Wasted Seconds

Now THIS is a great overhead racer for the 360 period, and at only 3 bucks it’s a steal. Halfbrick, from my understanding, has a pretty damned good reputation on the Indie Games section of Xbox Live by consistantly releasing good stuff. I honestly haven’t played the other games by them (yet), but if they’re even half as good as this, I’m in.

this is a pretty unconventional racer in the fact that with the default controls, literally the only way you have to fly your ship is with the left and right triggers. Hold down the left trigger to go left, the right trigger to go right, and hold them both down to go forward (since going straight in this game is damned near impossible). The only other button it really uses is Y, which you’ll probably find yourself using a LOT, because it causes your ship to explode and lets you retart the track.

When I initially downloaded this game though, I was really put off by the insanely steep learning curve. But after playing the full version, I can say that suffering through the learning curve is very very satisfying.

Graphically, this could very easily be an XBLA title, because they’re great. The ships, though they look identical to each other aside from the colors, have an awesome amount of detail to them with bars on each side that tells you how much power you’re giving each of your rockets. The tracks look great, the fire coming out of the rockets looks great, the frame rate is constant and never dips. Though the different colors for the ships work, I kind of wish they had a little bit more to differentiate them, though. Other than that this game is a visual treat.

And to top off the great graphics, the sound is just as well done with great bass thumping dance music that fits the game perfectly. I even find myself just starting a game sometimes and pausing it just to have the music in the background. Great sound effects though I’ve come to hate that THWACK that comes from hitting the wall because I tend to do it. A LOT. And the game supports custom soundtracks if the music isn’t to your liking. I would highly suggest a band like Godsmack or Disturbed if you want some great rock music that fits the game.

The main mode of the game is Time Trial, where you just go through each of the tracks and attempt to beat the pre ordained time in each track for either Bronze, Silver or Gold medals. The more medals you get, the more tracks you’re able to unlock. There’s a head to head mode for up to 4 players locally with, unfortunately, no Xbox Live support. And a “Hot Potato” mode where you pass the controller around. But, unfortunately, those are the only modes the game has. I would have loved to have seen a single player tournament racing against CPU controlled opponents in a lap style arcade race with the old arcade style timer that gives you a little more time every time you cross the finish line. There are over 40 tracks, so it’ll keep you busy for a while with different ways of racing. There are lap tracks, checkpoints and just very technical tracks that require a fair amount of finesse to finish. But I haven’t had a chance to play them all because of the game’s blistering difficulty. Make no mistake about it, this is an EXTREMELY difficult game that is almost infuriating at times. But it is oh so satisfying once you FINALLY get a gold medal on the track that has been haunting you for an hour. I’ve only managed to unlock the first 6 tiers so far, because to advance in the tiers you have to have however many medals are called for. Which is insanely difficult.

Which brings me into the gameplay. The control scheme to the game is actually very simple in theory. The default control scheme is Reversed. Which means your left trigger fires off the right rocket, the left trigger fires off the left rocket, and holding down both of them fires them both off. Which is honestly the hardest to use, but also provides the most control. Then there is Straight, which the left trigger fires off the left rocket, the right the right … you get the idea. Then there is (thankfully) a control scheme for beginners where your right trigger fires off both rockets and you use the left analog stick to control your ship, much closer to a traditional control scheme for games like this. And me personally, that’s what I would suggest you use to learn the game mechanics, because as I said. The learning curve for this game is extremely high if you want to do well. The ships are responsive, give an awesome sense of speed, the control is simply perfect, albeit difficult to grasp at first. You can boost off of walls for an extra speed boost as well which is great fun if you like to drift. The drifting mechanic in this game is totally flawless once you get it down.

But, aside from missing a single player tournament like I mentioned earlier (that’s just my thing though because I like that stuff) it really needs a way of previewing the track before you go on it. Yeah, you get a small image of it from the track selection screen, but an on screen minimap would’ve done wonders. Or a fly by at the beginning that shows you the track. Because when you get to one that you’ve just unlocked, it’s a lot of trial an error. I was tearing through just fine on one of them then all of a sudden “Oh crap, there’s a wall there!” and had to start over. A fly by or a minimap would allow for an easier way to strategize how you’re going to beat that Gold medal time. But I find myself stumbling through the ones I unlock for a while instead. Maybe even an option where a CPU controlled ship flies through the track showing you a way you can do it. Of course, Youtube will probably eventually be filled up with videos from players showing off their best times.

8.5 – Don’t go by the trial so much for this game, because honestly it’s not a very good representation of the full game. Yes, the learning curve is high, and yes it’s an extremely difficult game. But it’s satisfying as well, and is the single best overhead racer you’ll find on the 360. It’s only 3 bucks, and if you’re into racing games and you like drifting at extreme speeds, just get it.

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