The controls are well organized and simple. The right trigger drives you forward; the left trigger drives you back. The left joystick moves the car in respective directions while the right joystick deals with camera. Getting in and out of your vehicle is simple enough with Y, and you can repair your vehicle at any time in the game, along with making Kazooie grab broken parts should you face plant off a high dive. One of the best mechanics, that keeps the vehicle idea consistent, is the ability to access the garage at almost anytime, especially before challenges. The ability to use or manipulate your vehicles is always available. The game’s silver medal goes to the feel of the game. Initially, the physics may create some frustration. During racing challenges, opponents can barely nudge your back tire to send you spinning out of control. While this physics reality is quirky, once you get the hang of it, it’s one of the most fluid platformers you’ll get your hands on. If you miss a jump, you recognize why immediately, enjoy falling a few stories, and then flip your car back over with the right bumper. It feels like an afternoon at carnival bumper cars without the whiplash.
I initially played the game on my grandmother’s non-HD TV that doubles as a microwave and found the graphics, and especially text, to be horrible. But put it on its true HD calling, and the graphics are bright, full, and flawless. The HD experience really brings out smooth textures and bright colors, even if it’s still a cartoon. Small details like skid marks and water droplets on the camera when you’re swimming add delight to your interaction with the environments. Each world has its own identity, from circuit boards to snow and ice levels, and you’ll appreciate that the game doesn’t require a linear path through each world. You’ll play a few ice challenges before heading off to meadows and hills which will open more ice doors, as well as other worlds entirely. Also, replay ability incentive is tremendous because of trophies. Each challenge presents an additional bonus should you complete it in a certain amount of time. Rise to the occasion and you get a trophy. Get four trophies and you get an extra jigsaw piece. Some of the earlier challenges I had to return to because I’d just built a better, faster ride that would ensure trophy victory.
There’s no dialogue in the game, so it can get annoying listening to the mumbling of characters with “text-over.” Otherwise, the sound is perfect, with the same hysterical sound bites we’ve associated with cartoons since we can remember. The music plays to the fun loving nature of the game and is never overbearing. I wish I could say there was extensive online play with other pimped rides ready to take you on in the Vin Diesel quarter mile, but the online community for the game was barren. When you do find games or races, they tend to be short lived and don’t add much to the gameplay you’ve already experienced.
The game set out to bring to the “highway” a new manner of platforming. Utilizing cars instead of our arms and legs makes the game addictive to those who will take the time to build, fine tune, and build again. Challenges keep you coming back for more, but the game loses a lot of incentive in being repetitive and overly cheeky. Play it for the first five hours of silliness and simplicity to get to the meat of the sandwich. Once you’ve accepted the imaginative environment and characters for what they are, then you’ll be able to cruise easier, with the wind blowing in your fur, and a vast, exciting world to leave in the dust.
