Review #528: Digimon Racing

 Shouldn't have left the starting line.

It's not like 2 out of the three Digimon on the cover must be unlocked. Actually, it is like that.

 There's something to be said about Digimon, never stuck to one genre or style for too long, eh! Digimon Racing is the franchise's lone racing game, and there's probably a good reason for that.

 Starting the game, there're two different options: Single Player and Multiplayer, and no, I didn't have anybody to try multiplayer with. Single Player is made up of Championship, Quick Race and Time Trial, y'know, the usual. There're 12 different tracks and 11 different racers(The original eight, Veemon, Guilmon and Agunimon) as well as three different bosses. Bosses are simple stages in which you must get a power-up weapon, wait until the boss uses his attack and falls helpless and then shoot. Rinse and repeat. It's as dumb as it sounds. In what's a bit of a novelty, there're more championship cups than usual, so the 12 tracks are featured in various different combinations, for a total of about 10 cups. In the end it's just an excuse to have you replay the same tracks over and over again, but I think it's not too bad of a gesture.

Go, Patamon, go, escape this terrible game!

 The game looks like Mario Kart Super Circuit, but isn't even half as good. Most of the 12 tracks are fairly forgettable, a criticism you can levy against Super Circuit too, but the few that are memorable... are for all the wrong reasons. Some tracks are downright horrible, in a few you might even get confused... or get the game confused, so that when the Arrow signaling an upcoming curve appears on-screen... it's actually wrong. And don't even let me get started on the cave level, featuring one of the nastiest graphical effects I've ever seen, distracting to the point of being confusing.

 The rest of the game is a fairly standard mascot racer. You race against other 5 racers, and you may pick up power-up boxes that give you a one-time use weapon against your enemies. Power-ups are fairly boring, a blue bubble projectile, a red bubble homing projectile, a thunder that hits everyone, a turbo, a shield... the basics and just the basics. There're no defensive power ups besides the shield, which is rather lame. As for the driving... cars feel extra slippery, and I usually played as balanced characters like Agumon, Agunimon or Guilmon. Other than that, the gameplay is passable.... when the framerate is stable. Y'see, if there're  more than three racers, including you, on screen at the same time... it will chug, and it might cost you a curve if the slowdown hits or stops right as you are taking it!

Greymon deserves better than a bad racing game.

 Not to say that the game lacks anything original, peppered throughout the various different tracks are digital noise tiles. Driving over these will fill a gauge on the left of the screen, once you reach the third tier of the gauge(It defaults on the second tier), you digivolve into your mon's Champion form. While in champion mode you're faster, and if you completely fill the gauge, you gain access to your mon's special move. The button to use your special is the same as the one to use the power up you're carrying, which is kinda annoying in case you were trying to store your special move, as that's the one that you'll use first. Using power ups or your special move takes away some of the gauge, so you could end up digivolving if you are trigger-happy. Taking damage also depletes the gauge, and if you fall below the second gauge you'll devolve into your baby form, becoming very slow, although the gauge automatically refills up to the second tier, so it's just a matter of waiting. Lastly, the game boasts about its car hopping mechanic... which simply means that you can jump on top of an opponent in order to devolve them and make them slower for a little while. Lame.

 Digimon Racing is a very bland game. The driving by itself is just passable, if slightly poor. But what really ruins the game are the bland power-up selection and the bad track design. Even when it's entertaining it doesn't last long. Honestly, there's absolutely no reason to get this game if you can get your hands on Mario Kart Super Circuit, and I don't think Digimon fans have much to look for in a poor mascot racing game.
 3.0 out of 10