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Page 2 >>
Author: Jeremy Petter
E-Mail: chang_chi_pai@hotmail.com
Link: http://www.thq.com

Publisher: THQ
Developer: Creations

Genre: Sports (racing)
Peripherals: Link Cable

Da Introduction:

Back in the good old days, when Gameboys were monochrome and link cables looked like USB plugs, it was next to impossible to find a good racer on the Gameboy. Platformers, puzzles and fighters—each of these genres had its own portable incarnation on Nintendo's then placid portable, but racing games were sadly absent. Even when a racer did show up, it would generally be some sort of horrible top-down game with little speed and even less innovation.

But this isn't the good old days, and with the advent of the Gameboy Color, software designers have been able to break down the walls of technology. Just this year, tons of new pseudo-3D racers have begun popping up on the Gameboy. Some of them, like Wacky Races, have used revolutionary new scaling techniques, and others, like NASCAR Challenge (the Gameboy's first NASCAR game) have just been lame.

Enter NASCAR 2000, the second NASCAR game to grace the screen of the Gameboy Color. As part of EA Sports' series of "2000" sports games, it is hard to tell whether NASCAR was created for the purpose of porting this series to the small screen, or whether it's simply a "me too" cash-in on the recent success of Infogames' Wacky Races and Test Drive Le Mans. Regardless, NASCAR 2000 makes great use of the NASCAR license and has a bunch of features that make it stand out from the pack. Although NASCAR fans are probably the only ones to truly appreciate many of the game's charms, NASCAR 2000 does present a unique experience unlike any other Gameboy racer.

Da Graphics:

As far as graphics go, NASCAR 2000 offers some major new innovations for the Gameboy. Where in the past racers on the system were limited to a maximum of maybe four cars on screen at once, NASCAR is able to display twenty. The trackside scenery is huge and the cars themselves are very well rendered. Creations even went so far as to include portraits of the twenty-six playable NASCAR drivers. Unfortunately, although NASCAR tries really hard to look good, its in-game graphics are far from spectacular. The draw engine seems to use a kind of brownish gray as a base, painting over it with other colours to generate the sprites. The problem is there is still quite a bit of gray left in most of the sprites even after they have been coloured. Whether this was due to processor restraints or sheer laziness is unknown, but the resulting graphics look faded out and muddy. Even other cars appear as gray boxes, only receiving colour and detail when they're about six away from the front bumper of the player. The featured scenery, although large, does not use true scaling like the scenery in Wacky Races. Instead, the game tries to fake scaling and the result is nothing short of atrocious. The "scaling" at most times looks chunky and blocky, but sometimes it is so bad that the scenery actually appears to be moving AWAY from your car, or else standing still.

Even though Creations tried to accomplish many new feats with NASCAR, the end result can be described only by the word "ugly". My hope is that if there is a NASCAR 2001, and knowing EA Sports there probably will be, that Creations, or whoever else is developing the game, will scrap the graphics engine and start from scratch. Although the large number of cars and the huge scenery are a nice touch, I would have gladly traded both for the smooth scrolling scenery and colourful graphics Wacky Races engine.

Da Sound:

There's not very much to say about the sound in NASCAR 2000 as there is not much sound to speak of. The game contains seven different sound effects: three beeps, a screech, a crunch, a swish and an engine noise. None of these is very high quality and all of them sound like something from the speaker of the old monochrome Gameboy. The screech and the engine noise are especially annoying which is a bad thing as there is no in-game music. The three different musical tracks, although well done, play only on menus or directly before the various races begin.

It's hard to say why this might be, as the game is clearly able to show all twenty cars on screen and play music at the same time. The only two theories I have are a) Creations was lazy and decided that by not composing music they could save on development time and get the game out faster (the most likely circumstance) or b) Creations realized that Gameboy music is annoying and decided not to include any to make for easier concentration (which is hardly an excuse as good programmers can make very nice music on the Gameboy). Either way, I was rather disappointed with both the quality and quantity of sound in NASCAR 2000, and I hope Creations has learned their lesson.


 

Ranking Out of 10

Joystick Up!

Graphics:
Sound:
Gameplay:
Tilt:

Overall:


4.5
4.5
8.5
6.6

6.0

DaGameBoyz Mall:

Purchase Info

Description:
One of the better racers for the GBC, but patience is needed to get the hang of it. Not the best graphics or sound however.

Platform:
GBC

 
 
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