Grooverider: Slot Car Thunder Review (Xbox)

STAFF REVIEW of Grooverider: Slot Car Thunder

Thursday, October 2, 2003.
by BigJosh359

Slot car racing has been around and very popular since the early 1960's. A lot of boys got a slot car track of their own as kids, I remember 3 of mine. But those are not the slot car racing hardcore racers do. They have room size tracks that they compete on. In the video game age though, slot car racing just as a toy has died off and it was only a matter of time before this hobby crossed over into a video game. The people at Encore have successfully brought this past time to the Xbox. Grooverider will be priced at $19.99, pretty good price considering the games that are out today that run for $49.99 easily.

If you ever had a slot car race track as a kid, you know what to expect from this game. You can go forward and slow down with however much pressure you apply to the button. Encore decided to add in lane switching which wasnt used much on slot car tracks. As with any slot car racing, you have to slow down in the curves, or you will fly off the track. There isn't much to be said about the game controls here, Grooverider is a simple game with game controls that are very straight forward.

It may sound boring and too easy, but there are added elements to keep you coming back to the game for more and make the game a challenge. Grooverider has jumps, loops, wall climbs, missing parts of the track, power ups, track hazards, and interactive environments. The power ups can help you for the most part or hurt you depending on how you use them. There is a jump and booster that can reek havoc if used in the wrong parts of the track. You can lay mines for your opponents to hit, but you will have to remember where you placed it because sometimes, you may be the one to hit it. There are shield power-ups to help you mow down hazards if you happen not to avoid them in time. Then there is an energy pulse to help you out with hazards that are in the way or if you are good enough, to blast the opponent ahead of you off the track.

Lane switching is something to get used to. You have four lanes to chose from and when switching left to right, you have to hit the lane switch button ever time you switch lanes, so there is no switching from lane one to four just like that.

With that game play, you must look far ahead on the track to see whats coming at you. But sometimes the environment you are in will throw a curve ball at you, like toast suddenly dropping on parts of the track when racing in the kitchen. The father you go in the game, the harder the tracks and opponents become.

Of course, just like every other game, you can unlock a bunch of new cars, 20 in all, that run at 3 different voltages and 20 different tracks and 5 environments with 4 bonus tracks.

For a $20 game, the environments look pretty dang good. You will be racing over and under tables and beds and plants plus whatever else they throw at you. I wouldn't say its eye candy, but they look good. The car shells look decent with your choice of 1920's British cars to stock cars to Indy cars. Whenever you got a speed burst or hit a huge jump, there was some minor graphical slow downs, but not enough to hamper game play.

This game has some decent music to groove to while racing, mostly techno. But if you dont want that, custom soundtracks are supported. Probably some Isaac Hayes would be awesome to groove too. Thankfully the game doesnt have an annoying engine sound when racing. It is mostly smothered in the background from everything else that is going on the screen.

Suggestions:
I would suggest a custom track editor. I would love to make some mad tracks for this game. More environments than different track layouts. Custom car bodies. Add more racers to the tracks, make them 8 or 10 lanes. More interaction from the enviroments themselves. Cause more chaos! Maybe a best crash or a wipeout feature in the game. XBL content downloads. More of everything!

Overall: 7.0 / 10
Gameplay: 7.4 / 10
Visuals: 7.0 / 10
Sound: 6.0 / 10

Comments

Xbox Game Search

Top Community Gamerscores

1. Symmetric-XBA - 129,608
2. Variation-XBA - 82,045
3. Nato King-XBA - 66,408
4. Timmy Bauer - 58,540
5. Symmetrics Love - 48,108
6. Enamelized420-XBA - 41,520
7. Silent-XBA - 38,782
8. Ainokeatoo-XBA - 34,586
9. Roujin-XBA - 31,868
10. Kamshaft-XBA - 30,064
11. sojourner - 29,484
12. oryanphine - 27,431
13. thAshAdyOne - 26,895
14. Casper - 26,315
15. Soda Jones - 24,398
16. SpaceGhost2K-XBA - 23,375
17. Tampad - 22,256
18. Fargoth - 17,904
19. WillyV2 - 16,878
20. Vampero - 14,760
21. TAXCOLLECTER675 - 13,656
22. HaZarD SFD-XBA - 12,822
23. mattgame - 11,925
24. EMX - 10,990
25. BigJosh359 - 9,945

Community Forum Activity

Did you order your day one console?
Post by Kamshaft-XBA
6 Replies, 71 Views

If you're a devoted X-Box game player, why is it better for you than PS3?
Post by GBaxter
3 Replies, 106 Views

Xbox One , No headset !?
Post by Vampero
9 Replies, 282 Views

Forza 5
Post by LiLJoe608
3 Replies, 196 Views

So, the conference is over E3 is over, your opinions?
Post by Ainokeatoo-XBA
13 Replies, 319 Views

Achievment on Xbox One
Post by oryanphine
0 Replies, 290 Views

E3 2013 Pictures
Post by Symmetric-XBA
7 Replies, 272 Views

Episode 20 Posted from E3 2013 - The Press Breifings!
Post by Kamshaft-XBA
0 Replies, 256 Views

Microsoft must be retired Xbox One and videogames ?
Post by oryanphine
6 Replies, 630 Views

Microsoft press briefing floor! - FIXED
Post by Kamshaft-XBA
5 Replies, 250 Views

Raiden 4
Post by oryanphine
0 Replies, 270 Views

We made it!
Post by Kamshaft-XBA
2 Replies, 144 Views

xbox original rare edition
Post by oryanphine
3 Replies, 374 Views

Darksiders 2 and the revival of comics books
Post by oryanphine
2 Replies, 283 Views

Xbox One Controller Info
Post by Silent-XBA
0 Replies, 446 Views

Xbox Addict

STAFF REVIEW of Grooverider: Slot Car Thunder

Comments

Xbox Game Search

Latest News

NCAA Football 14 Demo Launches

Ubisoft announces Spartacus Legends for XBLA

Major: MS will NEVER pull the plug on Xbox One

State of Decay to get "Pure Survival" mode

First State of Decay patch out, but is it working?

Square Enix lays off half of IO Interactive

KI will be available both as full game and F2P

Top Community Gamerscores

Community Forum Activity

Site Statistics