The racing genre’s always been packed to the very brim of the metaphorical cup.
There’s pure breed racers such as GTR, Forza Motorsport and the endless stream of official F1 variants, a huge variety of twists on the normal routine like Destruction Derby, FlatOut and Mario Kart and, most recently, a new kind of ‘design your own car’ title birthed by the likes of the Pimp Your Ride.
Juiced fits into the last category, but it’s had a difficult birth. It started life at Acclaim, but then got shelved when the long standing gaming company went bust.
THQ picked it up though, did some serious modding and the rest, as they say, is history.
Despite its lukewarm reception by the critics, we’re treated to yet another port for our PSPs. Oh joyous days.
They say:
GameZone: “The sluggish controls make for a frustrating racing game that just doesn’t have what it takes to beat the amazing titles already available for the PSP.”
EuroGamer: “As much as it's not bad, we can't really think of any reason to recommend it unless you live in a house of blinged up PSP owning petrol heads.”
GameSpot: “Juiced: Eliminator is entirely perfunctory and there's not much reason for you to bother with it.”
We say:
We hate to be the bearer of bad news – although we’re always more than happy to steer fellow gaming consumers away from an old banger – but Juiced Eliminator is strictly two star action.
For starters, instead of bringing to the fore a brand new tweaked to the nines member of the Juiced family, what we have here is basically the same action with a few added neon lights and gaudy paint jobs.
Get under the hood and the boring – we’re talking Sven Goran Eriksson levels of boredom here – driving model still exists.
You expect arcade type racers to give you free reign to fling your blinged up ride around wide corners with barely a care in the world, but the stringent track design and lack of leeway you’re given at each bend means you’re forced to plod along in low gear.
Things certainly aren’t helped by the lack of decent analogue control of the PSP too. Let’s admit it, the analogue nub is a shocking piece of design.
When you consider this racer is all about the bling, the options to turn your ride into a 17 year old’s wet dream are ridiculously tiny. A huge miss considering the obvious target market they’re aiming for.
If you’re one of the few that enjoyed the original Juiced, then you’ll no doubt extract a lot of fun from this. For the rest of us though, we’re better off getting our handheld racing fix elsewhere.
Like this? Try these:
Burnout Legends – PSP
Ridge Racer – PSP
Project Gotham Racing 3 – Xbox 360
FORMAT REVIEWED
PSP
OTHER FORMATS
None
POSTED...
Mon 31 Jul 2006 at 8:16am
