Game #983: Shox

  This game shocks me.

 What is a Shox? Who knows, but it's the title of this racing game made by EA. Shox is a weird sim and arcade racer hybrid, for example, there's no manual transmission, just accelerating and breaking, but on the other hand you really have to learn how to take those curves.

 The can be played either in multiplayer or single player. It offers 24 tracks divided into four groups of six, each group is a 'class' which allows you to use any of six different vehicles. So, just as with the tracks, it's 24 cars divided into four sets of six. The progression system is a bit challenging, to unlock night versions of every stage you must reach a gold Shox rank, more on this later, to unlock a new racing track you must reach up to the second spot(Depends on the class, on the first class you only need fifth place, on the fourth class you need second) on the last track you unlocked. New cars are obtained either by gambling money or buying them. Gambling is the cheaper option, you have to win a mini-race against the CPU... who gets a head start. And the game auto-saves as soon as you select the gamble option so that you can't reload if you lose. Harsh!

 Gameplay is super basic, as stated before, but it adds the Shox gimmick to keep things interesting. Every track has three Shox zones, each zone having a defined beginning and end. The faster you close the gap the better you score, Gold, Silver or Bronze. The higher your rank, the higher the monetary reward. And there's another advantage to getting gold, as getting gold on all three segments will unleash a Shoxwave, which you can ride for even more money and better speed. Do be careful, as every time you crash against something your end-race reward will take a hit too! It's not the most innovative system ever, but it gets the job done.

 The game features 3 types of tracks: Dirt, Jungle and Snow, and all 24 tracks follow one of those themes, which change how you must approach them, Snow is super slippery and dirt tends to have many off-road sections. I liked how tracks looked in the game, although the more I played the more shared assets I found between them.

 While the game is solid enough, the collision physics are a bit suspect. Saw myself spinning out over the tiniest mistake when braking, one time the camera went nuts after I landed from a jump. I dunno, colliding against stuff just didn't feel right.

 I found Shox to be a fun racer, although not one I'll probably come back to any time soon. As I've written many times before, I'm not particularly fond of racing games so they really need to stand out in order to fully capture my interest.

 7.0