Re-Volt
- January 01, 2000 00:00 AM PST
Race in a fantasy world where RC cars have come to life, have special powers and weapons and reach scale speeds of over 350 mph in Re-Volt by Acclaim for the Nintendo 64.
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So You Say You Want A Re-Volt-ution?
Re-Volt boasts accurate physics and controls for remote control racers, and tries to deliver realistic environments in which to race. With multiple racing modes, including single race, 2 different multi-player races, 3 championship circuits, time trial and stunt arena, 6 different environments, plenty of cars to choose from (with more to unlock) and a track editor for making your own courses, Re-Volt seems to be on the right track. But it soon veers off and gets stuck in a ditch. The concept is great (think a 64-bit RC Pro-Am), but this game (also available on PC and PlayStation) woefully limps to the starting line for N64.
I Want To Be The One In Control
The blocky graphics for this title may have been excusable on the PlayStation (just barely), but one would expect much better on the N64, and the RAM Expansion Pak doesn't help much. But the fog still lingers, the draw in is still very noticeable and all of the tracks are small and boring, requiring racers to drive in circles and backtrack. While the car models look a little better, the rest is just inexcusable. Re-Volt certainly has some of the weakest visuals of any race game on the N64.
Control is another issue. It is accurate to the feeling of driving a real RC car, so be ready for lots of spin-outs and flipping over when you start. And while it takes a while to get used to, the N64 analog stick makes it nerve racking and more difficult than it should be. The realistic controls are so frustrating that the game becomes as hard to play as it is to look at, so you wonder why you are playing it at all.
The @#%&! List
While the graphics and playability are very low, Re-Volt continues to underwhelm in other aspects as well. The music is the standard, lame racing music, which is both unoriginal and annoying. The sound effects go in and out, depending on what else is going on. The display is cluttered, even in 1-player mode with the numerous time counters on the top right-hand corner annoyingly obstructing your vision when making a right hand turn. The floating arrow navigation system is weak, since the tracks are very confusing, and the timing on the arrows is irritatingly late most of the time. Four-player mode is slow and it's hard to see where you are going (and so is the two-player mode at the default camera setting).
And while some of this might be nitpicking, it is hard to find anything else to do in this weak game. With so many other quality and fun racing titles available on the N64, it is definitely a good idea to avoid Re-Volt for N64.
