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This thread has been linked to the game 'Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars '.
Introduction
Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars. The title alone was enough to get me intrigued enough to buy this little game from the Playstation Store, although the recent special offer didn’t hurt. So, what’s it all about? Well, it’s fairly simple premise. You control a rocket-powered (and what appears to resemble a remote controlled) car and attempt to get balls into the marked goals. Therefore, for the most part, what the game essentially is is football with cars.
Gameplay
And onto the review. The single player campaign is essentially split up into two parts: Mini-Games and Tournament. The mini-games are obviously designed to help the player evolve and become better at the game, and you’d be encouraged to start off with them. There are four to choose from initially, all of which are designed to help with the basics of Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, Scavenger and Powerslide for basic control, Striker for offense and Sweeper for defence. There are five tiers to the mini-games, completing each row of 4 unlocks the next 4 mini-games, and a new car to use in Tournament mode.
Tournament mode is a simple affair, a generic team vs. team affair with a generally linear difficulty curve, with 13 matches being played overall, again it’s a simple win and unlock the next match sort-of deal. As you play more matches, or just play the single player campaign as a whole, you’ll find that the different AI “names” have different personalities, different styles of playing, which I thought was a nice touch.
You can definately get through the game completing every event with just the basics, but it's through mastery of the more advanced techniques that will allow you to complete them well with high scores, and not just scrape the barrel with narrow wins.
Graphics/Sounds
Aesthetics-wise the game doesn’t particularly amaze, but it’s certainly not ugly, the very little it has to do, it does very well. During my time with the game I have not seen a single frame rate drop, so no complaints there, although the black border around the gameplay screen can be a bit off-putting. The menu is quite minimalistic, so anything that you need to find isn’t going to take very long.
The default soundtrack that comes with the game is rather uninspiring and repetitive, but is generally not noticeable during gameplay anyway, although it comes with the option of using a custom soundtrack so if you don’t like it then you don’t have to have it. In-game sounds tend to be pretty much limited to the “roar” of the engine and sounds from contact with the huge ball or with other players. The explosions can be satisfying, though.
Final Comments
The game isn’t particularly difficult to get into, and it should take the average gamer around 10-15 minutes of playing around to become fairly competent at it. However, completionists beware, completing the game is one thing, but as each tournament match and mini-game completed gives a rating out of five stars, gaining the 165 stars required to get the game “fully” complete can definitely be frustrating, especially with the seemingly harsh demands that some of the mini-games impose on you to get the five star rating for that event.
Loading times for loading the matches and mini-games is pretty good, up to around 3 seconds if you are unlucky, but the loading time for the opening screens is excessive for a game that runs completely off of the hard-drive. I would have also guessed that creating profiles would be obsolete nowadays with the birth of huge online communities such as PSN and XBL, so I don’t quite know why it’s included, and strangely refers to me by my real name every so often after scoring, but I guess that’s a glitch using my trial profile name. I also found it irritating that certain events are designed to prompt you to do one of the tutorials every time you select that event.
So to sum up, a fun little game that can be used to waste a little bit of time, not without it’s problems, and definitely not without it’s challenges, quite fun to play in split-screen (which is actually turning into being quite a novelty this generation, unfortunately) with a big enough TV, but probably not going to justify the full price tag it is asking on PSN at the moment for most people.
7/10
Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars. The title alone was enough to get me intrigued enough to buy this little game from the Playstation Store, although the recent special offer didn’t hurt. So, what’s it all about? Well, it’s fairly simple premise. You control a rocket-powered (and what appears to resemble a remote controlled) car and attempt to get balls into the marked goals. Therefore, for the most part, what the game essentially is is football with cars.
Gameplay
And onto the review. The single player campaign is essentially split up into two parts: Mini-Games and Tournament. The mini-games are obviously designed to help the player evolve and become better at the game, and you’d be encouraged to start off with them. There are four to choose from initially, all of which are designed to help with the basics of Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, Scavenger and Powerslide for basic control, Striker for offense and Sweeper for defence. There are five tiers to the mini-games, completing each row of 4 unlocks the next 4 mini-games, and a new car to use in Tournament mode.
Tournament mode is a simple affair, a generic team vs. team affair with a generally linear difficulty curve, with 13 matches being played overall, again it’s a simple win and unlock the next match sort-of deal. As you play more matches, or just play the single player campaign as a whole, you’ll find that the different AI “names” have different personalities, different styles of playing, which I thought was a nice touch.
You can definately get through the game completing every event with just the basics, but it's through mastery of the more advanced techniques that will allow you to complete them well with high scores, and not just scrape the barrel with narrow wins.
Graphics/Sounds
Aesthetics-wise the game doesn’t particularly amaze, but it’s certainly not ugly, the very little it has to do, it does very well. During my time with the game I have not seen a single frame rate drop, so no complaints there, although the black border around the gameplay screen can be a bit off-putting. The menu is quite minimalistic, so anything that you need to find isn’t going to take very long.
The default soundtrack that comes with the game is rather uninspiring and repetitive, but is generally not noticeable during gameplay anyway, although it comes with the option of using a custom soundtrack so if you don’t like it then you don’t have to have it. In-game sounds tend to be pretty much limited to the “roar” of the engine and sounds from contact with the huge ball or with other players. The explosions can be satisfying, though.
Final Comments
The game isn’t particularly difficult to get into, and it should take the average gamer around 10-15 minutes of playing around to become fairly competent at it. However, completionists beware, completing the game is one thing, but as each tournament match and mini-game completed gives a rating out of five stars, gaining the 165 stars required to get the game “fully” complete can definitely be frustrating, especially with the seemingly harsh demands that some of the mini-games impose on you to get the five star rating for that event.
Loading times for loading the matches and mini-games is pretty good, up to around 3 seconds if you are unlucky, but the loading time for the opening screens is excessive for a game that runs completely off of the hard-drive. I would have also guessed that creating profiles would be obsolete nowadays with the birth of huge online communities such as PSN and XBL, so I don’t quite know why it’s included, and strangely refers to me by my real name every so often after scoring, but I guess that’s a glitch using my trial profile name. I also found it irritating that certain events are designed to prompt you to do one of the tutorials every time you select that event.
So to sum up, a fun little game that can be used to waste a little bit of time, not without it’s problems, and definitely not without it’s challenges, quite fun to play in split-screen (which is actually turning into being quite a novelty this generation, unfortunately) with a big enough TV, but probably not going to justify the full price tag it is asking on PSN at the moment for most people.
7/10
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Introduction
Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars. The title alone was enough to get me intrigued enough to buy this little game from the Playstation Store, although the recent special offer didn’t hurt. So, what’s it all about? Well, it’s fairly simple premise. You control a rocket-powered (and what appears to resemble a remote controlled) car and attempt to get balls into the marked goals. Therefore, for the most part, what the game essentially is is football with cars.
Gameplay
And onto the review. The single player campaign is essentially split up into two parts: Mini-Games and Tournament. The mini-games are obviously designed to help the player evolve and become better at the game, and you’d be encouraged to start off with them. There are four to choose from initially, all of which are designed to help with the basics of Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, Scavenger and Powerslide for basic control, Striker for offense and Sweeper for defence. There are five tiers to the mini-games, completing each row of 4 unlocks the next 4 mini-games, and a new car to use in Tournament mode.
Tournament mode is a simple affair, a generic team vs. team affair with a generally linear difficulty curve, with 13 matches being played overall, again it’s a simple win and unlock the next match sort-of deal. As you play more matches, or just play the single player campaign as a whole, you’ll find that the different AI “names” have different personalities, different styles of playing, which I thought was a nice touch.
You can definately get through the game completing every event with just the basics, but it's through mastery of the more advanced techniques that will allow you to complete them well with high scores, and not just scrape the barrel with narrow wins.
Graphics/Sounds
Aesthetics-wise the game doesn’t particularly amaze, but it’s certainly not ugly, the very little it has to do, it does very well. During my time with the game I have not seen a single frame rate drop, so no complaints there, although the black border around the gameplay screen can be a bit off-putting. The menu is quite minimalistic, so anything that you need to find isn’t going to take very long.
The default soundtrack that comes with the game is rather uninspiring and repetitive, but is generally not noticeable during gameplay anyway, although it comes with the option of using a custom soundtrack so if you don’t like it then you don’t have to have it. In-game sounds tend to be pretty much limited to the “roar” of the engine and sounds from contact with the huge ball or with other players. The explosions can be satisfying, though.
Final Comments
The game isn’t particularly difficult to get into, and it should take the average gamer around 10-15 minutes of playing around to become fairly competent at it. However, completionists beware, completing the game is one thing, but as each tournament match and mini-game completed gives a rating out of five stars, gaining the 165 stars required to get the game “fully” complete can definitely be frustrating, especially with the seemingly harsh demands that some of the mini-games impose on you to get the five star rating for that event.
Loading times for loading the matches and mini-games is pretty good, up to around 3 seconds if you are unlucky, but the loading time for the opening screens is excessive for a game that runs completely off of the hard-drive. I would have also guessed that creating profiles would be obsolete nowadays with the birth of huge online communities such as PSN and XBL, so I don’t quite know why it’s included, and strangely refers to me by my real name every so often after scoring, but I guess that’s a glitch using my trial profile name. I also found it irritating that certain events are designed to prompt you to do one of the tutorials every time you select that event.
So to sum up, a fun little game that can be used to waste a little bit of time, not without it’s problems, and definitely not without it’s challenges, quite fun to play in split-screen (which is actually turning into being quite a novelty this generation, unfortunately) with a big enough TV, but probably not going to justify the full price tag it is asking on PSN at the moment for most people.
7/10
Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle Cars. The title alone was enough to get me intrigued enough to buy this little game from the Playstation Store, although the recent special offer didn’t hurt. So, what’s it all about? Well, it’s fairly simple premise. You control a rocket-powered (and what appears to resemble a remote controlled) car and attempt to get balls into the marked goals. Therefore, for the most part, what the game essentially is is football with cars.
Gameplay
And onto the review. The single player campaign is essentially split up into two parts: Mini-Games and Tournament. The mini-games are obviously designed to help the player evolve and become better at the game, and you’d be encouraged to start off with them. There are four to choose from initially, all of which are designed to help with the basics of Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, Scavenger and Powerslide for basic control, Striker for offense and Sweeper for defence. There are five tiers to the mini-games, completing each row of 4 unlocks the next 4 mini-games, and a new car to use in Tournament mode.
Tournament mode is a simple affair, a generic team vs. team affair with a generally linear difficulty curve, with 13 matches being played overall, again it’s a simple win and unlock the next match sort-of deal. As you play more matches, or just play the single player campaign as a whole, you’ll find that the different AI “names” have different personalities, different styles of playing, which I thought was a nice touch.
You can definately get through the game completing every event with just the basics, but it's through mastery of the more advanced techniques that will allow you to complete them well with high scores, and not just scrape the barrel with narrow wins.
Graphics/Sounds
Aesthetics-wise the game doesn’t particularly amaze, but it’s certainly not ugly, the very little it has to do, it does very well. During my time with the game I have not seen a single frame rate drop, so no complaints there, although the black border around the gameplay screen can be a bit off-putting. The menu is quite minimalistic, so anything that you need to find isn’t going to take very long.
The default soundtrack that comes with the game is rather uninspiring and repetitive, but is generally not noticeable during gameplay anyway, although it comes with the option of using a custom soundtrack so if you don’t like it then you don’t have to have it. In-game sounds tend to be pretty much limited to the “roar” of the engine and sounds from contact with the huge ball or with other players. The explosions can be satisfying, though.
Final Comments
The game isn’t particularly difficult to get into, and it should take the average gamer around 10-15 minutes of playing around to become fairly competent at it. However, completionists beware, completing the game is one thing, but as each tournament match and mini-game completed gives a rating out of five stars, gaining the 165 stars required to get the game “fully” complete can definitely be frustrating, especially with the seemingly harsh demands that some of the mini-games impose on you to get the five star rating for that event.
Loading times for loading the matches and mini-games is pretty good, up to around 3 seconds if you are unlucky, but the loading time for the opening screens is excessive for a game that runs completely off of the hard-drive. I would have also guessed that creating profiles would be obsolete nowadays with the birth of huge online communities such as PSN and XBL, so I don’t quite know why it’s included, and strangely refers to me by my real name every so often after scoring, but I guess that’s a glitch using my trial profile name. I also found it irritating that certain events are designed to prompt you to do one of the tutorials every time you select that event.
So to sum up, a fun little game that can be used to waste a little bit of time, not without it’s problems, and definitely not without it’s challenges, quite fun to play in split-screen (which is actually turning into being quite a novelty this generation, unfortunately) with a big enough TV, but probably not going to justify the full price tag it is asking on PSN at the moment for most people.
7/10