Impact Racing
After work one
day, me and my 4 year old son took a trip to Meijer, to buy a new
game. We both like driving games, so we decided that's what we
would get. I wanted Formula 1 for the PlayStation, but my son
wanted Impact Racing for the Saturn. We discussed the issue for
awhile, and my son won. We bought Impact Racing.
I didn't want Impact racing
for one reason only, the game was produced by Acclaim. There 
has never been a
company in all of gaming, that has produced as much "total
crap" as Acclaim. I will readily admit that they have put
out some winners, but usually they are losers. In my opinion,
Acclaim makes some of the very best games graphically, but the
very worst in gameplay. They just don't seem to get the fact that
gameplay is everything! Acclaim just needs to spend more time in
this area. When your spending $50, you want to feel like you have
a quality game. If I buy a game from Sega, or Psygnosis, I have
confidence (before I play) that the game will be good. I just
don't feel the same confidence with Acclaim.
Now your probably wondering,"Why did I let my son win and buy this game"? Well, the game was produced by Acclaim, but JVC was a developer. JVC in my opinion, is one of the better developers out there. I have total confidence in JVC, just like I have in Sega, or Psygnosis. The game just looked much better, after I noticed it was (at least partially) developed by JVC! The other developer Fun Com, I am unfamiliar with.
Don't get me wrong, I am totally non-biased when I rate a game. Yet, when I spend hard earned money, I use past experiences to determine what I buy. When I rate a game, I use only the game. I never let past experiences influence me!
As it turns out, Impact Racing is more like a shooter, then a driving game. The basic idea is simple: Shoot cars, and complete each track before time runs out. There are 3 different main tracks. The tracks are, City, Mountain, and Space. Each of these tracks has a total of 4 modes. After you complete the main tracks, you race in the following modes: Mirror, Night, and Night Mirror mode. The gives a total of 12 race variations. There are also bonus tracks. The bonus tracks become available after you destroy a certain number of cars (the number is listed before each track). The bonus tracks are where you obtain new weapons.
There is 5 cars to choose from. Each has different acceleration and handling performance, as well as different armor and payload abilities. You have a total of 3 views with these cars.
Along the way, there are pickups. These include: energy, time, double lasers, quad lasers, mines, missiles, firewalls, heatseekers, smartbombs, front armor, rear armor, flipview and even a mystery pickup. All of these together help you to complete your tracks
As you can see, Impact Racing has many qualities that could've made it a great game. The graphics are decent, the basic idea of the game is good, and it has plenty of options.
As it is, Impact Racing is an average game. Although it had many good qualities, it fell short in too many areas to make it anything above average.
Although I generally liked the graphics, there is an obvious problem with object "pop up". It has the same problem that has given Saturns Daytona USA such a bad name (even though it was great in so many other ways). I generally don't place too much value on this because it doesn't affect gameplay that much, but it does make the game look a little bit rushed. I was also a little disappointed in the way the cars look when destroyed. Rather then taking the time to create great and varied explosions, they opted to give us a somewhat "generic" looking crash. All you see in the game is a little smoke, then the cars seem to tip on the sides and disappear. If the developers took more time on little details, the game would have a much more "quality" appearence.
Car control was a little "generic" also. The cars just didn't feel all that real. They control much like the cars did in Jaguar for the Sega CD (another JVC game). The control felt good in Jaguar, because it was an older system, but today it seems really outdated. They could do so much more with 32 bit if they tried. I think these guys need to be strapped in a chair and forced to play Sega Rally for a whole day. Then, they might realize what car control is all about!
I was a little dissapointed with the fact that the game is not analog compatible. Racing wheels have been out now for some time, and no serious racing game should be incompatible. This is just one more example of a "rushed" job. I know, given the resources of Acclaim and JVC, that it would've been fairly easy to make it analog. Acclaim alone is a Giant, and they should do all they can to bring us the best gaming experience possible. Don't you agree?????
The tracks were well detailed, and generally looked good. I can't fault it there. I did think they were a little too narrow though. While playing, your constantly reminded of the game Megarace. It's set up very similar to that game. That wasn't bad at the time, but I think most gamers perfer wider tracks now. I know I do.
The game definetly has a fast look and feel to it. I like that alot! Much can be forgiven in a game like this, as long as it's fast. At times, you even leave the track (jump). I'm not talking a little bit, i'm talking serious air here! This adds an element of fun not found in many other games.
In the end, the game is average. It has good traits, and it has bad traits. I can't call it junk, but I can't call it stellar either. I expected more from JVC, yet, I expected less from Acclaim. Who knows, maybe they balanced eachother out.
RATINGS
GRAPHICS 85%
SOUND 80%
GAMEPLAY 65%
ORIGINALITY 75%
REPLAY VALUE70%
OVERALL 75%
