Sprint RG
Concrete Udder
Price: $7.95
O/S: Windows Mobile for Pocket PC 2003
For Axim Users Dot Com
By schoon
I love racing games, so much that i've probably played just about every one that i've found for the Pocket PC. When I read that Concrete Udder had released a game in the style of the old Sprint Arcade game I rushed to request my review copy! After installing this under two megabyte game I must say that i'm once again disapointed in my Axim's gamepad and making a plea to the authors to PLEASE IMPLEMENT STYLUS CONTROL!
Now, that being said, let's get on with the review. In Sprint RG your onscreen persona is a race car. You have 3 computer controlled opponents and 8 tracks with which to race on. The first four tracks are open for you when you start the game but you must unlock the other four in succession by completing the first track with a gold medal. You do this by finishing first. Along the way you can also pick up silver and bronze medals for finishing 2nd and 3rd and also rack up points for perfectly run laps. To win the game completely you must get bronze, silver and gold on all tracks in 30 races so don't screw up, oh yeah, you must also do this in one sitting!
The graphics are very well done and the scrolling is perfect, you never feel like you can't see what you need to see. The game is played with the screen rotated 90 degrees so you can place your controls on the left or the right of the screen and this is where my complaint lies. The default controls are left, right up and down on the directional pad. How can you constantly apply pressure upwards and then make turns, it's VERY hard to pull off. I tried placing my thumb on the pad and then kind of rolling it onto the diagonals to make the turns but it is less than satisfactory. A better configuration is to use left and right and then use the A button to accelerate, you can set this up in the options screen. In order to do this though you must hold the Pocket PC in it's normal way so you can use both hands on the controls and unfortunately there is no screen orientation for this so the score and lap count are sideways. Ultimately the controls are what brought the score down for this game, they may be better on other Pocket PC hardware but the Axim is hurting in this department and I suspect others are too.
The presentation of the game is nice. Colorful graphics and menus help to immerse you in the game. The track selection menu looks very similar to the old Sprint Arcade Upright and I was longing for a little steering wheel for my Pocket PC. In the game, the computer AI makes good decisions and will frequently put you into the wall if you don't watch out. You have to run near perfect laps in order to obtain gold. The tracks are well laid out and get more challenging as you go on. There is no save feature so if you intend to win the game you'll have to do it in one sitting. It would be nice to see lap times as well. The high score feature should be per track. I'd also like to see a way to race on all the tracks in a quick race type mode as you unlock them.
The music is good at first but as with most Pocket PC games you'll probably turn it off because it does get repetitive. It's also a little heavy on the base which made me want to turn it down/off for fear of busting my little speaker. The sound effects are decent but there aren't many of them so you won't get too excited. The track pickups from Sprint are not there from what i've seen either. It would be great to be able to win extra money or maybe a boost in speed if you drove over an icon on the track while racing.
Sprint RG just needs a few tweaks to become a top-notch product. With a revision and some of the features i've suggested implemented it could be a darn nice game and it's only $7.95. As it is, it's good for those that have a great directional pad on their Pocket PC and for those that like a good top-down racing game. It needs a few more features though before I can recommend it highly.
!!Update 4-18-2004 9:00 PM!!
I have finished a 30 race game, I got all medals except gold on the last track, I just ran out of races and the turns are so tight that it is very hard to catch up, there is only one spot on the track that is condusive to passing. I did enjoy my time with the game and yes, it does have a high score list after you complete all 30 races. It took me about 30 minutes or so to finish the game and as I said before there is no save so you have to do a 30 race game in one sitting. Having the option to have high scores by track and to be able to play one race on one track (ie: quick race) would be very nice. I will also retract my previous statement about the controls, I did kind of settle in after awhile and although my hands are cramped up this is no fault of the game designers so the score should not affected. As a result, i'm giving one more star out and taking my previous score of a 6 to a 7. OH yeah, how do I see the high scores without having to finish a game? I think my score was somewere in the 690,000 range, how did you guys do?
!! Update 4-18-2004 10:11 pm !!
Well, I finished the game and I can honestly say my first score was wrong and now my second score was wrong. This game has me playing till I finished it and it was fun the whole way through, i'm now going to raise my score to an 8 and say that's the final. It's a quality title and a lot of fun! I managed to score 1,483,390. One thing is though that I actually finished the game in 26 races but it still made me go back and do 4 more to finish the game. Also, the special surprise at the end? Didn't see anything other than the title screen now says completed. At any rate, sorry if I pullled the trigger on this one too soon, it's a great game!
Rating: 4/5
Read the original review, and others, at
Schoon's Place.
Linear Mode
