Tourist Trophy

Written by Adam Woolcott  on March 23, 2006

Final Glimpse: We've come a long way from Excitebike

Tweet

Comments

After spending the better part of the last decade changing the ways people played car racing games, you'd think there's not much else Polyphony Digital could do for the genre. Aside from taking Gran Turismo online. And including a damage model. And finally finishing Gran Turismo Mobile. But I digress. While the main Turismo team sets forward on the next-generation journey, some stragglers are still working on the old PS2, but not with a car racing game. Instead, Tourist Trophy has come to life Ц a motorcycle simulator. Based upon the PS2-pushing Gran Turismo 4 engine, TT is setting up to feature over 100 bikes, 30+ tracks, challenging simulation gameplay, and the GT standard realism that made that franchise a genre-changer back when it came out in 1998. Whether it takes off like Gran Turismo is yet to be seen, but at the least motorcycle fanatics should have a blast as this game is for them in the same way GT was for car enthusiasts.

TT promises well over 100 bikes to use, from all sorts of manufacturers such as Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, and Suzuki. As always there's not much emphasis on American made motorcycles, seeing a Harley is far different than your average crotch rocket. However only the really hardcore motorcycle fan will recognize the various new and used bikes, as they're far different from cars which even casual fans could pick out, since motorcycles largely look the same. Every bike can be upgraded with new parts to boost performance and can be tweaked, just like Gran Turismo. Those 100+ cycles can then be placed on any of the 35 included tracks, though avid GT gamers might be disappointed to see that the tracks are taken straight from Gran Turismo 4, with few, if any new courses. But then being able to master the familiar tracks with a whole different machine might prove interesting.

The TT career looks to largely function like the one you'd find in GT. To take part in many races you'll need to get a license, and I'd guess the license tests will be pretty interesting because they'll have to be designed in order to teach newbies since plenty of GT veterans will make their way to Tourist Trophy. From there you buy bikes, upgrade, race, and so on. Pretty standard stuff by now. Because there's not a dearth of bikes, as opposed to GT4's massive amount of cars, there's naturally going to be less events to participate in, but there should be plenty; after all Gran Turismo 3 was a pretty lengthy game even with only about 140 cars. There's also some split-screen racing for friends, but unfortunately, Tourist Trophy lacks any sort of online play, though after GT4's online troubles it's hardly a surprise.

Fundamentally riding a bike is far different from driving a car; there's a reason why you have to get a separate motorcycle license, after all. Tourist Trophy looks to exploit this by challenging gamers to come to grips with the reality of riding a bike. Because the game is a sim, TT promises to force you into understanding the physics and movement of a motorcycle, such as mastering the 2 brake system and how to increase speed with leaning, etc. If you've played Moto GP on Xbox you probably know the basics; you really can't just force through a turn like a car, as chances are the bike will eject you and render you a total failure. It will be interesting to see how it all works out, especially based upon import reviews that have said the game is quite challenging, especially for people who aren't as keen into the motorcycle scene.

It's already been mentioned that Tourist Trophy runs on the GT4 engine and carries many GT4 traits; same courses, etc. But you don't realize how much it borrows until you see it in action, with the same menu design, in-game hud, and overall visual presentation and graphics technology. You could probably put them side by side in a 1st person view and hardly know which is which. The only real difference is the cars are replaced with bikes and a human body model had to be implemented because it would look a bit funny in 3rd person to have a riderless bike. Because many things are borrowed from GT4, hopefully TT will also include the same 480p and 1080i HD offerings.