Developed by Climax and published by THQ, MotoGP '06 follows a long line of motorcycle racers from various previous generation console platforms. Having established MotoGP as the premium motorcycle racing franchise, Climax had the task of proving they could not only continue that title with '06, but they needed to beef up the game enough to make it worthy of the Xbox 360. While keeping the illustrious title of the best motorcycle sim on the Xbox 360 was a foregone conclusion, (there are no other games in the genre - yet), making sure they did enough to keep next gen gamers happy would always be a little bit more difficult.
First though - what is MotoGP? Well aside from standing for, most obviously, Grand Prix Motorcycle racing, it basically consists of purpose built racing machines going around tracks as fast as possible. This is in contrast to the other well known motorcycle racing championship - World Superbike, which features highly modified, but publicly available, motorbikes. In MotoGP the bikes are built for one thing and one thing only - racing.
In terms of single player, MotoGP '06 has pretty much the standard options that you will find in any racer - quick race, career mode, and time trial. Quick race is good for having the odd race now and then (as the name suggests!), and if you want to work on your lap times then time trial is the place to go (again, as the name suggests). However if you want to get anywhere in the game, and really get into MotoGP, then you need to start a career.
The career menu features several options, a few of which will be blanked out until you reach a certain level in the game. You can either start a new Grand Prix, in which you will compete in the full MotoGP 2005/2006 season, covering 17 different tracks; or you can get some training (highly recommended if you have never played a motorcycle racer before); or you can complete various challenges in order to get rider attribute points.
Upon completing the MotoGP season a new class of championship will open - Extreme 600. As the name suggests, you will be racing across streets (as opposed to tracks) on bikes according to their engine size. Win more races, win more money, and you will soon be able to afford the next level of bike - 1000CC engine size, and so that championship will become available. Same goes for the ultimate extreme level, Extreme 1200.
So, onto the actual racing. I have always considered myself reasonably competent at car racing games, however when I tried to play MotoGP it was quite a different story. Racing a motorcycle is very different to racing a car. For starters there is two different brakes that you need to use on a bike (front and back), and then there is the slight delay in cornering as your rider has to shift his or her body weight from one side of the bike to the other. So that said it will take you time, and a lot of practice, before you will become proficient at the game. While as I mentioned before, there is a training option under the career menu, this is only really useful in more or less explaining to you how to do things like corner most efficiently; most training goals are easily accomplished and you will only really learn how to race by getting out and amongst it on a track with other riders.
However all this is not to say that there is anything wrong with the gameplay, or the controls, in MotoGP '06 - both are superb as far as bike riding is concerned. Once you learn to start thinking ahead constantly throughout the race, and getting your rider in position for the next turn as quickly as possible, you will be cutting through S-bends chicanes in no time. But let's just say that there will be no last minute emergency brake drifting in this game, as you might be used to in others. As a consolation prize you are able to send your biker into a power slide with 2 quick taps on the throttle, and when mastered this can be very satisfying.
In terms of how much challenge the CPU controlled riders will give you, well of course that's up to the difficulty level. At the easiest setting they will go around the course reasonably slowly, certainly giving you enough time to crash at a couple of corners, and then catch up with them in the straights!
Needless to say as the difficulty increases so does the CPU rider speed. In terms of the race line they will take - it rarely changes, and while you might be tempted to occasionally get into an on track tussle with a CPU rider and try to knock them off their bike, it is generally not recommended.
In terms of the overall gameplay feel, the game is solid as one would expect, and Climax seem to have generally stuck to the age-proven formula that has worked on MotoGP games of the past. It won’t make you jump out of your seat, but it definitely works.
