IT STAYS FRESHER LONGER, WITH BIG RED
A Review of Big Red Racing
by Mark W. Frantz
The amount of racing games that are on the shelves or soon will be is staggering. It seems as though every week a new racing sim, proudly proclaiming itself to be the grand champion of racing sims, hits the stores with vigor. And as if on cue, Domark offers up Big Red Racing, their offering to this almost saturated genre.
Let's get past the technicals, shall we? Big Red is playable in both DOS and Windows 95, thus making it quite versatile. Unfortunately, as is the case in many of these racing sims, it has a wonderful SVGA, high resolution mode that offers choppy and broken frame rates while in use. Most gamers will have to settle for the VGA display to make this one playable. Beyond that fault, the graphics are excellent. The sound effects are what you'd expect: nothing special, but then again, nothing annoying. They add the right feel to the game. Control can be handled in a variety of ways, from keyboard, to joystick and gamepad, to specialized racing wheels and pedals.
Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business. To survive in this genre in this day and age, a racing sim must, MUST set itself apart from the rest of the pack. Every game has its gimmick. Big Red is no exception. Except that it is not really a gimmick, but an addition. You see, you're not really racing cars in this game.
I know what you're thinking. No cars? Come on. But it's true. Big Red's uniqueness lies within it's racing vehicles. In the course of the game, you'll drive: a jeep, a backhoe, a dump truck, a snow mobile, an APC (Armored Personnel Carrier), a monster truck, one of two space vehicles, a rubber raft, a helicopter and more. This game's got range!
To supplement these interesting vehicles are numerous and sometimes fiendishly difficult tracks in which to race. Each is designated by what kind of track it is: dirt track for jeeps and APCs, water tracks for rubber rafts, and so on. Each track has two different vehicles available to race on it. (For example, the dirt track allows either the jeep or the APC) There are 24 different tracks to choose from. Some of the more interesting ones are on Mars and the moon.
To supplement your own tastes and preferences, you can select your own driver from six different choices. This has no real bearing on the game, but the characters are interesting to look at anyway.
As is the case with most new games hitting the market these days, Big Red can be played over the modem or through a network that supports up to six drivers. A few years ago, this would have been a major coup, but multi player support has no longer become a feature, it is now a mandatory foundation for any racing game. Still, Big Red handles it well.
There's nothing really wrong with the game, except that the tournament play gets tiresome after a while. You have to win a certain number of races at the easy level, more at the intermediate level, and so on. And with no save game feature, once you lose, you have to start from scratch again. And so when you lose on the expert level, one win away from victory, you have to start all the way back at the beginning. It increases replayability, but it is still quite frustrating.
All in all, Domark's contribution to the racing sim genre is a solid, unique product, offering some of the weirdest racing locals and vehicles this reviewer has ever seen. And for $29.95, who can beat the price?
Gamer's Zone Scorecard
| Product: |
Big Red Racing |
| Company: |
Domark
|
| Cost: |
$29.95 |
System Requirements:
486/66 PC or better, (Pentium Recommended) 8 megs of RAM, DOS 6.0 or above or Windows95, 2x CD-ROM, VGA or SVGA graphics
Breakdown:
Fun Factor 5
Graphics 4
Sound 4
Interface 3
Replayability 4
Overall Score:
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