Speed Racer (Wii)
Speed Racer is a decent racing game, but it never gets your adrenaline pumping. Even the movie connection fails to juice up the show.
Speed Racer's revved up for a revival. The modern remake of the 1960s, futuristic car racing anime is getting the full treatment this year thanks to a movie (by the Wachowski Bros. of Matrix fame, no less), a new cartoon show on Nicktoons, and a video game.
The movie and the video game are the most closely related. They're both set in Speed's hometown, Cosmopolis ("where car culture is the culture"), and all the cars as well as three of the racing stadiums are lifted from the film. Other movie connections include the voices of the stars: Emile Hirsh (Speed Racer), Matthew Fox (Racer X), and Christina Ricci (Trixie).
Additionally, one of the first things that strikes you about the game is the environment's electric, candy-coated color scheme. The eye-catching design is also drawn from the film, and matched with the roller-coaster-from-hell track designs, it makes every stadium look like a surreal amusement park. But after that the connections get hazy. The game's set one year after the events of the movie; however, there isn't really a running narrative through the game per se to make a story all that important.
Speed Racer the game is all about supersonic racing, and it doesn't deviate from that roadway. On the stadium tracks, Speed Racer keeps things pretty straightforward. You drive with the Wii remote only, and you can use the Wii wheel if you've got one. The wheel makes Speed a little bit easier to drive, but unlike Mario Kart Wii, where the wheel is a distinct advantage, this game's more forgiving to remote-only driving since there aren't a lot of tight turns, sequential jumps, or screwy obstacles on the track. You also can't drive off the tracks, either. But that doesn't mean you can't be knocked over a roadside edge to explode in a blaze of multicolor fireworks.
You start out driving against 12 AI racers, but as you advance through the World Racing League, you can eventually find yourself pitted against 20 other cars. There are no weapons, but every driver is a practioner of the venerable art of Car-Fu.
Crashes are a common occurrence during Speed Racer's supersonic destruction derbies.
Use Car-Fu techniques to battle into first place.
That is correct: It's called "Car-Fu," and your car is your weapon. This motor vehicle martial art is comprised of eight moves, which are all based on simultaneously pressing a directional button and snapping the remote in a certain direction. You can make the car flip forwards or backwards, slam a skid left or right, spin like a buzz saw, and torpedo forward, among other things.
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The Car-Fu moves are a breeze to learn, and they help to liven up the otherwise traditional speed fest. In the later rounds, the other drivers deal out the pain in merciless doses, particularly when they're trailing behind you. Basically, they're blindsiding you, and even your car's futuristic heads-up display is no help. It tracks the four cars immediately behind you, but it does so by displaying how many seconds they trail behind you. That means to make a countermove you have to watch a timer as it ticks down the tenths of a second, guess when an opponent is practically on top of you, and then bust a blind Car-Fu move to get him.
Of course, with artful dodging and a whole lot of luck, you don't necessarily have to retaliate with Car-Fu moves of your own to finish among the top three in a race, but you raise the odds significantly if you do. Nice guys usually finish last or next to last in Speed Racer.
To its credit Speed does a nice job of making you feel like you're driving like a bat out of hell. The pure sensation of racing at breakneck speeds is well done, and it picks up noticeably as you advance in the competition. Also, if you can power up a super-speed burst, you can blast yourself into "the Zone." In the Zone, you rocket forward for several seconds, and it's a great equalizer when you're far back in the pack. The visuals switch on a bizarre, psychedelic wormhole view that feels like an out-of-body experience.
Oddly enough, despite the feeling of hitting supersonic speeds, the Car-Fu fighting, and even driving into the Zone, all the tracks in Speed Racer feel exactly the same. Maybe because you're so focused on maintaining a steady line in order to record the fastest time and watching out for sneaky competitors, you hardly notice any variations aside from new obstacles that pop up periodically. Each track drives just like the one before it.
Speed Racer is a decent racing game, but it never gets your adrenaline pumping. Even the movie connection doesn't juice up the show. Also, unlike most racing for Nintendo systems, only two players can race in split screen mode, and there's no online mode at all. Moreover, it's running up against Mario Kart Wii, which is an excellent game in the racing category. Both games retail for around $49.99 and with Mario Kart offering the Wii wheel as a bundle, Speed just doesn't match up well. If you're a die-hard Speed Racer fan, you might like this game as part of your collection, but if you're hunting for a fresh racing challenge you might want to check out the movie before you play the game for a more satisfying experience.
Pros:You can feel the sensation of speed; Car-Fu combat moves are actually kind of cool; easy to drive.
Cons: HUD is hard to comprehend as you're blazing through the track; it's hard to tell who's coming up behind you, tracks feel repetitious, "Car-Fu" is a goofy name for a martial art.
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Enter the Zone for a supersonic, mind-expanding experience.
Three stadiums come straight from the Speed Racer movie.
An electric, candy-coated color scheme runs throughout the game.
