falls flat, which is a greater problem since the name of the game is Stunt Track Challenge. Before going on with describing the stunt system, it should be noted that despite these tracks featuring a lot of obstacles and Hot Wheels related track pieces, they do lack attention to detail in their design. All of the tracks lack anything to really separate them from one another. Regardless of what episode “world” you are in, all of the tracks could be mixed up and you would not notice due their lack of world-specific design details.
Stunts basically consist of using the analogue stick to throw you car into a barrel roll or a series of flips while in air. Successfully land on your wheels and you have completed a stunt. That’s it. While the stunt tracks themselves provide a lot of death defying areas, such as twisted sections of track and narrow roadway, navigating over them is barely a stunt. A lot more attention to detail and greater stunt variety are seriously lacking from this game. If you can get past that, Stunt Track Challenge still provides a good arcade racing experience.
Graphics
Graphically, Stunt Track Challenge is a mixed bag. Environments are large, distinct, and pretty but are not overly detailed. Everything is colorful and bright, but lack polygons and advanced texture work. For the most part the environments seems as though they belong in a Dreamcast racing title, not an advanced Xbox game. That is not to say the game looks bar or runs poorly. On the contrary, everything moves fast and smooth, but overall look a bit dated. Car models on the other hand are very well done. Each Hot Wheel looks as they should, with rounded edges, detailed accessories, and clear decals.
Sound
The music featured in Stunt Track Challenge is as generic as can be. The high-energy rock music, while never hard on the ears, fades into the background due to its lack of any catchy themes or memorable tunes. Sound effects are decent, but like the music, come off rather generic and lack greater variety. The game could have benefited from a more powerful and varied sound effects package, but what is there does get the job done.
Closing
Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge, while not a bad game at all, could have used significantly more time in development to flesh out its track designs and stunt system. It does provide a solid over the top arcade racing experience similar to that of San Francisco Rush 2049, but without the exciting tricks and stunts that would have made it a more rewarding experience. Also the lack of online gameplay which the PS2 and PC counterparts feature, comes as a bit of a letdown for Xbox owners. At the budget price of $20 it is not surprising that the final package came out the way it did, but again for that price it is still worth checking out or at least renting.
February 8, 2010
