GripShift - 5/10
At first I thought the same as sic, that it was boring, but I recently started playing this again and have gotten into it.
The tracks start off fairly easy and get progressively more difficult throughout the game. Falling off is frequent, especially on some of the later tracks which can be very thin. Crossing the finish line on a track before the time limit unlocks the next track, but each track also has 3 goals. The first is to beat the Gold Medal time limit. The second is to collect all the stars and the third is to collect the GS symbol. Each goal can be completed separately... you do not have to do them at the same time.
Once a track is loaded you can play it as many times as you need... resetting the track does not require a reload. This is fortunate, because you will find yourself playing the same track many times over in order to complete all of its goals. Sometimes after I'd missed the gold medal by 0.10 seconds for the 50th time, I've just left it to come back to later and gone on to the next track. Load times are also quite short. It IS annoying that you have to return to the main menu in order to change your car. The different cars have different properties, and you will sometimes need to change your car to suit the track.
Completing goals give you credits, of which there is 1000 credits to earn in the game. As you earn more credits, you unlock extra characters, vehicles, wheels, skins, decals and mini-games.
The mini-games are a mixed bag, some of which are fun to play and others which you scratch your head and wonder how it's possible and if you can be bothered devoting that much time to it to get the gold medal.
There is also a race mode, which has three separate challenges for each track. Beating the clock, winning a race and winning a championship. The race and championship modes have weapons pick-ups, which are always fun.
The graphics are cartoonish, but very crisp with some nice effects. This suits the game and decreases the load times as well. Note that this was actually the first game for PSP with Full Screen Anti-Aliasing!
The audio is okay, but there's really only one style of music. It's not to everyones taste and it gets repetitive after a while. You also get tired of hearing "Aaaaaargh!" over and over again as the vehicle falls off the track.
Replayability could be an issue. Once you complete all the goals for a track, there's really no need to revisit it unless you want to improve your times. There is a track editor supplied in the game, which could extend its playability a little. There's additional tracks available from the GripShift Website at http://www.gripshiftgame.com.
I haven't tried multi-player yet, but I suspect it will be fun racing against a friend and hitting them with a missile just before they cross the finish line, then beating them to it... yeah... I can't wait for that. *grin*.
All up, I give it a score of 7.8
Oz
28 Nov 2005
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