Ok, it's a SLOT CAR game. That means the cars race on Slot Car tracks, in the Slots. Most of you have gotten this point without my help. Someone out there has evidently missed it though. Grooverider is a small, game with only 20 track and a few cars to choose from. Each class of cars has 5 different skins but they are all on the exact same mesh which is a bit cheap. Still, they look very good. And the tracks all are very well designed and conceived with an escalating level of difficulty.
The feel is very much like a few titles you might not remember but were well worthwhile... the excellent Airfix Dogfighter from Paradox and Acclaim Cheltenham's Re-Volt come to mind. The tracks are set up in a house which could be in anyone's childhood. If you are an adult with fond memories of slot car racing it helps a great deal. If you are a child whose not enjoying his 'hood at present you might well pass this by.
The controls are very simple, analog speed and shoulder buttons to change lanes. The standard variety of power up one might expect in any arcade racer is here. Obstacles, very feisty CPU cars and some tricky tracks make the action much deeper than one might imagine. It is NOT a slot car Simulation, it IS a fun little arcade racer with fast little slot cars.
The music is a sore point. Annoyingly bad techno accompanies each track. It isn't that I hate techno either. It's that I hate BAD techno. Turn of the tunes for a much improved nostalgia experience.
The GameCube version is exactly identical BTW. Simple to pick up and easy to put down. A quick, fun diversion from more serious passtimes. I actually would recommend this for folks with an open enough mind not to make fun of it before looking at it based solely on the subject matter. Like the entire gaming press did from the IGN, UGO and Gamespy to even rosey magazines like Nintendo Power and EGM. It's no Sega GT or Project Gotham Racing 2 but you didn't need me to tell you that!
