Auto Modellista, U.S. Tuned mini review (Gamecube)

[d123456]

The game originally came out for ps2 in 2002 in Japan.
Then in 2003 the game was updated, this became known as the U.S. Tuned version and was released on PS2 in na and Japan (again) and on Gamecube in na and Japan.
In 2004 it was released for the xbox.
This review is for the US Gamecube version from 2003. And I am treating it totally fair for it´s age.



GAMEPLAY
This is where the game completely fails. Perhaps the driving gaming engine was based on Resident Evil/Bounty Hunter/Dino Crisis. Go forward, turn, go forward.
I am having difficulty describing exactly how bad the driving is in this game. It is the worst driving game to ever come out of Japan. This time around being a European Gamecube owner actually saved you money.
I have played several cars with several settings, it always feels like you are driving without tyres and just driving on the rims.
The Walls. The walls are your friend in this game. Really. But not all of them. Only the outer walls are your friends. If you drive with high speed into a wall in a curve. let´s say a 90 or 180 degree curves. These outer walls will send you on your way into the next straight with little loss of speed. Great. It´s like with Burnout. The inner walls however, be carefull, they will bounce you really hard and sometimes even make you spinout.
This game is unplayable, but after a while you can kind of workaround the awkward handling and drifts and spin-outs and perhaps you can even drive clean after a while, but it is not fun at all. There´s no explaining it. I guess you start to drift right away every time you turn and if you drift a little too much, then you are going into a spin out sequence that might (if your lucky) spin you out 360 degrees. most times you are facing the track in opposite direction and you have to donut your way back on track and that is not as easy as it sounds. Sometimes you will get stuck head on into a wall and you cannot get out no matter how long you hit gas an steer in either direction. Just quit and restart which sucks if you are in a championship with several races!
Hey, perhaps the ps2 or xbox versions are better.

GRAPHICS
The Graphics are great. not that many tracks but a decent amount. nice cell shaded design and nice effects. I turned off the speeding stripes, because after 10 minutes that gets kind of ridiculous unless you are under the age of 11. Good thing you can turn that off.
Capcom did a great job. Looks even better with the expensive 480p component cable. This game supports 480p. But sadly no wide screen support, so play in 4:3
I wanted to link a Gamecube video from youtube in, but can´t really find anything decent.

SOUND FX
The sound effects could´ve used a bit more effort. especially the Tyre screeching is very annoying and overly loud (you can lower the volume of that a bit) crashes and bumping other cars have weird sound effects. It feels like the sound was like: whatever, this game will never get released anyway, it sucks.

MUSIC
Music is a mixed bag, different types of music and mostly not so great, some cool tunes though.

PRESENTATION/MENU´S/USER INTERFACE
The Presentation and menu´s are great and very fast loading and very clear

LAST-ABILITY
7 ´missions´ with several races in each mission on several tracks
Some races have to be won more than once to unlock secret cars
But once that´s done and that´s what I did, than that´s that. it was incredibly easy and short. I completed it with the Cobra, one of the better cars.
The other CPU opponents drive like donkeys.



VERDICT
Don´t rent it before you buy. Don´t buy it.
The gameplay kills what could have been a great game.
I rate it 2 out of 10 (or 1 out of 5).
Had the gameply been great it could have even been a 8.
I had heard complaints before, but thought to myself: "Those guys might not know Japanese Racing games like I do and perhaps don´t get it". The people that like this game. I can´t for the love of god imagine why, but perhaps they only have this game. I have dozens of Japanese PS2 racing/drifting games and they range from OK to super good. To say that this is the worst racing game I own is degrading to my other racing games. This is a p.o.s..
Think of the worst Saturn/PS1 racing game. this is worst.
I like Capcom very much. Boy must they be embarrassed with this. I do wish they´d make part 2 and improve the gameplay. Then I could enjoy it very much.
Want a good racing game on Gamecube I´ve got four words for you: F-Zero.
If you want a Japanese racing game. Get GT Cube (also from 2003). Which looks like this, but plays like a Japanese racing should. Made by MTO. They rereleased GT cube for the Wii called gt pro, but that can only be played with the wiimote and not with the gamecube controller, so stay away from it.

[CRTGAMER]

Great review, only complaint is no in game screenshots.



I didn't know much about this game other then seeing the Gamecube cover. Didn't even know it is an animation type game as in Sly or Jet Set Radio. Good that you mentioned that, some don't like Cel Shading in driving games. Thanks for pointing out the gameplay faults of this game. Okay I know the driving is bad when you used the Resident Evil Tank Controls analogy.

[hashiriya1]

It is the worst driving game to ever come out of Japan.

This is a pretty bold statement. I can think of dozens of titles much worse, I own some of them.

I like Auto Modellista. It's fun arcade racing. You are right, the controls and handling mechanics aren't very good, but it's not so bad to the point it's unplayable. But then again, I have never played the GC version, I just own the PS2 version.

The little details made the game charming for me. When you drive the R34 that is an RB26DETT you hear. When you riding the FD3S, it sounds pretty close to the 13B which powers it. Another good thing about this game is that it has pretty obscure cars that you wouldn't expect from a game like this. R30, EF8, Cosmo 21, ZZ-S, even a Young SS. I was pleasantly surprised to see these cars in the game.

The Shinjuku track is my favorite. When you're speeding down Yasukuni Doori, they made a good effort to make you feel like you're there. Same with the Hanshin Highway. Little details like Lumine 2, Megane Drug, Marui, etc all actual shops in Shinjuku, and they are in the background.

Perhaps the GameCube version is pretty shitty, I don't know, but the PS2 version is playable and worth the very low prices they go for if someone is into racing games. I'll stay away from the Game Cube version...thanks for the heads-up.

[d123456]

I think that probably all version play the same anyway. I mean it should all be about racing in the first place. Then comes content. Here the content was made while being based on a crap racing engine. What were they thinking. And yes lots of obscure cars, nice tracks. some nice tunes. That´s why it´s so sad really. A lot of work went into, just not in the right places.
I just expect an reasonable racing game engine and then build around that. In this case the testers were like WTF, booh and the project management was like: "shut your pothole, we´ll fix it later", which they then offcourse never did.
It is also a total misconception that bugs in games are unknown. 90% of the bugs that we as gamers find were already discovered by testers. And then testers also found way more other bugs than we will ever find. Management gives not a feces, really. Marketing sell sell sell.
Good to hear that some people enjoy it regardless of it´s shortcomings. I think I´ll never touch it again. I should put it back on the bay, jeez so many other games I still have to sell.

[Bradtemple87]

I thought the game was not terrible, but it is definitely not Ridge Racer.