Jeff Hoy, American

Smash Cars is another attempt at a r/c racing video game mash-up.  Just one of many.  People have been drawing comparisons between this and Re-Volt since it was announced.  ReVolt for all it’s flaws was a pretty fun racing game.  Smash Cars with all it’s flaws is only a passable racing game.

Graphically it is very nice and about what I would expect from a hyped up PSN game.  The vehicle models have a decent amount of detail, most of the major components of a real r/c car are modeled.  Watching the suspension work is one of my favorite things about the game.  There is a nice selection of body styles for each of the three chassis types.  Each body is customizable through paint and decal color selection.  The environment is a lush resort island.  Tracks are made up of various sections of the island and offer a decent amount of variety in style.

The sound effects are good enough, but the supposedly nitro cars in the game sound nothing like their real counter-parts.  The engines are quiet and have a low sound similar to a muffled 4 stroke engine, rather than the high pitched, angry bee like sound of the 2 strokers that are standard in every nitro r/c car on the market.  I’m not totally against that design choice, as I hate the sound of 2 stroke nitro engines, but I’m sure it could be a sticking point for some r/c purists out there.

Far more important than graphics or sound in racing games is control.  How easy or frustrating it is to get your car around the track.  In the case of Smash Cars I’d have to say there is more frustration involved than I like.   Steering in particular is slow and unresponsive in every vehicle.  This problem is made even worse under boost.  Your steering is cut down to nearly nothing with it.  None of the cars have decent traction either.  Much of your time will be spent correcting your car coming out of a corner as it slips and slides from one side of the track to the other.  The cars seem to be riding on a cushion of air rather than on tires.  This is somewhat mitigated as you move through the game and earn different bodies that affect the speed and handling characteristics of the cars.  But it’s not enough.  If the handling of the cars in Smash Cars was as tight and responsive as the cars in Burnout Paradise, then this game would be a sure fire winner.  Even real r/c cars handle a heck of a lot better than these digital manifestations.

The best aspect of Smash Cars is it’s stunts system.  It’s very easy to bust out flips, flat spins, barrel rolls, or combinations of all of those.  All that’s required is the square button and the left stick.  In single player mode once you get into a stunt time slows down to give you a chance to focus on completing it.  If you land it, your stunt is rated 1 – 5 stars.  The more stars you get, the more bonus boost you get.  The stars are also a way to unlock extras in the game and trophies as well.  Performing stunts is very enjoyable.

As much as I’d like to see this game through to completion and gain all the trophies available for it, I don’t think that will be happing.  Maybe if a patch is released to tighten up the controls a little bit.  I say don’t bother with this one unless a patch does come out.  There’s better games on the PSN.