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PS2 Test Drive Developer: Pitbull Syndicate | Publisher: Infogrames
Rating: DTeenYoshi
Type: Racing Players: 1
Difficulty: Intermediate Released: 5-28-02

Almost as long as there have been arcades, there have been arcade-style racing games. Classics such as Pole Position and OutRun paved the way for the modern arcade racers, led by Ridge Racer and Daytona USA. In addition, there are a group of racers with arcade gameplay that were never released in an arcade. Rather, they were developed exclusively for home use on a console. This last group is where Infogrames' Test Drive falls.

Test Drive contains several game modes, including the normal single race and practice run. However, the meat of the game, and most of the player's enjoyment, is found "In the Underground." This mode follows the story Dennis Black, an independent street racer, as he attempts to prove himself against a total of 16 opponents and the law. Progressing "In the Underground" will take Dennis through tracks in San Francisco, Tokyo, London, and Monaco. Along the way, a story unfolds, which is a little odd for a racing title. As one might expect, the plot is both unnecessary and contrived.

The gameplay found in Test Drive is your standard arcade racing with a couple twists. First, cops are scattered throughout many of the tracks and will pursue both Dennis and his opponents. Typically, these squad cars serve as nothing more than an annoyance, however, if Dennis happens to wreck while a cop is in hot pursuit, he may very well be arrested, which ends the race immediately and obviously causes the player to fail. The second somewhat unusual circumstance is that the races take place on city streets, much like Rockstar's Midnight Club Street Racing. This, of course, introduces city traffic to the equation. It is often the best policy to drive on the wrong side of the road, simply because oncoming cars are easier to dodge quickly than those traveling ahead of Dennis on the right side of the road. Aside from these elements, TD does little to further the genre. In fact, even the city streets are done better in the aforementioned MCSR.

Bonus points must be given to developer Pitbull Syndicate for their use of the loading screens. Instead of watching a progress bar or something spin monotonously, players will be treated to a game of Pong as the game loads. On the down side, there is enough loading to make the gamer a Pong pro by the time the last race has been finished. This is another area where the story actually detracts from the gameplay experience. The story sequences must load, then be seen before the loading that leads to the actual race. It's likely that the player would invest in an arcade classics disc if he wanted to play that much Pong.

The graphics displayed by Test Drive also fail to push the envelope of either the hardware or the genre. In fact, in many ways they are not up-to-par with Ridge Racer V, which was released at Japanese launch back in March of 2000. More progress is expected in over two years, one would think. The car models are adequate, although without the names contained in the manual, it is unlikely that some of them could be identified as their real-life inspiration. Backgrounds and obstacles carry a dull color palette, giving the appearance of being washed out somewhat. That impression, added to the overall graininess of the visuals, makes this eye candy more like eye vegetables.

Thankfully, the sound leaves a much more positive impression that the graphics. Music by such artists as DMX, JA Rule, Junkie XL, Bubba Sparxxx, and Saliva lends an enjoyable backdrop for the engine noises and brake squealing common in racers. In fact, after getting shafted a couple too many times by the ever-present computer opponents, the player may get to know a couple of the tunes much better than he would like.

The difficulty of Test Drive can be quite frustrating. However, it is not in a manner than one might expect. Never are the computer cars impossible to beat. While they do seem to accelerate faster than Dennis could ever hope to, they can always be caught. Unfortunately, so can Dennis. If the player makes it 98% of the way through a race perfectly, then slips up even slightly at the end, it is likely that three or four CPU cars will blow by him, causing him to replay the race. This margin of error is likely to lead to bodily harm to the controller unlucky enough to be connected while Test Drive is in the PS2.

As a total package, there is some enjoyment to be had with Test Drive. However, there are simply too many similar games out there that are now part of the Greatest Hits line for Test Drive to come highly recommended. Unless playing Pong ad nauseum actually adds to your enjoyment, going in another direction would likely provide more bang for the buck.

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Rating: DYoshi
Graphics: 5 Sound: 7
Gameplay: 7 Replay: 6
  © 2002 The Next Level