GBA
By Steve Fulton
(originally published on gamerdad.com)
A surprisingly winning racer from THQ
Good racing games for the GBA are hard to come by. They are usually either ambitious 3D miss-fires like the textured-polygon filled Driver 2 Advance, or 2-D, third-person contests like Hot Wheels Velocity X with some good features, but ultimately difficult to view and control. THQ’s Lego Drome Racers manages to avoid these common pitfalls, crossing the finish line as rather nice little 3D combat racing game for the GBA.
The best choice THQ made with this game was to avoid textured polygons. Instead, shaded ones are used to great effect. The GBA screen is too small for most textures anyway, and most of the time they end up looking messy and grainy (ala Driver 2 Advance). The shaded polygons with their associated color palette, give the landscapes a feeling not unlike that of Warner Bros. Road Runner Cartoons. Far from detracting from the realism, the graphics create a surreal racing environment that manages to look great, while not distracting the player from the task at hand: winning races.
The game gives you the choice of 4 play modes: Arcade, Quick Race, Championship, and Multiplayer (with a link cable). The heart of the game is the Championship mode, as it let’s you race through all four “Cups” in succession. “Cups” consist of four or five races, over various terrain, each one locked until you have placed at least 3rd in the previous race. As well, each successive Cup is locked, until you have completed the previous one with a combined ranking from all races of first, second, or third.
You begin your Championship by selecting from one of the four race teams (Hot, Red, Zero, and Maverick). Two teams, Nitro and Exo-Force, are left to be unlocked by the player. This is one of the few parts of the game that actually uses it’s license, as these are also names of actual LEGO Brand product race teams. As with many THQ licensed games, aside from this detail, you’ be hard-pressed to find much in the game that uses it’s source material. In this case though, it doesn’t really detract from the game at all. After selecting you team, you have the choice to “qualify” for your race. Qualification involves a simple drag-race with computer opponent to figure out in which position you will star the race. You can skip this step, but you risk losing the extra bonus “upgrade” point you could obtain if you have the fastest over-all score.
Races are on paved or dirt tracks, using two separate cars. To be honest, it’s not easy to tell which races are on or off road, and it doesn’t seem to matter much in the game either. Each race is three laps over varied, and interesting terrain. The shaded polygons give the game crisp look, and help give it an illusion of high-speed. Along each track you can pick-up missiles, triple missiles, mines, disruptors (force field), shield, rocket, flares (to blind drivers) to help win race. Weapons are fired with the [L] buttons, while turbos are engaged with [R]. [A] accelerate, [B] brakes, and the game left-right control-pad for steering round-out the controls.
If you finish your three laps in first, second or third place, you advance to the next race and obtain power points to apply to your car’s attributes. You can choose from Top Speed, Acceleration, Handling, Grip. Refreshingly unlike some games, these attributes actually do seem to affect your vehicles. For instance, you will notice over the course of many races that your top-speed increases when you apply your point there. You will also notice handling gets much harder, so you will want to apply some points there as well. Making these sorts of details count seems like a no-brainer, but it is one of the features of LEGO Drome Racers that sets it apart from your average GBA racer.
While the graphics are nice, the sound leaves much to be desired. Engine noise is fine, but you will be taken-aback by just how awful the crowd-noise sounds. The sound is so terrible that it does detract a bit from the enjoyment in the game. With such a solid title in other areas I suppose THQ had to skimp somewhere. I would venture to guess that THQ played the odds, figuring that many people play their GBA with little or no sound. However, I like great sound in my games, and it’s usually good rule to simply leave a sound out if it is not up to snuff, instead of letting it mar otherwise good game.
Lego Drome Racers is an action-packed, solid racing title for the GBA. It’s surprising to see THQ, the king cheap throw-away licensed games, come up with something as memorable and fun as this title. If you are in the market for a diverting racer to play in-between rounds of Advance Wars 2 or Golden Sun 2, you could do much worse than plopping this game in your GBA, and taking your team of Lego racers through a thrilling Championship season.
Kid Factor
This is a good beginning race game for kids. Over the age of 5, with skills to use the [R]
and [L] buttons will be enough to have little-ones ripping around these
well-designed and varied tracks. The
game is very forgiving when it comes to staying on the road, which is great for
kids just learning the mechanics of a driving game. However, kids will definitely need help with
the “drag racing” qualifiers, and understanding what to do with their “power
points”. As well, while the game has
forgiving controls, that does not mean it is easy to win. Younger kids
will have fun driving around one of the tracks (over and over and over)
until they are good enough to finish at least 3rd but that might never happen
. While 5 year olds can enjoy the
game (mine did), it might be better suited to 7 or 8 year-old, who can truly
appreciate it.
Score: ***
Age: 5+
ESRB: E - Everyone
Producer: THQ
ESRB: E - Everyone
Producer: THQ
Developer: Mobius
Entertainment
