ATV: Quad Power Racing [GBA]

ATV: Quad Power Racing started life as a PlayStation game way back in the day, and Acclaim's keeping the branding alive with a Game Boy Advance edition of the four-wheel off-road racer. As good as the game looks on the GBA's LCD screen, you can't get by on appearance alone...the actual racing design and track layouts are extremely bland and sterile, and the actual challenge doesn't pick up until more than half-way through the game.

Features

• Ten tracks
• Nine vehicles
• Three classes of racing
• Password save
• Only for Game Boy Advance

In ATV, players must race through a number of laps on a closed-circuit, off-road tracks against seven other bikers, and by coming in at the designated place or better you can move on to the next race. Finish a circuit and you'll move onto the next circuit with faster vehicles and more challenging computer AI. Tantalus, the development team who worked on ATV for the Game Boy Advance, built a very capable 3D engine for this racing title. In two ways, actually: the road utilizes a very smooth and detailed technique that allows for detailed track textures with gradual and harsh inclines, as well as a decent draw distance so players can see the track several hundred feet ahead. The racer and vehicle is actually a 3D polygonal model, letting the developer construct a bike without having to redraw its angle over and over. The polygonal engine isn't as impressive as the track engine, admittedly, as the framerate of the bike doesn't match the smooth motion of the road...crashing into an obstacle will net an awkwardly choppy three-frame animation.

In a game that's supposed to emphasize off-roading, the track designs really don't take advantage of this element. Oh, there are inclines, jumps, and whoopty-doos, but sharp turns and hills in corners are rare to come by...and obstacles, other than the occasional roadside tree or sign, are almost non-existent. The game's challenge would have increased exponentially if the designers peppered the tracks with hazards that racers would have to keep their eyes on. As it is right now, the driving in ATV is overly bland.

And even though there are eight opponents to race, you only see these guys one at a time...strategically spaced out on the track so that only one opponent can be seen on-screen. There's never any struggle to pass these guys, since, through their AI, they slow down around turns to a speed that's much lower than necessary...which makes it a breeze to overtake them. But what's really disappointing is the strategy: the game ends up being a basic memorization challenge. The driving skills take a back seat to the challenge of remembering where the speed boosts are in each of the different tracks in the game. Once you've learned where they are, it's a simple matter of maneuvering your car on the track to where the power-ups will be. Only when the game picks up in speed during the third circuit does the driving get a little more intense, but once you've learned the trick of mentally noting the location of the power-ups, half the challenge is gone.

But the most disappointing issue...no multiplayer support. We're in the GBA's second year of life, and it's important for a racing game to offer the option of racing against human opponents...the complaints of bad computer AI all but go away when players can go up against their buddies. And, of course, the lack of a cartridge save means that players can't even save their best times around the track.

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