King Games Trifecta : Pocketbike Racer (Part 2)
If you're just jumping in to this review now, this is part 2 of a 3 part series I'm doing covering the games that Burger King released just over a decade go. Last review we talked about Big Bumpin, this time it's Pocketbike Racer.As I mentioned last time, the goal of these reviews isn't about the value of the game because these things were never expensive to begin with and you can find them for practically pennies now. All I want to do is finally play these, talk about what and how they are, and if it's better than you would expect for being a game released and backed by a fast food chain. So let's dive into round two!
What Is It?
The title really says it all for this one. Pocketbike Racer puts you on a mini-motorcycle against seven other opponents in a clash to see who's the best on two mini-wheels. Again, you can race against some buddies in Multiplayer mode, do some single races on your own, or do your best in the 4 modes of tournament play.
Each mode of play comes with three broken down levels, and it's basically Mario Kart style, broken down by the speed of the bikes : 50cc, 100cc, 150cc. The tournaments are : Racing, Battle Royale, Cone Trial, and Extreme Racing. All of them, with the exception of Extreme Racing, have cones placed throughout the track with different colors of light between them. Passing through these areas will fill up a portion of the special meter on the right side of the screen, different colors filling up more space or only a little bit. Along the special meter are a number of different power ups available to you depending on how full the bar is. You can give yourself a temporary shield, shoot a rocket, send out a wave of lightning, all to either attack your opponents, or protect yourself from their attacks. But, like I mentioned, these cones are not present in Extreme Racing since the goal in that tournament is to simply outrace your opponent with nothing else but your skill.
In the normal Racing mode, you can use the power-ups to try and take out your opponents, but the points at the end are awarded by where you cross the finish line. With Battle Royale, the goal is to hit your opponents with power-ups. The first participant to achieve 6 hits is the winner, and the rest of the points are awarded based on the number of hits everybody else has gotten. Lastly, the Cone Trial event is purely just about driving through the cones. After you drive through, the colored lights go away for a short time, so all you have to do is be the one to drive through the most cones first. First person to drive through 20 cones wins, and the rest of the points get awarded accordingly.
All the tournaments consist of five rounds, each round taking place on each of the five available tracks in the game. You're forced to start in the 50cc tournament level, and once you win this you unlock the 100cc, and with winning that one you unlock 150cc. Each tournament victory also gets you different gear for your characters and paint/color schemes for the bikes.
In the normal Racing mode, you can use the power-ups to try and take out your opponents, but the points at the end are awarded by where you cross the finish line. With Battle Royale, the goal is to hit your opponents with power-ups. The first participant to achieve 6 hits is the winner, and the rest of the points are awarded based on the number of hits everybody else has gotten. Lastly, the Cone Trial event is purely just about driving through the cones. After you drive through, the colored lights go away for a short time, so all you have to do is be the one to drive through the most cones first. First person to drive through 20 cones wins, and the rest of the points get awarded accordingly.
All the tournaments consist of five rounds, each round taking place on each of the five available tracks in the game. You're forced to start in the 50cc tournament level, and once you win this you unlock the 100cc, and with winning that one you unlock 150cc. Each tournament victory also gets you different gear for your characters and paint/color schemes for the bikes.
How Is It?
While it's not as "impressive" as Big Bumpin', Pocketbike Racer is decently fun. With the last game I speculated that while it's enjoyable solo-playing, it would be more enjoyable with other people. This time, I've gotta say that this game is pretty boring by yourself.
The racing itself is okay. It's not the best experience, but everything works the way it's supposed to. You can lean back for wheelies, a lot of the objects on the map are actual barriers that you can hit and bring you to an abrupt and unplanned stop. There's even some track sections that have no barriers and you can go flying off. But everything is just too easy on your own or, in the Extreme Racing mode, too stacked against you. No matter how many times I re-did the races, no matter how well I hit the shortcuts or power-slid through the corners, it was never good enough to catch the leader. This mode is purely set by bike selection : get the fastest one and learn how to handle it.
However, the real problem with this one is playability, not replayability. Most games, the question is "Okay I'm done, was it good enough to go through it again?" After you complete a single tournament in this game, you can already ask yourself that question. Remember, each tournament is five rounds, and there's only five tracks in the game. All of the play modes barely have any differences. so do one round and you can ask yourself "Were these five tracks good enough to play through again 11 more times?"
The racing itself is okay. It's not the best experience, but everything works the way it's supposed to. You can lean back for wheelies, a lot of the objects on the map are actual barriers that you can hit and bring you to an abrupt and unplanned stop. There's even some track sections that have no barriers and you can go flying off. But everything is just too easy on your own or, in the Extreme Racing mode, too stacked against you. No matter how many times I re-did the races, no matter how well I hit the shortcuts or power-slid through the corners, it was never good enough to catch the leader. This mode is purely set by bike selection : get the fastest one and learn how to handle it.
However, the real problem with this one is playability, not replayability. Most games, the question is "Okay I'm done, was it good enough to go through it again?" After you complete a single tournament in this game, you can already ask yourself that question. Remember, each tournament is five rounds, and there's only five tracks in the game. All of the play modes barely have any differences. so do one round and you can ask yourself "Were these five tracks good enough to play through again 11 more times?"
FINAL THOUGHTS
For me personally, my answer to the above question is a flat out no. There should have been some variation in the courses that you encounter for the tournaments. Not all five tracks for every. Single. Round. One game that comes to mind is Destruction Derby 2. The game featured a limited number of tracks, but it found a good way to stack them. One tournament was tracks 1-3, then the next was 2-4, then 3-5 and so on til it covered them all. That would have made this game a lot more enjoyable to play. As this game stands, there's really nothing impressive at all about it. You can pick up any racing game on any console and it'll be a lot more fun to play. Last time I said make sure you don't overpay for the game, this time I'm saying don't pay for it period.
Up Next : Sneak King
