Despite being based on the film there’s no particular story in Speed Racer: The Videogame - Speed, Racer X and a few others from the series simply compete in championship races. The game offers two main single-player modes: Arcade and World Racing League, which acts as a championship mode. Once you select the desired mode you’ll then get to choose from a range of racers, all of whom have their own unique speed, drifting, boost and handling attributes.
Like most racing games, Speed Racer requires you to compete in three lap circuits. During races you’re encouraged to perform stunts off ramps and half pipes by pressing and holding one of the D-Pad buttons. Each time you successfully pull a trick, your Boost meter will begin to fill until it eventually turns blue. At this point if you press the right shoulder button, you’ll enter a state known as the Zone. When in this state, environments are covered by a blue blur and you’ll travel at your vehicle’s top speed. Also, your vehicle travels like it was in an auto-pilot mode and easily gets past turns and jumps. You will, however, have limited left and right movement, which you can use to ram into opponents and slow their progress briefly. While similar elements have been used in other games, a lot of Speed Racer’s challenge comes from this, as those who don’t implement it at the right time are more than likely to lose each race.
Go Speed Racer, GO!
Apart from speeding ahead using boosts, players are also required to utilise Car-Fu. Car-Fu is the term used for describing attacks that you can perform to hinder your opponent’s progress. The first attack is known as a Zone Hit and is described in the above paragraph, while the second is called a Spin Attack that requires you to spin your vehicle and knock back opponents. Lastly, there’s the Jump Attack which feels more like a mini-game. Essentially, when you’re close behind an opponent you can press the B button to cause a short animation to play. The animation will consist of you or your opponent trying to jump over another car. During the sequence, two icons appear at the top of the screen and move towards a central circle. Your main goal is to press either the X or Y button (whichever is displayed on-screen) and stop your icon as close to the circle as possible. If you’re the attacking car then you’ll land on your opponent and cause them to spin out of control, or in the case of defending, you’ll be rewarded with a speed boost. Unfortunately, while the Zone Hit and Spin Attack are generally suitable, the Jump Attack feels like a cheap gimmick. The way it plays out it actually takes you away from the race and slows down the action. Also, the mini-game itself is so basic that you’ll nearly always beat your opponent. There’s simply no challenge involved.
An interesting system that the developers have incorporated is your character’s fan-base. Basically, each time you successfully attack an opponent or pull off a stunt you’ll gain new fans. Gameplay wise, fans don’t really affect anything, but they do reward you with new content such as more playable characters and alternative skins for cars. It’s a lighthearted feature that you’ll either love or ignore entirely.
In case you get tired of championships, Arcade mode offers players a few different gameplay types. These include Quick Race, Time Attack, Quick Stunts and Quick Battle. The first two are self explanatory, but Quick Stunts and Quick Battle give players new challenges. When you select a track in either category, you’ll be given a time limit and a number of points you have to score by performing stunts, or a number of opponents you have to attack. While it is fairly basic, it at least offers something new from the standard racing, and it can be quite fun in short bursts.
While the screens don't show it, the game is very fast.
Although generally Speed Racer is a competent title that could have stood up against other racing games on the market, there are a few other flaws which lower its quality. Firstly, the AI just doesn’t feel balanced. No matter how good a racer you are, there will always be a few opponents who will be able to catch up. Likewise, when you’re dead last you can swiftly crawl back into first place. Secondly, there seems to be a strange occurrence where if you can’t make a jump successfully, your vehicle is placed miles ahead of the other racers. For instance, just before a jump one of our opponents performed a Spin Attack which caused us to lose momentum and crash into a bottomless pit. Our vehicle was then instantly transported past the jump plus a few extra kilometers down the track. Now, this is not quite game breaking as your vehicle needs to gain momentum which gives other racers time to catch up, however, there is still a considerable gap between you and others. If you happen to be on the last lap and your opponent is the one who misses a jump, it can also cost you the race. Fortunately it doesn’t occur too often, but it’s still something you should be wary of.
Speed Racer also features multiplayer support for up to six players. Unfortunately, each player will need their own copy of the game, which is really disappointing when you consider Diddy Kong Racing DS and Mario Kart DS supported single-card Download Play.
At the start of each race, the game doesn’t look too pretty. The only thing that greets players are ugly blocky vehicles. This however, changes dramatically once you pick up speed. Race tracks are just full of colour, loops and twists, all of which zoom past you as you speed along. The frame rate is impressive for the DS, and it will really appeal to Speed Racer fans. In contrast, the soundtrack is poor. The rock theme playing in the background tends to blend in unnaturally with the sound effects of cars scraping against rails and the humming of wheels. It’s probably best if you turn the volume down.
Unfortunately, while Speed Racer had quite a bit of potential, it fell just a bit short. The Jump Attack mini-game feels gimmicky, the AI is unbalanced, and when you or an opponent misses a jump you are advanced a considerable distance ahead of other racers. On the plus side the gameplay is far from broken, there’s a great sensation of speed, and combining boosts and attacks to claim victory is both fun and challenging. If you enjoyed the film or just love speedy games, then Speed Racer: The Videogame will certainly appeal to you.
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