Sound:  
Writing reviews for sports games generally lets me get to write many varied reviews in many varied sections of the reviews. If there is one that stays pretty consistent from review to review, it’s sound. Most either fall into the “commentary” realm, or the “background music” realm of sound. While it may be easy to review given that there are only two main styles of sound in sports titles, it can be a little frustrating as an artist who works in the medium of video game reviews. (You say geek, I say artist.) MotoGP falls under the “background music” category, and does it as adequately as most games. It has standard fare “rocking” tunes playing during the main menu, and in the races themselves, you’ll be treated to screeching tires, revving motors, and occasionally the sounds of riders hitting billboards off the track at 170 MPH. It’s all standard, but all of enough quality that I can recognize it as motorcycle racing, and not, say, a space shuttle launch.

Gameplay:  
There are four main modes you can choose to play in. Quick Race is a single race, where you can race to practice, or play against your pals over the Link Cable. Time Attack has you race against a ghost of the fastest lap on any of the tracks in an attempt to get the NEW fastest lap on that track. Tournament consists of four Leagues of four races each. If you finish one League, you move on to the next one, and so forth. The Grand Prix mode has you race the entire circuit, of roughly 572 races (by my best guess), against the rest of the field. Points are given out after each race, and whoever has the most points at the end is the champion.

Each mode can definitely be enjoyable, but during the longer circuit-variety modes, the game’s biggest drawback comes into play: passwords. Yes, the game uses passwords to save data, and that is my largest hatred in gaming today. Even worse than passwording in general, it only allows you to get a password after certain points in a circuit, which means you may have to play 4 or 5 races in a row before you can have a chance to get a means to record your progress. It’s annoying, and bothersome, and it alone is enough to keep me from playing extensively through the longer modes. Overall though, in terms of being something to pick up and play, the game’s modes definitely give you something to tide you over in short bursts, provided you have the one-time dedication to go through a circuit and unlock all of the tracks. Unfortunately, I probably won’t.

Control:
The controls are very simplistic. A accelerates, B is your brake, the control pad steers, and you can press down on the control pad while hitting A to do a wheelie. Wheee!!!! That is actually all there is to the controls. Seriously. You don’t believe me? Watch this. Next…

Multiplayer:
I myself didn’t get a chance to partake of the multiplayer goodness of the game, but given that I enjoy the single player races very much, I think the multiplayer aspects of it would be excellent. I am a fan of any game that allows you to trash talk your opponents, and I’d assume that motorcycle racing would be yet another forum that that activity would translate to quite well.

OVERALL:
I have to admit, that I was skeptical of this game when I first saw the box, but after I started playing, I definitely was pleasantly surprised. The races aren’t so long that you get bored before they’re over, but they are long enough that you don’t have to be flawless to be able to compete. I am not a fan of race games where one mistake automatically dooms you to losing. If this had a save feature that didn’t require a pen and paper, I would recommend this game to just about anyone who enjoys racing games, but it doesn’t and its two main faults come from that:

1.)It uses passwords, which are horrible and evil, and should be outlawed in the same way that burglary and public nudity have been.

2.)It doesn’t even allow you to get a password whenever you want one. It holds your password hostage until it decides that you have played enough to get it. Pure evil, I tell you.

That aside, the game puts forward a very nice package, and I’d recommend it to anyone in search of a quality racing game.

 

The Lowdown on  Moto GP Aesthetics: Very Good Control: Above Average Gameplay: Very Good Multiplayer: Very Good Sound: Above Average Innovation: 4/6 Lasting Appeal: 4/6 Overall: Very Good! "A Must-Buy"