The PROWLER Reviews:Supercross 3D
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Supercross 3D
By Steve Watkins
Developed by: Tiertex
Published by: Atari Corp. Price: $59.99
Number of Players: 1
Rating Code: KA (Kids ages 6+ to Adults)
I sometimes have a problem writing the introductory paragraph for a
video game review. This is because, typically, a reviewer is expected to
fill the first block of a review with flowery, cliche filled, PR fluff to
introduce the game. You know, "The roar of the crowd ... buckle up for gut
splitting excitement ... mud in your eyes ... " type fluff. Consider
yourself spared this time around. Let's get to the game!
Rev it Up
When you fire up Supercross 3-D you are greeted with a tower view of a
supercross stadium that rotates 360 degrees as the camera zooms in and out.
An impressive opening to a much anticipated Jaguar racing game.
Unfortunately, it's a misleading introduction. Supercross 3-D is a mixed bag
of good and bad in every area: graphics, sound, control and overall
gameplay. First, let's cover what you'll find if you purchase Supercross 3-
D.
In The Starting Gate
The Main Menu is the where you'll discover that Supercross 3-D has a lot
of nice play options to help you get your racing fix. The following choices
are presented: Practice, Race, Tournament, Load Game and Options. The first
two are self-explanatory; pick a track, a rider, nationality and racing team
and you're off!
Choosing Tournament enters you in a fourteen stadium supercross tour in
which you compete against a pool of 27 other racers. Each stop on the tour
consists of three main rounds: Qualifying Heat A, Semi-finals and the
Finals. To reach the finals in each tour event you must place among the top
three competitors (out of eight total in each race) in the Qualifying race
and then also the Semi-Final. If you don't finish in the top three in either
round, you will be entered in a "last chance" race. The last chance race
takes the two best riders and moves them to the next round. If you fail
during a last chance race, you miss the Finals and a chance to collect
valuable Tour Points. Miss too many finals and you won't have a prayer of
becoming the next Tour Champion.
Options allowed are: turn in-game music on/off, set the competitor skill
level (Rookie, Rad, Pro, Tuff or Ace), turn crash replays on/off, and
customize the control buttons. Having *5* skill level settings was a
pleasant surprise. The manual says very little about ANYTHING in the game,
so I'll give you a general guideline for a few of the skill levels. During a
ROOKIE race, you may crash as many as half-a-dozen times or more and still
win. A PRO setting will allow you a couple of crashes with a chance to still
beat out the other bikers. ACE will definitely push your abilities - and
your sometimes your patience - to the edge.
Moving Pictures: Graphics
The entire game is played from a view that is slightly behind and above
your racer. It is in 3-D, but the lack of true first person perspective,
like a cockpit view in a formula-one racing game, takes away from that 3-D
feel. I was hoping for such a view, in which mud might splatter across your
"face" and obscure your view (with maybe a "wipe goggles" button to clear
it), but no dice. Be that as it may, the view works well and you shouldn't
have any trouble following the action.
The Competitors
The PR sheet that was included with the review cart had a few
interesting points. Among them I noticed, "Choose from five SGI-rendered
riders created with Advanced Kinematics and Wavefront modeling." Sounds
impressive, right? Well if they did employ SGI technology, they must've used
a limited shareware version! (Sarcasm, folks.) Donkey Kong Country (TM
Nintendo) puts these riders to shame. They are a poor excuse for SGI-
rendering technology. First, the "five SGI-rendered riders" and bikes are
IDENTICAL, except for their solid colors. Next, the riders are plain, a bit
goofy looking (those arms!) and totally devoid of personality and character.
There are no racing numbers, team logos, sponsorship patches one the bikes or
riders. You can't even guess whom you're racing against, nor do you know
where they are in the race! Maybe most players don't care about knowing
which racer is which and where they are during a race, but I do.
Tracks
While there are fourteen different tracks to race on, the stadiums are
one in the same. The crowd is the standard, blocky, "mushed together" look
you'll find in most sports games (with crowds) and there are a few signs
along the walls. The best graphic touch in the game is part of the stadium.
Twin giant screen televisions display your racer as s/he cruises around the
track. They add atmosphere to the surroundings, which is sorely needed in
this game, but I think it was best left on the cutting room floor if it
would've helped the frame rate or allowed for more important graphic and
sound additions. Plus, you see a screen for only a brief snip of time and
they only show YOUR RACER. Heck, I know what I'm doing!
The tracks are a mixture of texture maps and polygons. The texture maps
are the same for every track and only the color changes to show a difference
in track surface. They are not seamless and they have no interesting
features, like ruts, holes, puddles, etc.
The red and white outer walls that line each course are your best friend
in this game. They are extremely forgiving. They keep you going in the
right direction, whether you want to or not. It basically takes a head-on
smash to crash over a wall. Jumps do not have guard walls, so be careful of
your angle when you jump or you'll wipe out.
I had a problem with the lack of interior guard walls. Basically all
you see is an empty background color. I expected more red & white walls or
hay bales, but instead there's just NOTHING there. I call this
characteristic of the track a "magic dirt barrier." It looks harmless, but
it isn't. If you catch a corner of a "magic dirt barrier" you will crash.
My guess is the designers intended for inside wall graphics, but this idea
was scrapped to improve an already poor frame rate.
Winning
I will only write this about the graphics you see when you win a race or
a Tournament; they are small, extremely brief (3.5 seconds) and worse looking
than Sega Genesis static pictures. Oh, I almost forgot to mention the
"tricks" your rider can perform during a race. This is another, "Why did
they bother with this?" feature. The "tricks" are very simple and serve no
purpose at all (except perhaps to help you crash more often). I counted
three total! I won't spoil the fun by giving them ALL away. Overall, the
graphics are completely average. The racers and tracks both lack character.
Some tracks are more fun to race than others, but they are still bland and
repetitive.
Smile, You're On Candid Camera: Replay Feature
Replay is another feature which begs the question: Why? It replays
each and every crash and they all look exactly the same. A replay lasts a
whopping 3.5 seconds (I timed dozens of them) and a full second is the delay
between the end of the replay and where the race action picks up again. I
don't understand why they implemented this feature.
It's Still Rock 'N Roll To Me: Music & Sound FX
Musically this game will not break any barriers, like the Madden and
Hockey music did for EA Sports games, but it isn't bad either. It's your
average video game rock 'n roll and it's quickly repetitive. The dilemma you
will have is this: Do you turn the repetitive in-game music off or do you
leave it on to help soothe your nerves from the ultra simplistic sound
effects?
To write about the sound effects, I dug out my combination
dictionary/thesaurus to locate a word meaning "less than minimal." I didn't
find one satisfactory, so the descriptive phrase will suffice. I counted
about a half-a-dozen separate sound effects and that included the two
different race start countdown beeps. The stadiums are always full, yet
there's zero crowd noise - cheering, muttering or booing. There's no
announcer. No wind. There's barely any sound during a race, except the
repetitive motor effects. The worst part is that the engines of the other
racers are constant and they are BACKGROUND noises that are not directly
related to any particular racer. Sit still during a practice race, in which
no other bikes are present, and you'll see what I'm talking about. The
serious lack of sound effects was a big drawback for me. Again, character
and "game feel" is completely lacking. And I wanted to turn off the effects
that were included.
I Can't Drive 55: Controls
Steering is, at best, an imperfect science in Supercross 3-D. The racer
responds well to your controller input, but the bad frame rate makes
controlling the rider an exercise in patience. You will have to fight your
way through a learning curve on this one. Don't fret - it's not nearly as
horrible as the steering in Checkered Flag.
During any given race (before you "master the control") the sluggish
frame rate will cause you to over-steer, miscalculate turns and misjudge
opponents. Be patient. The toughest part of the control involves
successfully maneuvering through a pack of riders. It's very difficult
because you bounce off other riders like a superball in a geometric
nightmare. Almost all of my crashes occur when I'm pushed off a jump at a
nasty angle because another rider bumped me off in a wild direction and I
couldn't come close to recovering in time. I found the Houston track the
toughest in the game, strictly because of the way other racers bounce you
around. That's not "challenge" that's poor design. Since the manual is so
poor, I will give you a little info about steering. Push down on the control
pad to make your rider stand (gain lift off jumps and "do wheelies"). Push
up to force your bike down quicker.
Learn (quickly) to use these basic moves together to take off and land on
jumps smoother and faster.
Basic rule of thumb: Get out front right away and you will have little
trouble maneuvering the courses.
By The Book: Manual
Jaguar owners will know precisely what I mean when I say it's a typical
Atari manual. For those of you who haven't read one before, I'll tell you
what that means. It's poor. It takes the word "basic" life-and-death
seriously. The two "hints" that were included are either wrong or
meaningless. An example, "Get out in front early so you don't get tripped up
in other riders' [punctuation theirs] falls." I've *never* bene tripped up
by other riders crashes. I race right through the middle of them. Control
of the supercross bike is not covered at all, except for the mention that the
buttons control the brakes, throttle and tricks.
Other than a couple of pages of fluffy text to draw you into the game
and quick descriptions of the bike components and the save feature, there's
not much else. There are four different racing teams and eight different
nationalities in S 3-D, but they are not mentioned in the manual and I have
no idea what purpose they serve, other than to add a bit of character to your
racer.
I wasn't sure where to bring up the point that the track record time
save feature is screwy. I'll do it hgre, because it's mentioned
(incorrectly) in the manual. The manual says, "Your rider's name ... as well
as your best times ... are retained in the cartridge ..." This is correct,
but not"the way you would expect. Here's how the record time save feature
really works:
ú Break a lap record during *practice* and the new record time is saved
along with the OLD RECORD HOLDERS NAME. So you beat the record, but the
previous record holder gets the credit. Neat.
ú Break the lap record during a *race* and the new time is recorded
correctly, but instead of using your name, the program lists your RACING TEAM
name as the new record holder. What the heck good is that?!
There is a bug in the code that places your rider back on the track
after a crash that might very well give or cost you a win, but it happened
only once (so far) to me, so I don't consider it bad. Unless, of course, you
lose the points championship beccuqe of it. I descpibe the Bug and also
tcli about some aousing design flaws (I consider them flaws) in the HELP
SHEET if you'd care to read more about the finer points of this game.
A Ticket To Ride: Entertainment
Despite the"lack of any above average effort in ANY area of Supercross 3-
D, I can't consider this a bad Jaguar game. To me it is the definition of a
fair to good video game effort. I spent many hours playing and picking
through all the nuances and features (I played the Tournament through twice
on PRO - 206 and 251 pts out of 280 possible, respectively) and played every
track with every possible bike set-up at least once. During this time I did
find I enjoyed racing a few of the tracks with different bike configurations.
However, it wasn't nearly enough to make up for the sluggish play and
completely average (or worse) presentation.
My conclusion is that Supercross 3-D will leave the majority of players
saying, "What if ... the frame rate had been improved ... I had felt any
illusion of high speed ... there weren't ANY extra graphic touches like
weather, different views, track conditions (pot holes, ruts, water puddles)
... numbers or graphic differences to identify opponents ... it would have
been a much improved game."
Plus, this is another ONE PLAYER ONLY game from Atari, the company that
once upon a time hyped a Link Cable capability and VoiceModem technology.
Jaguar gamers are drooling for two player and multi-player games. Heck, even
alternating turns, to compete for best track time, would have been nice.
My gut tells me that Atari and Tiertex rushed this puppy out the door,
possibly in anticipation of the rounds of layoffs that came in the last
couple of months. It was a disjointed production; nice features that were
not well implemented, mixed with sparse sound effects & music, poor to
average graphics, and not enough *basic* gameplay elements to satisfy many
Jaguar owners. It's a real shame. This game could have been so much more,
with not a lot of extra effort. And the bigger shame is that this could very
well be the last new racing release for the Jaguar, unless the Formula-1
racing game does actually make it into and out of production.
Ratings
Scores are from 1 to 10 - 1 being the worst and 10 the best.
Graphics: 5.0
Sound FX/Music: 2/5
Control: 4/6
Manual: 3.0
Entertainment Value: At $60.00 even diehard dirt bike fans would be
better off passing.
GOOD gameplay value, but *try before you buy.*
Reviewer's Overall: 4.5
PROWLER The Atari Console Disk Magazine February 27, 1996
Copyright (c) 1996 All Rights Reserved Issue No. 01