R: Racing Evolution (Gamecube) Review

Notice the two ratings? We'll get to that later

Namco is defiantly not new to the racing game genre. The PS1 wouldn't have been anywhere near as good if they didn't release there epic Ridge Racer series. In late 2003 they decided to release a third party game called R: Racing Evolution. It was meant to basically be a story based Ridge Racer, but with more of a GT feel to it. While the game has an excellent concept with plenty of features to go around for a long time, the core gameplay of it is a MASSIVE hit or miss. Generally, if you like the gameplay, you should be able to enjoy all this game has to offer. However, if you don't the story MIGHT keep you interested, but you wont want to comeback once its over.

Presentation

You can tell the second the intro video comes up that namco made this. That Techno like music with epic CGI just screamed Ridge Racer. The Menu system is really slick  to. In the car select menu, the cars rotate with nice shine to them. Before you pick each race in either Arcade or Story mode, you get a lot of options on how you want to run the race, almost TO many options. Each story mode mission has a little monologue on whats going on, and some of them have an interesting CGI video first. The basic story revolves around a girl named Rena Hayami who was an ambulance driver. She had to bring an injered racer to the hospital and his manager liked how she drove and signed her up. I didn't really describe that well but you get what I'm saying.

Graphics

Great CGI. The rest, not so much

Remember when GT3 came out on PS2? Back in 2001 that might have been the best looking game ever (Until Project Gotham Racing that is). So, you would thing a game made two years later on more powerful hard ware would look better right? well this one not so much. R  looks like a PS2 game. Its a damn shame to, the gamecube was a very powerful console that just didn't get the respect it should have. The game looks shiny but plain. The cars have rough edges and environments don't have much going  for them. The CGI on the other  hand it great. Namco always pulls through when it comes to it. On the bright side, during gameplay the game runs at a near perfect (if not perfect) 60 FPS. In racing game FPS doesn't really matter as much as action games, but its always nice to have one running at a great one. The game is generally a let down sadly. Games like NFSU and Burnout 2 are the way to go if your looking for a graphically excellent racing games.

Sound

Like most Namco games, this one has great  sound. The cars have strong engines. The sound track is typical Ridge Racer type techno, which is a good thing. I've grown to love that acid Jazz type sount that is always thrown at us. The In-car voice acting is really cool. Think Ace Combat 4 in a car. If your into ace combat 4, you'll like that. Also, the voice actors are really good. Lets face it, this is one game that wont hurt your ears.

Gameplay

Kiss my Dust!

  Here we go again. Better put the controls down. Keep in mind these are not the base controls, but what I like best, the controls are very customizable. The Left thumbstick steers. R accelerates. L Brakes. A shifts up. B shifts Down. The D pad shows multifunction displays. Z Changes the camera angle. Y looks behind you. X is the hand break. And Start Pauses. 
      As you can see it has basic Racing game controls. The best way to describe the racing it shoving Ridge Racer and Gran Turismo into a blender. The game has sort of stiffer ridge racer type steering, but almost simulator like speed. Its generally not as deep as GT but not as fast and fun as Ridge Racer. The cars are very customizable, but its kind of hard to notice the differences. There are 8 different racing types. While they do switch things up a bit, there still not very fun. 14 different tracks which all feel pretty good. Overall the gameplay is probably its weakest quality. While you might get some enjoyment out of it, theres really not enough depth to it. Namco should have attempted to do something full sim or full arcade, rather than doing a weird mix.

Overall

This might be the only reason some people bought this game.

 The Gamecube was a bit deprived of racing games. While the need for speed franchise loved it, many others just skipped them. Though this game does fill a bit of a void, it doesn't fill it in enough. You'll be able too breeze through the racin life story pretty fast. After words, theres not much to  do on that disc. However, if you were smart and bought the Gamecube version, you would realize it comes with Pac Man VS.! Its basically Multiplayer pac man were one person plays as pac man and the other(s) play as the ghost. This requires a GBA. Its a really fun game that might keep  you more entertained than R. I found this game for about 5$ at gamestop, So if you want a decent racing game along with a really fun multiplayer game, get it. Even if you don't play R, get it for pac man!