Budget Racing Game Double Header: London Racer: World Challenge vs MaXXed Out Racing

Game: London Racer World Challenge
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Davilex
Release Date: 19th September 2003

Having reviewed two games in the London Racer series already, I thought that they were so poorly made that there wouldn't be any more. Unfortunately budget publisher Davilex couldn't run out of money fast enough, meaning that a third game was produced. World Challenge makes some rather ambitious promises on the back of its box, which I'd like to compare to the reality of actually playing the game.

"16 World Famous Realistic cities" - The number is at least true and although Edinburgh isn't exactly first on my list of holiday destinations, it's definitely fairly well known. The only real issue here is the 'realistic' part. London tracks seem to cram as many sights in as they can, and I'd hardly call racing on the roof of the Louvre realistic, not to mention the fact that due to the graphics, the cities are barely recognisable.

"More than 34 tracks" is technically correct if you count reverse variants, but "Break the rules, shake off local police" seems to me to be an outright lie as I never once even saw the police in a race, despite completing around half of the game. Whether the company just forgot to put them in, or they only feature in later races is anyone's guess, but it wasn't a good decision eitherway.

"New competitor AI makes winning a big challenge" - From the screenshot above, its pretty plain to see that the AI has absolutely no clue what it's doing. The handling of the game is admittedly difficult, and the cars seem to drive more like blocks of concrete than actual vehicles, but the AI opponents manage to smash into anything they can find including other traffic, trees, buildings and the player themselves, making winning pretty easy.

"New Super Nitro Boost for Incredible Speed Sensation" is partially true, since it wasn't featured in other London Racer games, but if you're going to call fading out the audio and blurring the horizon and surroundings a little an 'incredible sensation' then it'll probably sound more exciting than it is. The final box quote, and only one to be 100% factual is "Race against friends in multiplayer mode". There definitely is a multiplayer mode; just one type of race though.

So we've established that the game's advertising thoroughly oversells it as more than a budget racer, but there's many more problems with London Racer World Challenge than just being overhyped. The menus have hardly any choice at all for players; there's literally 3 options on the main menu, which then lead to another 6 in total. That's the scope of things you're able to do in the entire game. As for some of the tracks, I notice the developer was unafraid to reuse assets from London Racer II.

(And the award for most sparse menu goes to...)

Graphically the game isn't really up to PS2 standard, despite being slightly better than the last game in the series. Cars still look pretty chunky and crash physics make very little sense. The soundtrack of the game reuses many radio clips from London Racer II (at least from all the locations that were featured in it), and the new stuff isn't much better. If the radio chatter had referenced the previous game it might not have been so bad, but ripping directly is unforgivable.

Overall London Racer World Challenge actually seems to be worse than London Racer II, which was a small step in the right direction after the original London Racer. The new features are either unimpressive due to the fact many other games had already done them better, or unnecessary such as the strange nitro speed mode. Either way this is another racing game to avoid.

Rating: 33/100
Grade: E

Game: MaXXed Out Racing
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Tamsoft
Release Date: 12th March 2004

Usually I have a fair amount to say about games from the Simple Series; they're bad enough to warrant commentary on many of their features, and I feel the need to let others know just how horrific most of the games are. I have very little to say about MaXXed Out Racing however. While London Racer decided to use some track and audio assets from a previous game, MaXXed Out Racing is almost a clone of another simple series title; Motorbike King.

I should point out that technically Motorbike King was after MaXXed Out Racing, and so technically this was an original title and Motorbike King was the clone, but that doesn't make it any better. There are a total of 4 tracks in the game and around 8 cars to choose from. These can be upgraded with enough money from winning races, but considering how the cars handle, players will be lucky to finish anywhere near the AI car.

Most if not all cars in the game have a strange exhaust pipe design, sticking out a few metres up into the air. All competitive races are against 1 AI opponent, with other traffic cars on the road (and usually getting in the way). A co-driver is supplied who acts somewhat like a rally co-driver, but will only bark the next turn's direction, followed by "okay?" and tell you to put your back into racing, which can get annoying fairly quickly. Graphically the game is very poor and it's easy to tell how cheaply the game was made.

Overall if you're played this, you've played Motorbike King and vice versa. There's no redeeming qualities to the concept or gameplay, and any time invested into the title is a waste. Once again a Simple Series title proves to be one of the worst games I've reviewed on this blog.

Rating: 10/100
Grade: F