Reviewed: April 10, 2004
Reviewed by: Daniel Sayre
Publisher
TDK Mediactive
Global Star Software
Developer
Steel Monkeys
Released: March 09, 2004
Genre: Racing
Players: 2
ESRB: Everyone
8
6
6
7
7.3
Supported Features:
A part of the automotive landscape for over fifty years, the Corvette is an American legend. From it’s beginning in 1953 to the svelte auto it is today, Corvette has been through many different incarnations. The people at Global Star Software have packaged this raw muscle and delivered it to us in the form of their latest racing game, Corvette.
Global Star Software itself is no stranger to the gaming scene having a bevy of well over twenty games under their belt. Of course, it was also the company responsible for Celebrity Deathmatch. So we’re not going in with blind enthusiasm. The box proudly proclaims, “This is the only game that lets you race virtually every Corvette made in street and track settings.” Does Corvette deliver? Let’s find out.
The Corvette is a car; this pretty much limits what a game is going to present gameplay wise. Hint, it’s not an FPS. It’s racing game, pure and simple racing. There is an arcade mode where you simply choose from a list of races, opening up more races as you win the others. Winning races also unlocks a list of new paintjobs for your car and multiplayer courses. Once you’ve conquered the amateur circuit you can also try your luck at the professional level.
The career mode is the heart of the game. As with arcade, you have your choice of both amateur, which is open from the start, and professional which is available once the entire amateur circuit is complete. As you progress, your car is upgraded with brand name parts that make winning the other races that much easier.
The further you progress, the more recent Corvettes become unlocked. Career is basically a view of the history, through races, of the entire Corvette catalog. Starting in 1953, and skipping around a little, you end with the 2003 Corvette. Each car handles differently and has period accurate speeds, acceleration, etc. The sense of speed is also well represented, a 2003 corvette “feels” a lot faster then the earlier models.
Multiplayer is basically the same arcade and career courses, only this time for two people. Unfortunately it’s straight duels for multiplayer. No other racers, nor civilians, nor police are present. The camera is also forced first person, if you like to race like this, no problem. But I would’ve preferred a third person camera. Other “Bonus” modes, six of them in total, are also unlocked the more of career you complete.
Unfortunately, load times are quite long - around 42 seconds when the game first starts. The game doesn’t auto-save your progress and you have to exit to the main menu and the save/load screen every time you want to save. The actual saving and loading process is quite quick, but it’s annoying to have to go through the menus. The game does tell you how much of the game you’ve completed though, which is a nice touch.
The graphics are, in a word, serviceable. Good enough it doesn’t look like a PS1 game, but not giving Gran Turismo a run for its money either. The car themselves, of which they are over plenty, are accurately modeled and are the highlight of the game. Each car can be given a different paint scheme; some come standard, while more “wild” paintjobs must be unlocked.
Unfortunately, no damage modeling is present so the car is no worse for the wear after taking a wall going 130 mph, the only visual indicator you’ve hit something is a small shower of sparks. This does tend to break the realism, but it’s a problem as endemic to licensed racing games as wall clipping is to the FPS.
The tracks themselves are less impressive. The game has several races, but these are mostly the same basic courses just driven differently. The basic courses themselves do a job of being diverse, but the fact you end up racing on each one about four times doesn’t help the feeling of diversity too much.
While diverse, the tracks are not graphical powerhouses, and the graphical disparity is quite jarring in certain places. Some tracks look like they belong on a Dreamcast graphically, while others tend to drop the frame rate. The menu’s themselves feature some of the cars, are free of spelling errors, and are easy to navigate through.
Beyond the roar of the engines, not much else to hear in Corvette. Music is present during the races and the menus, but it’s basic filler (no licensed songs, etc.) The cars themselves sound real, the roar of the engines the squeal of the breaks, etc. The more powerful cars sound like you have a latterly bomb under the hood which is nice. It goes well with the sensation of speed.
It would’ve been great if some licensed songs could’ve been included, a game covering 50 years sure could’ve had some great tracks. However, Their exclusion is understandable given the bargain basement price of the game ($10.) Licensing fees aren’t cheap.
As was said, this game retails for $10. Price tags in that region do not elicit great hopes for the games themselves. Corvette just goes to show that you can pack quite a game into what you would consider budgetware. You get a warehouse worth of cars, diverse tracks, a career mode, an arcade mode, a multiplayer mode, paint jobs, mini-games, reasonably intelligent AI, a great framerate, and zero errors. It’s quite the package.
They, quite honestly, could’ve gotten away with charging $30 for the game and it still would’ve been a great value. Not much replay though, unless you want to go for 100.0% completion. The game also includes a little background information on every car. If you are a Corvette aficionado, that little perk alone might be worth ten dollars to you. But the value for a title like this is quite high; you get a lotta bang for so little buck.
There is a racing game and doesn’t aspire to be anything more then that. It’s slightly above average in almost every aspect and matches that with a low low price. Now if the game was bad, you could simply file it away as a bad purchase and be out ten dollars. Such things have happened in the past I’m sure. Allowing the price tag to act as judge jury and executioner for this game would be a grave mistake.
Yes, Corvette is a ten-dollar game. But for that price range, they went well beyond the call of duty in giving you a comprehensive racing package. They packed it full of gameplay, corners were cut (basically graphics) but for what is available and how much they’re charging for it, that’s a tradeoff I’m willing to make.