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Indianapolis 500 Legends; Wii
Topic Started: Feb 25 2008, 04:02 PM (758 Views)
eomund

As everyone knows, the Indy 500 race is an annual 500 mile race held at the Indianapolis Raceway, A.K.A. the Brick Yard. If you didn't know that, shame shame.
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This particular game focuses on classic (and real) races held from the early 60's into the mid to late 70's. If any of you are a fan of classic racing, you will know that this is one of the most exciting time periods with technology advancing faster than any other time period in history and the competition level extremely high. As a premis for a racing game, there's a lot of potential, but also a lot of places to fail.



Let's start with the games weekest feature, graphics. I won't lie to you, they're far from great. Being familiar with most of the cars from that era, they did do a good job of getting the car's to look right, but it's far from smooth. The texturing and rendering is fairly poor too.

They also have some videos to watch (which I'll get to later) that the quality is really bad. I understand if there's some quality loss due to age, but pixelation in a game this new is either lazy or cheap, you decide.

Now I'm not saying it's a complete failure, or the worst thing I've ever seen, but just when it gets down to it, they could've done a lot better.
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While the cars may look somewhat accurate, they don't look great.


The game sounds great. From the sounds of all the different engines to the sound wailing screems of the tires when your pushing too hard in the corners to announcements on the track made by the great Tom Carnegie, it's all done really well. There is some music in the game, but not really worth leaving on, it's just there as some background sound, but why drown out the beautiful sound of a screeming V8 running down the straight? All the seperate cars sound great, and realistic to what it should be.

The tire sounds are what really impress me though. Even racing sim legends like Gran Turismo could take a few tips from these guys. In most racing games you pretty much get a generic, doesn't say a whole lot sound coming from the wheels. In this there is a definite difference from locking up your breaks, your tires making noise from pushing understeer or being too on the throttle and spinning out.
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From tire sqeeling to high reving engines, this game continues to sound great.


The physics in the game are suprising. I say suprising because I went in with low expectations but came out impressed. Now I'm not going to claim they're perfect, but are suprisingly decent. Line choosing is really important, coming in too low will cause pushing understeer right into the wall, and coming in too high and turning in too hard will cause the back end to kick out.

The game has a really unique drafting feature too. (For those of you who don't know what drafting is here ya go:
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The driver uses the lack of wind resistance to pick up a little bit more speed than he could have with, and uses that to pass 'sling shot' the car he is drafting). Well you get some obvious wind effects to show that you are in his slip stream and allows you to catch up. Once you are close enough the screen does some other interesting camera effects and at a press of the 'B' button you get a shot of speed to help you around the car. It's not exacly how it works, but adds to the game, and makes drafting one of the keys to victory as it is in real life.

The game has two race modes, Classic and Mission. Classic is your standard heads down racing, where you can set how many laps, qualify etc. In mission mode, you get put into historical situations, and are given a set time and instructions to do it in. Now mission mode is required to unlock all the cars and years in the game. What's nice about it is you if you want to get right into the action but don't want to wait 'till lap 170 you have that opportunity. Now keep in mind, this game only features this one track. Not a problem for me, but could be for others.

Now the crash physics are what really hurt the game. To put it simply, the cars are just too tough. Now this may be great for someone who's either not very good or is new to the racing game scene, but for someone looking for something a bit more on the realistic side, it kind of hurts it. It takes a bit to actually do any real damage to the car. What that means, is if you are the type of person who likes to race dirty, you can do so without any real reprocutions. It's also annoyin when the AI will push you out of the way and nothing to become of it either.

The game also has some interesting pit mini games. Honestly these sort of feel like an after thought. Though they do the job and are kind of fun, it's obvious not a whole lot of thought went in to it.

One thing this game is strong in is unlockables. You don't start with much in this game, but as you get through the mission mode, you unlock different cars, and also pictures and movies in the Museum section. This probably isn't much to some, but to racing fans like myself, it's a real treat.

One last note, no multiplayer. So you're stuck on your own in this one.



The control scheme in the game isn't terrible, but isn't fantastic either. The game only uses the universal remote, and drives using the tilt control. The tilt control itself is actually not bad. Some of the games I've played were a nightmare and should never be touched. This game actually didn't fail in this area. It's not overly sensitive, yet isn't unresponsive. It really involves you in the game too.

The problem I had with the controls was the button layout. Primarily you have 2 for the throttle, 1 and A for the break and B for the boost. Since the 1 and 2 buttons have no pressure sensitivity, everything is either on or off. You can't ease on the breaks or ease on the throttle entering a corner, which can be a real pain especially when your in a loose car.



As a fan of the Indianapolis 500 series, and classic racing, I really did like this game. But if you're not a fan of this series or classic racing, I con't totally recommend this game for you. I'm not saying you won't like, it, I'm just urging you to possibly rent it before trying it out first. All the classic footage and history in this game are wonderful additions for fans, but may not be much for others who just want a racing game.

Graphics: C - I've seen worse, but it's still much worse than it could have been.
Sound: A+ - Not many racing games go this far to make their games stand out.
Gameplay: B - With some decent phisics, okay controls, and tons of unlockable content, it helps it make up for in it's faults.
Lasting Value: B - Where fans will not have a problem playing this game continually, others might get bored with the fact that there is only one track.

Overal: B - For a fan this game is really a lot of fun, and can be too for people who just want to play a racing game. Not the best in it's genre, but worth a look.



Afterthoughts,
Keep in mind, I am a huge fan of the classic Formula racers and cars from this era. This means that if you are not a fan, or have no knowlege of it, you really might want to rent the game first.
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Afried94
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is Arie Luyendyek (sp) in it?
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eomund

No, Luyendyk didn't win his first Indy race untill 1990, so that would make him to late to join the fray in this game.
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Wolf

Do you play Need For Speed games?
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(Wolf)
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eomund

^ Not a fan of those actually. They are a bit too arcadie for me.
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Game Freak
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The King of Games: 558
pwah, you arent an indy 500 fan till youve played the original on the atari from 1977 ;) I have the game, but unfortunately no driving controllers. Ive been continually looking around. Ive heard the original si a good game, but didnt know they were still making indy 500 games
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Completed:
- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (2005)
- Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2006)
- Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Dec. '06)
- Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (7/24/07)
- Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (8/09/07)
- Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons with Final Ending (8/22/07)
- Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (4/05/08)
- Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (4/09/08)
- Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (4/12/08)
- Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (4/21/08)
- The Legend of Zelda (4/23/08)
- Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2/20/09)
Next to Play:
- Zelda II: Adventure of Link
- Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

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eomund

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Mar 21 2008, 08:10 PM
pwah, you arent an indy 500 fan till youve played the original on the atari from 1977 ;) I have the game, but unfortunately no driving controllers. Ive been continually looking around. Ive heard the original si a good game, but didnt know they were still making indy 500 games

I remember that game actually.
Game was old school. (I still probably have it somewhere in storage.)
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