Friday, August 20, 2010

Family Slot Car Racing (WiiWare) Review


Reading the title of this game for the first time, I was brought back to my childhood when I spent hours on end with my slot cars. I obsessed over perfecting my race times. Unfortunately, I spent more time playing with my slot cars in one day than I did playing and beating this game. Normally, I would forgive the limited feature set and bad graphics because, well, it is a WiiWare game; however, it took 45 minutes to complete this game in its entirety. A majority of the game can be beaten by simply holding or tapping the A button.


The word family in the title is a misnomer. The maximum number of players is 2. 2! The game could actually be fun with four people all competing against each other. As it is, there are only three modes in the game: single player, two-player, and challenge mode. Single player is fairly easy, especially the early levels in which you just have to hold down the A button and never let go. As you progress, you gain additional slot cars, and there are actually a decent number of options here. But, once you get the Rapier (the best car in the game) it is nearly impossible to lose. There are three tracks for each difficulty and then a bonus level that consists of stopping your car on a track flanked with numbers; your goal being to land on large numbers. With three difficulties, this means that there are a total of 9 tracks + 1 final track. In order to add some value to the game, Arc System Works gives the option, to race the those tracks in reverse. The problem is by this time you will have the most powerful car, and there will be no challenge. Two-player, as you may have guessed, is twice as fun. Where in single player, the game becomes highly repetitive, with two people, playing the game can become quite frantic, especially as one player intentionally flies off the edge to get turbo. Challenge mode is garbage to put it bluntly. There is no online and no way to distinguish between whose high scores are whose, so what is the point of it; I would guess just to list another feature on a press release.

In addition to the slim feature-set is the complete lack of a story. I know, I know a story is not really necessary for a game like this, but it would add to the lasting value of the game. Currently, there is zero reason to play the game a second time. There are four characters two kids, a mom, and a dad, but there is nothing that distinguishes them from one another except for the yelps when their cars go off the edge. The voices of the characters are awful (just turn them off), but I actually did enjoy the music in the game. It was indeed typical Japanese corny music; however, it is catchy and is actually my favorite part of the game.

The one category FSCR stand out in is controls. What is there is near perfect; too bad the controls consist of pressing and releasing a single button. When I push A, the car moves; when I release, the car slows to a stop. Yay, success! With that said, I do wish there was a little more depth in this department but whatever. When a game with N64 graphics, no story, and a very limited feature set comes along, I find myself looking for positives, and I found one.

Another problem with the game is the track variety. I’ve created a far larger variety of tracks than are in this game. It is a true shame, because this is what matters most in my opinion, and the game completely fails in this regard. Perhaps this could have been rectified if longer tracks were implemented in the game, but most tracks take no longer than a minute to do 5 laps.


Conclusion
There seems to be no audience for this game. For slot car racing fans, like I, you mine as well set up some old sets and experience the nostalgic fun. If you are not a fan, well, that would be like someone who doesn’t like football going out and buying a copy of Madden ’97. I really wish this game was better, and despite the occasional fun/tense moments, I cannot recommend Family Slot Car Racing to anyone not even fans. Sigh.

-Zach Felling


25/100

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