Grooverider: Slot Car Thunder

Back before there were racing games like Gran Turismo … no, wait … back before Rad Racer on 8 bit NES … well, wait … even before Atari (I know we’re REALLY going back a ways here), many people including me can still remember building those figure 8 shaped black racing tracks with yellow barriers and placing our slot cars along the electric grooves to race against our friends and family in a lightning fast race in constant loops. Well, every favorite pastime from cards to board games and even a video game of someone playing a video game has been made (.hack), so it was only a matter of time before someone came along and decided to make one about slot car racing. This title is Grooverider, Slot Car Thunder by Encore.

OK, if I told you to go and buy a racing game in which you can’t steer, you’d probably think I was crazy. For anyone who hasn’t raced slot cars before, the cars sit in grooves along the track and run around at various speeds depending on how hard a trigger is pressed. The game stays true to this concept, so you use your left analog stick to speed up depending on how hard you push it up, but you can also use the trigger buttons to switch slots on the track. In addition, for a little more of an arcade and/or fantasy-racing feel, they also added in powerups like a missile, speed boost, jump, and mines along with barriers and some environmental obstacles to try and steer clear of as well.

The game consists of 5 different areas in a penthouse apartment, like a kitchen, the living room, a bedroom, dining room, and a roof garden, and each area has four tracks to race on with varying obstacles and difficulty. You select a car from a certain box set, which can be things like 70’s Cop Show themed or British Classic cars (you unlock a total of 6 box sets to use). There are three different difficulty settings that are 3 volt (easy), 6 volt (medium) and 9-volt (hard) power sources. There are also a few different ways to play the game, so you can run a single race, championship, time trial, or a custom setup to mix and match your own tracks. There are even a few special races to unlock as well, like a cop car challenge where you have to shoot the bad guy five times while zipping around the track or mine mania, where you have to try and complete a lap around a mine and barrier filled track while trying not to crash.

There are a couple of things that were impressive in Grooverider, the first of which being the overall track layouts. Each track, regardless of difficulty, had some neat twists and turns around some pretty well done areas like going over a bed, then through a loop, then going under the bed and things like that. Also, Grooverider gives a really good sense of speed as you rocket around the track lap after lap trying to take the first place position, and the addition of various powerups and track sections like speed lines, areas to slow you down, or magnetized sections of track to hold you in place were a neat addition and add to the fun and options during the race.

Unfortunately, there are a few things that really hold Grooverider back from being all that it can be. For starters, the AI is extremely unforgiving; even on the easy difficulty setting, and due to the difficult nature of a lot of the tracks you will probably find yourself getting tossed into last place often. The computer doesn’t seem to crash much, and after you wreck 3 or 4 times, you can pretty much call it quits. To add to the frustration you can’t retry any of the tracks in championship mode, so messing up in the second and third races means you just have to take defeat or start the whole process over again.

Secondly, There aren’t a whole lot of options up front. You begin with one track and one car, and have to go through and do the championship mode in order to unlock more. Thankfully, you can still unlock new tracks and cars even if you don’t win a championship string, but that obviously stops after a while. Add to this the frustration of the overall AI difficulty and the fact that you have no options to turn off track barriers or powerups and soon the overall option of “keep trying so you can unlock more” may not be enough to carry on.

Lastly, the game doesn’t really seem to work in your favor 90% of the time. Since there was a decent job done on the physics of the cars for the most part, taking turns too fast will probably have you flipping end over end off of the track. The problem here is that the game tends to want to put you right back in front of the turn again … and within a second of pushing the analog stick up your flying right back off and crashing again. Well, there are two out of three wrecks towards you not having a chance in the world of winning, so odds get slim from this point. This happened more times than not, so I’m going to presume that it is just part of the game. 

Thankfully, the multiplayer mode really does its share to make the game more enjoyable, even if you find yourself getting ticked off at the single player racing. By adding two people, it takes a little of the pressure off since there are only two AI cars on the track instead of three. In addition to playing arcade, championship, and custom in multiplayer mode, you can also select a free for all which is a mode that has all players receiving 5 lives. The person left who hasn’t run out of lives by avoiding crashing, hitting obstacles, or avoiding weapons wins. The reoccurring problem surfaces here too though, since the only tracks available for the most part are ones that have been unlocked (the first track of each of the 5 areas is available regardless), so if you haven’t felt like dealing with the single player mode, you probably won’t have a whole lot to do.

Overall, folks who really enjoy and remember all the fun of slot car racing may find the most enjoyment in Grooverider, especially for the $19.99 price tag and despite the issues. If you are thinking about picking it up since you’ve run through all of your current racing titles, you may want to hold off and try it for a weekend first, even for the discounted price.

Gameplay: 5.7
While there are a things about Grooverider that are fun, like the really funky and cool track layouts and hazards from the box sets (criss crossing tracks, tilted and corkscrew sections) and the really fast sense of speed, the other things like unforgiving AI, lack of play options to customize your game, and the annoying fact that you can’t restart a race during a championship really can make the game more aggravating than enjoyable.

Graphics: 7.1
The backgrounds look really good, even if not the most top rated Xbox graphics to date, and little additions to them like fires, household objects, and various other things that can wind up as track hazards was a neat idea. The cars themselves also looked pretty good, and there is a good amount to choose from with different styles, but some cars from certain kits tend to look the same except for the color.

Sound: 7.0
Most of the game sound consists of the zippy track noises and screeching tires if you happen to go around a turn too fast. The music wasn’t bad if you happen to like techno, since they used some tracks from musicians like Tapeworm, Killahurtz, and Soul of Man to thump in the background while you zip around the track.

Difficulty: Hard
Even on an easy setting, this game can be extremely difficult due to the fact that the AI is relentless and there is no way to go in and remove options like powerups and track barriers.

Concept: 6.4
OK … I think that Grooverider was a really good idea that just seemed like it was rushed at the very end somewhere. Would I like to see a sequel? Sure … especially with these things fixed, since I still can see a lot of potential in this game to be really enjoyable.

Multiplayer: 6.7
Multiplayer, while not perfect, helps to make the game more enjoyable thanks to the play modes and the fact that it helps to remove the annoying AI cars from the track. If you have one or more friends and family who like to play with you then it becomes a little more worth the $19.99 price tag, even if there aren’t many options until they get unlocked.

Overall: 5.8
Well, slot car racing has finally been done for Xbox, but the plusses of the game unfortunately get run over by the issues. If you have $19.99 burning a hole in your pocket and you are a big, BIG fan of slot car racing, go ahead and give it a whirl … you may really enjoy it. Even for fans mentioned above and non fans alike, I would definitely recommend that you spend $3.00 to rent it prior to buying it though, just in case. You may just save $16.00 to get a couple of actual slot cars to use on the tracks that may still be collecting dust in your parent’s basement.