Review
Release Date: 03.26.2003
Platform:
PlayStation 2Developer:
Capcom Co., Ltd.Publisher:
Capcom USA, Inc.Reviewed by
Robert Johnson on 4.28.2003
| Review Rating: 4/10 | User Rating: 6/10 |
Auto Modellista looked promising. The concept was simple: take a racing game and give it a slick, stylish edge with cel-shaded graphics and online gameplay. The result? A rice burning epic that fails to deliver on so many levels it isn’t funny. Auto Modellista fails as an arcade racing game, an online racing game, and as a car buff’s simulation.
Let’s begin with the good things. Auto Modellista has one very good thing going for it: presentation. Everything from the stylish introduction to the cool menus and graphical effects boast quality. The game was meant to be hip, and almost every aspect of it reflects that. Gamers can choose what they want their garage to look like, and modify vehicles and other options via easy-to-navigate menus. After looking through all these snazzy options, gamers can choose from a variety of gameplay choices. There are test runs, single races, a “career” mode, and online play.
The game’s first glaring fault is apparent when it comes to choosing a vehicle. People who aren’t car enthusiasts won’t mind this at all: basically, if you like racing the “cool” looking cars and don’t know anything else, this paragraph doesn’t apply to you. Everyone else will notice that the game is sickeningly slanted towards Japanese vehicles, and the American car showing is poor at best. Of course the game was developed in Japan, but this is an entirely different audience; most automobile enthusiasts in America prefer raw, rear-wheel torque over crappy tin can Civics. Even if the gamer is an import enthusiast, there’s no excuse for such an imbalance. This horrible bias gets even worse when it comes to modifying vehicles. Not only is the modification system too simplistic, but also the parts are mostly Japanese, for Japanese vehicles. There is no excuse for me to pick and exhaust upgrade for my Camaro only to find my choices for exhaust brands are “HKS”, “Apexi” and other Japanese companies. Forced to pick from a company that doesn’t even make exhausts for domestic performance vehicles, I then see a huge exhaust muffler on my car commonly associated with riceburners. Great!
As I just mentioned, the actual “tune up” system is horribly simplistic. Initially, it looks good, but further inspection reveals it’s incredibly flawed. Gamers can either choose from a simple questionnaire that will automatically upgrade and tune the car (great for gamers that aren’t into cars) and there’s an option to manually choose and install parts. That would be great, if it was actually complicated. Gamers who venture the custom path are faced with daunting choices such as “normal muffler”, “semi-racing muffler”, and “racing muffler”. Gran Turismo has more tuning options for shocks and springs than Auto Modellista does for the entire car. If the simple tune-up option was made for ease of use, why are the custom choices so limited and shallow? Most of the “tune ups” involve tacky body kits and wings and stickers, rather than performance-oriented areas. Big surprise here…I wouldn’t mind betting money that half the programmers of the game drove 16 second Civics dropped to the ground with huge aluminum wings anyways.
Once all of that is done, the real meat of the game comes into play: racing. Visually, the races are impressive. The cel-shaded cars look somewhat simplistic, but the cartoon-like designs make a powerful artistic statement and are visually pleasing. The courses themselves are also impressive, including varied polygonal backgrounds ranging from city streets to dirt tracks to speedways. There is very little break-up, if any, and the only visual effect that gets tiring is the wind lines that appear as your car gains speed. Other than that, Auto Modellista never fails to impress visually, and combined with the slick presentation, is a very flashy racing game. The actual races are reminiscent of arcade racing titles such as Ridge Racer, which rely on a lead foot and power sliding. There is a lot of drifting in Auto Modellista, and even cars that have tons of grip feel looser than they should. Keep in mind it is an arcade racing game, but the fact that it includes so many simulation-like options (however shallow they may be) ultimately only confuse the gameplay further than it should be. Should the cars handle simulation-style, or more arcade like? No matter how hard I tried, the Dodge Viper slid all over the place during turns, even with “tuning”. This is one of the best handling cars on the planet, and I incorporated real modifications to increase the car’s handling, and it still felt loose. Another annoyance is the inconsistency an inaccurate representation of vehicle power. I don’t know what kind of cars these Japanese programmers think they have over there, but a Lexus IS300 does not jump off the line and then OUT ACCELERATE A DODGE VIPER. IT DOESN’T HAPPEN. There is no option that groups the cars by class; so races between muscle machines like Corvettes, Camaros, Vipers, and Mustangs seem equally matched against 92 horsepower Civics. Talk about lazy programming! Oh, and here’s a tip for Auto Modellista gamers: don’t worry about revving your car past the redline, because apparently you make power all the way to 9,000 RPMs in a Dodge Viper, accelerating from 165 MPH to 175 in a matter of seconds.
Aurally, Auto Modellista fails miserably. The music is a mix of J-Pop beats and generic pop music, and it’s rarely anything catchy, unlike Ridge Racer 4 (the first game that comes to mind after hearing some of the music). Sound effects are even worse; tire screeching is a simple, generic sound, and almost every engine sounds the same. No care was taken to distinguish four, six, and eight cylinder engine exhaust tones. What you’re left with is a Chevrolet Corvette that sounds like it’s a weed whacker.
Online gameplay is the main draw here, and it’s probably the best mode, even with flaws. The cable connection is still slow, and after joining a chat room, the race takes over a minute to load. Forget about chatting unless you have a USB keyboard; it’s near impossible with the soft-keyboard option. Also, I do suggest playing the single player mode and opening up faster cars and more tune-up options before racing online. You’ll lose every time, even in stock races. The other issue I had with online gameplay was the clunky menu and how gamers are sent back to the menu immediately after a race, forced to rummage through chat rooms once again to find the same or similar race.
Sadly, Auto Modellista falls short in major areas, and turns out mediocre at best. The only people I can possibly recommend this game to are casual racing gamers who want to see how online play is, and the ricer crowd who think stickers and aluminum wings are cool, and that fifteen second quarter mile times are fast. You want to build a performance vehicle? Look to Gran Turismo. You like putting carbon fiber hoods on cars, talking about “NOOSSSSSS” and slapping INJEN stickers all over your Civic that has a body kit? You might have just found your most coveted game.
