-Phantasy Star Online 2 for PC announced, 2011 (no details yet, but hopefully it'll be good... the original is a true classic!): http://www.segabits.com/?p=4330
Yes, Speed Racer for the Wii is a pretty good futuristic racing game. It was connected to the recent (and actually pretty good) CG movie of the same name, but doesn't use its, or the animes', plot. Instead this is just a straightforward racing game with no real story. Fine with me, that's all a racing game like this needs.
The game is fun to play, fast, has a great visual style and nice (if not great technically) graphics. It has standard, but mostly good (more on that later) motion-based controls. However, it's kind of short, has only five environments with three (plus reverse) track variants each, and is a very simplistic game. The game just does not have much depth. Fun, yes, but depth, no. Also, there are almost no new ideas -- almost everything in this game comes from F-Zero, or Mario Kart, or Extreme-G, or Wipeout, etc, etc.
The biggest flaw is the AI. In order to keep the game exciting, the developers made it so that the computers are almost always all in a tight group, battling eachother. Getting destroyed resets you on the track with only a delay. Computer cheat ridiculously to catch up and pass you. You can never, ever get ahead and get a lead, the whole pack will be right on your tail at all times. I hate this Mario Kart style catchup/"always on your back"-based AI, it has no place in a futuristic racing game.
This is actually kind of odd, because design-wise this is a simple, easy to pick up, and straightforward game. The designers obviously were trying to hit a mass market appeal thing here, because the game has so much less depth and complexity to its design than any F-Zero, Wipeout, or Extreme-G game, to name just a few... but on the other hand, the same AI they put in to make the game exciting also makes it very annoying at times. This is definitely a double-edged sword, for any market.
As for depth though, the only element of memorization in this game is learning boost strip locations. That is important, but it doesn't even begin to compare to F-Zero or Wipeout, and yes, it looks simplistic compared to XGRA too. This is a flaw, I like some depth in these games and miss it here. It's fun to play anyway, but it would be better with depth. I sometimes have felt that I shouldn't be liking the game because of how simplistic it is, but it's so much fun that I can't help it... :)
So yes, I do like the game, but at times the AI can really be aggravating. It's fortunate that the game looks so nice and is so simple and easy (and fun) to play, because otherwise I'd have quit in frustration already I think... but the high speeds, flashy visual design, and fun gameplay keep me coming back even so. I really do like the art design, very bright and colorful tracks in a way futuristic racing games rarely try to do, reasonably good techno music that keeps the tempo up (there isn't enough of it so it repeats a lot, but it is decently good), a good variety of vehicles... I've been playing quite a bit of this game since getting it, and am over two thirds of the way through already -- it's not that long. It's definitely fun while it lasts, though!
The game has good controls, too, for the most part -- I like the motion controls for racing games, they work well. The F-Zero X/GX-inspired attacks also work great with motion controls -- there's a slam (move the Wiimote sideways quickly, as you'd expect), a spin (turn it...), and a jump (move it up). The first two of those obviously come straight from F-Zero -- this game is good, but has very few new ideas, or depth for that matter. The only problem with the controls is when you get stopped against a wall. It definitely has the feel that the game is designed for you always to be moving forward, and doesn't really know what to do when you're stopped against a wall and need to turn back into the race. It takes an incredibly long time to turn, the speed of the turn is just agonizingly slow. If not for the catchup, one stop of this type would finish you for the race... but saying "this one bad design decision makes this other bad design decision a little less annoying" isn't exactly strong praise. :) Still, as long as you are going forward, the controls work well, and the motion-based attacks are great fun.
The AI issues are always present, for instance when you're in one of those races where the computer keeps running up behind you and attacking you from the rear at the last second, dropping you back ten places with no hope but starting the entire eight minute race over again... I do not like the Endurance races, too long for a game like this where luck matters at least as much as skill. Other than that though, I quite like it. Oh, and there are only five environments to race in; there are three track variants in each location, with reverse to double it (or is it mirror?), though, so it's not so bad, and all the environments, as I said, look great. Bright, shiny colors, bright oranges and greens and blues all over... it's got a great look to it.
So yeah, definitely flawed, but a good game. It's fast, pretty, and fun to play. Overall, as a definite fan of the genre, I like it. I wish that they'd put in more normal AI and maybe had a little more depth, but oh well... at least it is mostly fun.
There's also a PS2 version of the game, which came out months after the Wii one and evidently changed some stuff. Maybe I'll check it out, if I find it for cheap.
