The year is 2012 and gone are the days of super–charged muscle cars. A new sport has emerged: old military fighters are recycled, souped–up, and modified for some fast–paced, head–jerking action. You race as many as 40 fighter planes from all around the world in over 20 different racing circuits, as well as battle others in a mind–numbing PowerBall game. The main objective of this game is to zoom around at very low altitudes while dodging bridges, missiles, and banking your aircraft around sharp canyon turns at over 1000 mph. Along the way, you fly through power rings that regenerate your health and increase your afterburners. With several play modes, you will have a chance to try out all the different fighters in a huge combination of races and battles.
The arcade mode allows a player to just race their jets without having to worry about the complexities of the career mode — those who have poured hours and hours into Gran Turismo will experience a bit of déjà vu with the latter mode. In this mode, which is the heart of the game, you start with next to nothing in the way of assets. You have to purchase a low–end trainer and race it in different courses and circuits, earning money along the way. Use your winnings to buy better planes and modifications to further enhance your fighters and move up into the Fighter classes. This is where you get to use your weapons. Unlike Gran Turismo, you can retaliate when you get cut–off or pushed aside. When you graduate from the trainer level into the fighter races, you can lock your missiles onto the other jets and blast them to smithereens if they get in front of you.
There is also a two–player PowerBall game wherein players go head–to–head as they try to capture a floating orb. You score points by dragging the ball thru scoring zones. Sounds easy, right? Ya, it is...until your opponent rams into you as they try to steal the orb from you. Fine, just keep them away with your weapons. But as you try to arm your heat–seekers, you find that when carrying the ball, your weapons are disabled! This one can be a lot of fun but will soon get boring as players realize that racing is much more fun than ramming into each other trying to steal a stupid ball.
Overall, game play is enjoyable. With four different cockpit views, you can choose whichever is most comfortable for you. You also have the option of choosing your control mode. For beginners, I would suggest the arcade mode. This takes all the thinking out of flying your jet. You have four basic directional controls (up, down, left, right) along with acceleration and brakes. Although this allows you to move through the lower levels of the game without any trouble, you will need to learn the pro control mode to out–maneuver the rest of the field in the later races. The pro mode, although much harder to master than the arcade control mode, is recommended if you plan on acquiring the full affect of flying these jets and hitting those banked, hairpin turns without faltering. Using the pro mode, you must take into account the roll and pitch of your jet and get used to the physics of flying.
For the speed of this game and it’s game play, the graphics do not disappoint. There are times when the polygons are a bit distracting as they take away from the fast–paced movement of the game, but that will be forgotten as the race progresses. The sound effects are not too spectacular, but they do hold up. The actual music tracks, however, are a bit disappointing. Now, maybe I’m just biased towards the Rock ’n Roll tracks from Top Gun or Iron Eagle, but flying to DJ mixes of dance and trance music just doesn’t do it for me.
NGEN RACING is a game packed with teeth–grinding intensity. The minor imperfections do not take away from the overall product at all. It will be hard to put the controller down once you take flight due to the variety of jets at your command. The possibilities are almost endless. In the end, my biggest criticism about the game is the controls. The pro mode, though fun, takes a while to master, and this is a downfall because, in order to fully appreciate this title, one definitely needs to master this part of the game.
Great concept, design, and variety. Average graphics. Sub–par controls and sounds.
"Why not mix a wee bit of speed in with extremely low altitude flight and experience combat at a new level! Although the soundtrack leaves much to be desired, here be an exciting offering PSX’ers can sink their controllers into!"
