Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Auto Modellista

Written by Adam Woolcott on April 03, 2003

Full Review: It's like Zelda, only with cars! Well, maybe not.

In all the years Capcom has been creating numerous entries into their impeccable collection of outstanding video games, the one genre the company has never taken a stab at is racing games. Given that racing games are a Уme tooФ genre of gaming, and everyone else has done more than their fare share, it's not surprising Capcom didn't jump into the racing game unless they could come up with something unique and creative, as the company is known to do (this is besides beating their great creations into the ground with sequel after sequel). Thus, this brings us to Auto Modellista, Capcom's first racing game, making its home on the PlayStation 2. While the 2 hooks of the game revolve around the outstanding cel-shaded visuals and online play, the Gran Turismo-ish progression and solid car selection really gives AM its teeth. Unfortunately, Auto Modellista is not for everyone Ц the steep learning curve and touchy controls will likely turn off impatient gamers, leaving only the dedicated to figure out how to tame the beasts you'll be driving. As a first try in the arcade-racing genre, AM is a good first shot, but to advance into the upper-echelon of racing games, the sequel has many things to work out.

Auto Modellista features 2 important modes of play Ц Garage Life and Network play. There's also single races and time trials, but those are so standard in a racer that it's not really worth going into. The Garage Life mode is basically a career quest, as you choose a car and go through the numerous levels, winning new cars and parts to customize your car with. There's no money involved, you just win the accessories needed to improve your ride. During the tenure of your career, AM features a handful of different race types Ц there's standard circuit racing on street tracks, a few stadium tracks (including Suzuka, the only Уreal worldФ track), a dirt track, and a couple uphill/downhill tracks for a rally-style race. It's supposed to spice things up, but unfortunately, it comes with a problem, and that problem is too few tracks to race on. These days it's expected to have a ton of tracks with all these fancy game modes, but Auto Modellista lacks this. Eventually you'll realize that you're racing the same tracks over and over, and suddenly it feels like Ridge Racer all over again.

Where it makes up for a lack of track selection is the cars and their customization. Most of the usual racecars you'd find in a Gran Turismo are here, such as a Mitsubishi Lancer, Nissan Skyline, Toyota Supra, and a Ford Mustang, along with plenty more. Most of the cars feel quite different on initial play, which is a good thing, obviously. Throughout the Garage Life, you'll be in charge of tuning and upgrading your car. While it sounds Turismo-ish, it's really not. Capcom has kept the game simple in this department, as little tweaking is necessary. They even threw in an Auto-Tune that adjusts the car to the type of track you're racing on. Fact is though, you could get away without doing any tweaking, and just simply upgrade your car with parts you win, and build a bigger, faster, beast of a ride.

The final thing worth mentioning here is the ability to customize your garage. Winning races sometimes gives you prizes like trophies, posters, signs, and that sort. You then can place these awards around your garage to look like a true grease monkey's hideout, only without those dirty skin magazines. It's superficial, sure, but it's something to do when you're bored.

As mentioned, Auto Modellista makes use of Sega's SNAP program for Network play. AM's online play is strictly broadband only (which is ironic since the Japanese release last year was 56k only, with no broadband supported). It's suggested that you have a keyboard when getting into online play, as the game requests manual typing in of various information before even getting into the race. Unfortunately, the broadband only nature of the game doesn't mean you can use your SOCOM headset when playing Ц though that would have been nice. Regarding broadband play, there's a notice in the game manual (does anyone actually read game manuals at all?) that the game will not work with a router, but my network is hooked through a router and I was able to get online. So ignore the manual, because it probably works. Naturally, online play is nice and steady on broadband, without lagging, which could seriously bog down a racing game where timing is crucial.

Of course, Auto Modellista's various game modes mean squat if the game isn't fun to play. Thankfully, it actually is fun to play. For some people, anyway. The racing itself skews towards the Ridge Racer crowd, with powerslides and strange physics. In AM's case, the strange physics are taken to a whole new level. See, a majority of the cars have this habit of skating around like they're on iceЕonly there's no tracks where ice is involved. The cars control very, very loosely at first, and spin out at just a smidge of pressure on the analog stick. Definitely, this will lead to a large amount of frustration, given the steep learning curve of handling the cars. When you get into Garage Life, however, the cars can handle much better after upgrading your parts, making it manageable to drive Ц but still too loose for some taste. It's a bit extreme just to get a car that handles properly, but patience does pay off. The wonky control really rears its ugly head in the uphill/downhill races, as the constant turning and gassing will result in many instances of trying to straighten out the car without spinning out.

That said, the computer AI makes up for it with some crazy driving of their own. The competing cars aren't really challenging, as most of the time your biggest opponent is your own car. Actually, in some of the street tracks you can just bump the walls and bounce off straight, with only a slight drop in speed, which leads to some runaway victories. Given the annoying control though, stupid AI will feel like a godsend. Of course, when playing online this doesn't mean anything since it's all user-controlled, but I've already seen a few races of Wall Pinball on some of these tracks. Somehow, despite all these problems, the game is actually enjoyable once you can get past the control issues, and soon you'll find yourself pretty deep into Garage Life working your way up the ranks, or hanging out in online lobbies all day. It's like AM manages to be fun in spite of itself. Admittedly though, this means Auto Modellista is not a game for everyone Ц so remember kids; just because it's online doesn't always mean it's going to be any good.

The final leg of Auto Modellista is the inconsistent track designs. Sure, Suzuka is great, but that's a real-world racetrack that's hard to mess up (though given how many have screwed up Laguna Seca, I take that back). The rest of the tracks either border on great, or garbage. The uphill/downhill tracks are nice, with some tough curves and corners and generally does a good job of keeping you on your toes. On the other hand, the street tracks are quite pedestrian and boring, and lack any sort of excitement, and feel like going through the motions more than anything. The circuit tracks are okay, but since they're just big NASCAR circles, they get boring as well, because going around in circles is lame.

Visually, Auto Modellista's cel-shaded designs are outstanding. The cartoony atmosphere is unique for a racer, and the overall design reminds of the Jet Set Radio games. Each car looks great as well, keeping their realistic appearance despite the bright colors and animation. There's numerous cel-shaded effects to boot, like the wind as you blow by at 150 MPH and the smoke coming from your exhaust as you slow down and turn, which nets a cool tire effect as well. The whole package is extremely polished and runs smooth as butter without any framerate drops at all. I'd go so far as to say this is one of the PS2's best looking games, but since I actually like cel-shading, that opinion can be taken lightly.

Where AM fails graphically though, is the lack of a solid sense of speed. While it looks fast when playing, you notice that it's actually the wind effect making it appear you're going fast, but when you see the roadside buildings or environments move by at a snails pace, the truth becomes evident that you're not going really fast for 150 miles an hour. The side-effects do a great job of faking it though, and unless you're a real whore about sense of speed, it won't make much difference.

Auto Modellista's audio, despite the game itself, is the weakest part of all. Whatever tunes that play in the races are basically drowned out by the rest of the effects going on, which reduces it to a waste of time and processing to put in music you can't even hear. On the other hand, the various engine noises, skidding effects, and the like are actually decent, though are repetitive and don't vary much from car to car.

Where the game struggles though, is the return of the Announcer from Hell. Last seen in Capcom Vs. SNK 2, AfH is back to spout off broken English and lame-ass expressions, to compete with the tool who played the radio announcer in Ridge Racer V. Do we really need to hear УI've never seen such technique!Ф after every successful corner? No, we really don't. We do need, though, a campaign for Ca(m)pcom to go after some better voice acting that winds up being the top of the unintentional humor scale, also known as the Resident Evil Honorary Bad Acting Society. Blargh.