A Review: Beetle Adventure Racing, N64 1999
Beetle Adventure Racing is a racing game developed by Paradigm Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts in 1999. With gameplay similar to the Need For Speed series, the player takes a Volkswagen Beetle and competes in a series of races and championships. The gameplay involves racing on unlocked tracks, finding and destroying crates, and collecting coloured ladybirds while battling the CPU opponents. In addition to the original release, this game was released in Australia as HSV Adventure Racing, with the Volkswagen Beetle replaced by the Australian Holden Special Vehicle VT models.
Being a fan of the Need For Speed series and Top Gear games, I was expecting something similar with this one but instead found it to be somewhat lacking. It was like someone had taken a Need For Speed game and stripped it down to the most basic components, then ported it to the N64. There just wasn't enough of this game for me, and I found the single-player to be a disappointment too. I felt that this was another one of those games that seemed to be an arcade crossover, though I don't think that it was ever developed with arcades in mind. It was strange, as no matter how much I played this game, I just couldn't see what other gamers and some critics were raving about. Top Gear Overdrive sounded, looked, and played better than this game, in my opinion, and the Need For Speed games were vastly superior. If someone told me that this game was developed by Electronic Arts as some sort of soft competition for The Need For Speed, I would have to agree with them. The controls were overly sensitive or just didn't respond at all, with many of the car handling mechanics being all or nothing. The cars sounded crap and just didn't have the audio punch that I had expected. They sounded like a small child making raspberry noises trying to imitate an engine roar, rather than something for a game. I found that the lack of the ability to even remotely customise or improve a car's performance was a negative point for me. Just changing the colour and having slightly better stats from one colour to another wasn't enough. The tracks were basic and dull and just didn't have any real variety or differences from one stage to the next, with perhaps the exception of standard racing game tropes. The backgrounds for the tracks were also dull and boring, and I didn't much like the trees, bushes, and various structures. It was very odd that some structures could be destroyed while others could not, and it was annoying trying to figure out and remember which ones were which. Often times, I would end up forgetting and then coming to a literal crashing halt when I found one of the indestructible ones. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason behind which objects could be destroyed or not, and I just found that to be strange. Either have them all able to be destroyed by the player or don't; it's that simple. The viewpoint choices for the cars were either in-nose or 3rd person, and while they worked, I didn't like them that much. I would have liked a bonnet camera or something similar, but it wasn't a choice that was offered. The way in which the cars handled was also annoying, in my opinion, with them either sticking to the track like glue or just sliding off for no reason. The other handling mechanics seemed to be hit and miss, in my opinion too. The only thing that I found to be worth playing this game for was the multiplayer. It worked quite nicely and seemed to be able to keep up with the control inputs of four people respectably well.
I felt that the visuals weren't that bad overall. The tracks and world objects were a little basic and didn't hold up that well when compared to The Need for Speed or Top Gear Overdrive, but they were okay. I thought that the environments were okay; they were a little sparse with the details, but they were pretty enough. There were a lot of repeating textures I noticed, however, and the backgrounds were a little lazy, with block colours being used and minimal details throughout the game. I did like the weird and wonderful colours that could be unlocked for your car, though, and I liked the simple user interface. The car models looked pretty good, and I'll admit, it was clear that they were Volkswagen Beetles. I did like the snow sections as well, and the little helicopters and such were a nice touch to the game. I never had any frame rate issues during my playthrough, and I thought that was worthy of being noted also.
For me, this is one of those games that is great with friends but just doesn't offer enough for a decent single-player experience.
4/10 – Could've Been Better!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
Being a fan of the Need For Speed series and Top Gear games, I was expecting something similar with this one but instead found it to be somewhat lacking. It was like someone had taken a Need For Speed game and stripped it down to the most basic components, then ported it to the N64. There just wasn't enough of this game for me, and I found the single-player to be a disappointment too. I felt that this was another one of those games that seemed to be an arcade crossover, though I don't think that it was ever developed with arcades in mind. It was strange, as no matter how much I played this game, I just couldn't see what other gamers and some critics were raving about. Top Gear Overdrive sounded, looked, and played better than this game, in my opinion, and the Need For Speed games were vastly superior. If someone told me that this game was developed by Electronic Arts as some sort of soft competition for The Need For Speed, I would have to agree with them. The controls were overly sensitive or just didn't respond at all, with many of the car handling mechanics being all or nothing. The cars sounded crap and just didn't have the audio punch that I had expected. They sounded like a small child making raspberry noises trying to imitate an engine roar, rather than something for a game. I found that the lack of the ability to even remotely customise or improve a car's performance was a negative point for me. Just changing the colour and having slightly better stats from one colour to another wasn't enough. The tracks were basic and dull and just didn't have any real variety or differences from one stage to the next, with perhaps the exception of standard racing game tropes. The backgrounds for the tracks were also dull and boring, and I didn't much like the trees, bushes, and various structures. It was very odd that some structures could be destroyed while others could not, and it was annoying trying to figure out and remember which ones were which. Often times, I would end up forgetting and then coming to a literal crashing halt when I found one of the indestructible ones. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason behind which objects could be destroyed or not, and I just found that to be strange. Either have them all able to be destroyed by the player or don't; it's that simple. The viewpoint choices for the cars were either in-nose or 3rd person, and while they worked, I didn't like them that much. I would have liked a bonnet camera or something similar, but it wasn't a choice that was offered. The way in which the cars handled was also annoying, in my opinion, with them either sticking to the track like glue or just sliding off for no reason. The other handling mechanics seemed to be hit and miss, in my opinion too. The only thing that I found to be worth playing this game for was the multiplayer. It worked quite nicely and seemed to be able to keep up with the control inputs of four people respectably well.
I felt that the visuals weren't that bad overall. The tracks and world objects were a little basic and didn't hold up that well when compared to The Need for Speed or Top Gear Overdrive, but they were okay. I thought that the environments were okay; they were a little sparse with the details, but they were pretty enough. There were a lot of repeating textures I noticed, however, and the backgrounds were a little lazy, with block colours being used and minimal details throughout the game. I did like the weird and wonderful colours that could be unlocked for your car, though, and I liked the simple user interface. The car models looked pretty good, and I'll admit, it was clear that they were Volkswagen Beetles. I did like the snow sections as well, and the little helicopters and such were a nice touch to the game. I never had any frame rate issues during my playthrough, and I thought that was worthy of being noted also.
For me, this is one of those games that is great with friends but just doesn't offer enough for a decent single-player experience.
4/10 – Could've Been Better!
Signed Off – Leonardo – PSJ
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