Impact Racing

Racing fans, be warned: Impact Racing is not a driving sim--it's the release of pure aggression on asphalt.

Choose from five super-powered cars and take to the road for fast-paced search-and-destroy action. Each level gives you a time limit and a quota of cars to destroy. Succeed, and you advance and acquire more powerful weaponry. Two views, radar, and a variety of options make this game accessible to all gamers. The scenario is simple, but the gameplay isn't. Watch for it if you're on the road!

Graphics

Impact Racing offers smooth animation and slick scrolling backgrounds for intense racing excitement. Clear, sharp graphics and effects such as billowing smoke and explosions add to the appeal.

Sound

A hip, unobtrusive techno house music soundtrack (a la Wipeout) gives Impact Racing a cool, modern feel. Great tunes for motoring mayhem.

Control

The controls are easy to learn, extremely responsive to the onscreen action, and may also be customized to fit individual preferences.

Fun Factor

Sharp graphics, awesome weapons, and nonstop action make this cavalcade of carnage easy to pick up and fun to play. A variety of tracks would've boosted the Fun Factor even higher.

Overview

Is this what the future of racing will come to? Maybe not but this is sure a cool idea for a racing game. Impact Racing combines the rush of car racing with the strategy and skill of a shooter. The question is does it work? The answer is yes and no.

Here is the deal. It is somewhere in the future and auto racing is not quite what we know it to be today. There is one small twist. All cars are armed with weapons and heavily shielded. The object is not only to cross the finish line in one piece but get rewarded for making sure the other racers don't. To help accomplish this, your car is outfitted with a number of different weapons including lasers and other various power-ups. Although racing is not a big part of the game, the action can still get hot and heavy.

Gameplay

Impact Racing is a cross between a racer and a shooter but focuses more on the shooting aspect. The main object of the game is to finish the race. Along the way, you will encounter other cars that try to make sure you don't make it to the finish line. The only real aspect of racing comes in against the clock. There are various checkpoints along the track that you must reach before your time runs out. If you don't make it, the game is over. That is about all that has to do with racing. There is no race positions or leaders. You never know who is ahead of you or who is behind you but it really does not matter. Just cross the checkpoints before the clock runs out and advance to the next round.

Since you are not really racing for position, there must be another object to the game or else it would be pretty lame, right? This is where the shooting aspect comes into play. Each car can carry the same weapons but different amounts of each. The available weapons are lasers (standard on every car), mines, heatseekers, smart bombs and firewalls. Each car begins each race with only lasers. As you progress through the tracks and levels, you are awarded different weapons power-ups and upgrades.

Now that you are loaded with weapons, this is where the challenge comes in. Each track has a predetermined number of cars that must be destroyed to access the bonus levels. The bonus levels are where you earn your serious weaponry. So, for example, the first track requires 20 kills to access the bonus level. All you need to do is knock off 20 cars with whatever means possible and access the bonus track. This is the only real element of challenge along the way.

Scattered along the track are various icons that effect the cars and game in different ways. For example, you will find your standard weapon power-ups that replenish your weaponry. Also along the way, you will find shield power-up's, time extenders, energy power-up's and even an icon that flips the track upside down. It is always a good idea to pick up as much of these items as possible.

Graphics

The graphics in Impact Racing are pretty good. They look a lot like the Ridge Racer graphics. The tracks are fairly routine, but look pretty good as well. The explosions and weapons are all decent looking as well. The cars are all some type of futurist sports cars that appear to be derivatives of the Dodge Viper. On the whole, the graphics are right about average.

Bottom Line

Impact Racing is an average game that does offer some uniqueness to the racing genre. I think this is an excellent concept but the racing part of the game should have been emphasized more. I hope that the developers decided to make a second Impact Racing that does focus more on racing than on shooting. Don't get me wrong. I like the shooting but I think there should have been a better balance between the two. This is a pretty good game if you can find it on sale somewhere, but I don't know if it is worth full retail.

Futuristic racing games are rapidly becoming the biggest cliche of the '90s, but as they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Impact Racing is JVC's first game for a next generation system, and suffice it to say, they've brought along the chops they earned on 16-bit games like the Star Wars Trilogy, Indiana Jones Greatest Adventures, and Ghoul Patrol, and translated them to the PlayStation.

In Impact Racing, your only goal is to get to the end of the track you're racing on while survivng the slings and arrows (and guns and bombs) of the competition. Players can choose from a total of six cars and race on three different tracks. It might not sound exciting (or challenging, for that matter) but simple descriptions can be deceiving. Impact Racing is certainly tough to master, as the enemies are crafty and devious, there are a host of power-ups to discover, and the gameplay is retinaburning fast. Will it be able to compete with the powerhouse that is Wipeout? When we get a final copy, you'll be the first to know.