Nintendo Okie

Howdy:

• Tracks are excellent.
• Sense of speed is present.
• Good variety in the cars.

See Ya’:

• Frame rate feels inconsistent.
• Controls are too finicky.
• Doesn’t feel like RC racing.

I can remember playing with RC cars as a kid and loving every second of it.  There have been a few games over the years that have captured that feel and a few that fell short.  Stunt Cars is the next in that line of offerings, but is it a true RC feeling or just another video game racer?

From the very beginning it looks like it might be something cool.  You’re greeted with a huge picture of some of the games racer’s, of which there are six, four initially and two that you’ll unlock through your performance.  They range from a traditional RC racer to a monster truck and street hot rods.  They all have their strengths and weaknesses; some are faster, some handle turns better, others won’t get bumped around as much.  You’ll have to experiment a little to see which one you like the best, I find the red flame racer to be my favorite so far. 

You have the option to play through single player races or multi-player from the opening menu.  Playing single player will allow you to compete in a single race, do time trials or compete in a championship circuit.  The single race allows you to pick the settings for the race you want to compete in.  Time Trials, is pretty self explanatory.  You are just trying to get the best time possible and you have the option of racing the ghost of your fastest time.  Championship Circuit is where you’ll get the most playtime with the game.  You’ll compete in a series of six races through various courses and at different times of day.  These changes in the time don’t affect the race; they just add some variety to the locales. 

This is also where you’ll learn that the game doesn’t control as well as you’d like.  There are three control schemes available to you.  You have the option of using the Wii Remote NES style with the D-pad controlling movement and the buttons controlling your throttle.  You can also stick the Wii Remote into a wheel and control it with the tilt functionality.  Lastly you can attach the Nunchuk and use the analog stick for movement.  The first two schemes I mentioned were frustrating beyond belief.  There are some options to change the sensitivity of the controls, but I found myself constantly over steering or under steering and flying off the track.  The Nunchuk seemed to provide to best level of control and when I used that method I was able to keep the car under control and on the track better.  It’s unfortunate that the other methods are so finicky because I really like using the motion control on the Wii remote to drive. 

Visually, Stunt Cars is a bit of a mixed bag.  On one hand they’ve done a great job providing realistic detail in every aspect of the game.  The cars are very highly detailed as are the environments, right down to broken asphalt on the track; sparks fly from cars that have run into each other, skid marks appear on the track after you’ve drifted around a corner.  The background elements blend very well between being in clear focus and blurring as you hit your cars boosters.  One the other hand that level of detail in a WiiWare game means something is going to suffer and that is the frame rate.  There are many times when you’re flying down a straightaway or around a turn and the track will seems to stutter beneath you.  This means you never really get a good sense of how fast you’re traveling and it can be the cause of some unfortunate accidents that cost you precious time and track position.  You can mitigate this somewhat if you fall off the track by pressing the – button, but you are penalized so severely for falling off the track that it’s very hard to regain those positions. 

Be prepared to listen to a few songs a number of times.  The soundtrack that’s available in the game is done quite well and the songs are catchy.  The problem is you’ll hear them a lot.  There aren’t very many songs and they repeated after a few tracks and you’ll get tired of them quickly.  It’s a shame, because what is there really fits well with the game. 

Even though the game is called Stunt Cars, I did not find very much in the way of stunts during my time with the game.  There are a few times when you’ll get a visual cue that you’ve performed a stunt, but it doesn’t appear that these do anything for you.  Drifting around a corner, or hanging in the air will all be accompanied by a visual cue, but this seems to just be for your own satisfaction.  It would have been nice if there were ramps that could be used to do corkscrews or barrel rolls.  There are a few times when obstacles will appear on the track that you need to maneuver around in a stunt like way, but they’re more annoyances that just get in the way than anything. 

I really wanted to like Stunt Cars.  I’m a big fan of both RC racing and racing games in general.  It just doesn’t feel like RC racing.  There’s some fun to be had here.  The tracks themselves are really well laid out and a lot of fun to race on.  The problem is there’s just too much that gets in the way of a good experience.  The frame rate, while it may be consistent doesn’t feel consistent and the controls are a bit finicky.  There’s a lot here to build on for the next game, should there be one.  I have a feeling that this may be a situation where the game just couldn’t fit into the limited space on WiiWare. 

Final Score: 2/5 Below Average

Review copy of game provided by Icon Games Entertainment

All photos courtesy of Nintendo Life.