Video Game Review: 'NASCAR Unleashed'

I'm all for an aggressive NASCAR game. Sure, the realism-based ones are OK, but you have to be in the proper mood to go around hundreds of laps without feeding the urge to ram Tony Stewart into the wall.

So it made me happy to play "NASCAR Unleashed" on the 360 last month, with its simplistic arcade nature and its numerous options. When I heard there was a version available for Nintendo 3DS, I was curious to see how it fared, imagining car parts flying at the screen in 3-D and all sorts of havoc ensuing. Well, I got the havoc part right, but not in the way I wanted.

"NASCAR Unleashed" on the 3DS has more limited options than the previous versions. You can still choose to take on a quick race, go for broke in Championship Mode, see how you fare in the Time Trial, or challenge friends locally via Co-Op Championship or a Versus Quick Race. I say limited because, well, you can't hop online and take on the competition in a breezy race. You're stuck looking around for local players and seeing if they're up for playing bumper cars. That beats nothing, but come on - there's not like a registered "NASCAR Unleashed" user base to root through here.

Quick Race is "Unleashed's" best option on the 3DS, as you'll quickly complete objectives that pop up on the screen while smashing into opponents and gunning for first. It's quick and breezy, and sometimes the track conditions can be quite creative, even allowing you to defy gravity for a few seconds as you gun for the lead. On the downside, the handling leaves something to be desired, as the steering can feel a little loose, leading to unnecessary crashes. The D-pad fares a little better than the analog, but not by much.

Where the real frustration of "NASCAR Unleashed" lies is in its incredible difficulty spikes. For a kids' game, this is unbelievably nuts. In Time Trial, for instance, you're given a pre-set number of times for gold, silver and bronze. Yet even the most dedicated drivers will be hard-pressed to barely make the bronze, making us wonder if we're missing out on some shortcuts or turbo boosts. Nope . . . Activision just set the bar way too high.

But Time Trial is a cakewalk compared to Championship. Here, the AI shows undoubtedly high signs of aggression, barely letting up on you even if you take the lead. Now, "rubberbanding" AI is acceptable, because we like a competitive race as much as the next guy. But these guys don't even get to that level, instead keeping a consistent lead on you and forcing you to end up way behind in the finishes - thus starting the race again. It would be great to be given an advantage, or even have a difficulty slider to make things a little more fair, but alas, neither is provided, and as a result, the Championship feels like a drag. You might not even make it through a whole circuit without hurling your 3DS across the room.

"NASCAR Unleashed" 3DS doesn't look bad, as the 3-D effect is pretty good and some of the courses literally pop out at you. But the cars look tacky, and we don't just mean for the advertisements plastered all over them. They appear unfinished around the edges, and don't nearly show as much battle wear as they should. Furthermore, the game is missing some of its trademark drivers, a real shame considering that the entire NASCAR experience should be present and accounted for. It seems like a rush job.

The music doesn't fare much better, packed with typical rock crap that doesn't rise above the norm. The sound effects are OK, but very repetitive . . . and tiring in some ways.

In an attempt to jump into the handheld racing market, Activision's "NASCAR Unleashed" comes up way short. While it has decent visuals and some arcade flavor behind it, the unbearable difficulty settings and limited multiplayer options leave it coming up well short of the finish line. Treat yourself to the console version instead, even if it is just in 2D. We'll take playability - and fairness - over looks any day.

 

 

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Video Games: 'NASCAR Unleashed'

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