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Review  Hot Wheels Burnin' Rubber
- By Nathaniel Walker
[Associate Editor]
I had stomached enough Mode 7 to keep me full for about a decade by the time THQ’s Hot Wheels: Burnin’ Rubber for the Game Boy Advance reached my hands. Between Mario Kart: Super Circuit and F-Zero: Maximum Velocity alone I had probably clocked a good 300,000 hours of semi-3D racing semi-excitement. Now, don’t get me wrong! I love those games and everything they represent. And I will freely admit that my burnout was entirely the result of my own inability to pace myself (and the lack of an original Mario game for the GBA). But nonetheless I was tired of the stuff. Every game that utilizes Mode 7, no matter how different it is from its siblings, leaves the same taste in my mouth. So, in accordance with my undying passion for fairness and equity, I decided to take a very relaxed and deliberate approach to Hot Wheels: Burnin’ Rubber. I didn’t want my review to suffer because the game was unavoidably similar to other titles, and I wanted to be sensitive to the game’s good points despite the fact that any bad points would feel like arctic knife torment due to my current Mode 7-inflicted condition.
My concerns were unnecessary. Hot Wheels: Burnin’ Rubber is an endearing game through and through, and I never for a moment felt like I was wasting my time or insulting my Mario Kart-veteran hands. While there is nothing super-fantastically special about the game, THQ got pretty much all of the key ingredients right. It was refreshing, and it actually left me feeling keener on GBA racing games than I was before I got involved in Hot Wheelin’ and Rubber Burnin’. The game isn’t perfect, of course--a few bad judgment calls on the graphics keep the game firmly out of a Best of the Best list--but the title’s good points happily outweigh the bad by the end of the day. Thank you, THQ.
Aesthetics:
The graphics are good enough to compete with more “realistic” racing games. They are fluid and clear and well balanced, with bright colors appropriate for a game about toys (and extremely helpful for those of us who prefer to play our Game Boys au naturale, a.k.a. peripheral-lightless). The ground fades into the mud and water, the tracks are full of various textures providing various levels of friction, and all of it is demarcated by very clear bumper zones. Ironically, however, my only graphical complaint is found in this same up-to-par realism: why did THQ not dumb it down detail-wise and benefit in the realms of clarity and motion? After all, this is a game about toy cars existing in a toy context. Hard angles and solid colors would not have seemed out of place at all! The resulting lack of visual clutter would have added to the originality of the game and provided more room for cooler blocky simple toy-land things. I mean, hell--if I was actually shrunk down and plopped into a working Hot Wheels car, my first thought would not be “I wanna drive on the beach!” I would go straight for the Lego-block fortress, or the tiled bathroom floor. The game does have some cool tracks (the piano was my personal favorite) but even those were all plotted out with colorful course lines and such. THQ, in my opinion, should have dumbed it down visually and made big fuzzy backgrounds to emphasize the player’s miniscule size. Also, your auto-adversaries tend to disappear completely when they get past a certain point in front of you, or when they get too close to your own car. Bad.
But I was really impressed by the car models. They looked great running and they looked great standing still! I’m no Hot Wheels collector (my dorkiness is limited to videogames), but I think the designers chose the coolest little numbers they could find. Even the bizarre, futuristic autos that frustrated me in my bilateral-symmetry-obsessed childhood made it into the game. Oh, Burnin’ Rubber is a pleasure to see!
Control:
Gliding swerves and hairpin turns are all at your fingertips in this game. Just a few practice spins will acquaint you with the general feel, and for a Mode 7 game the controls are incredibly intuitive! You have the added bonus of earning even better handling by spending your victory earnings. I found it refreshing to play a racing game where mastering the courses depended more on mastering the automobile controls and less on memorizing every bloody turn and switch. The control scheme is classy--I can think of no better way to put it.
Gameplay:
Racing cars, earning upgrades, collecting new cars--these three nice things are what makes Hot Wheels: Burnin’ Rubber a fun game to play. Granted, none of this in and of itself is overly original. But the cozy combination of those three simple ideas, made accessible with a finely tuned progression of challenges, got and kept me interested. Additionally, THQ provided us with a battery save. This game would not have been worth the donkey it was delivered on without it, so I have to mention it.
Aside from that, it’s honestly hard to know what is worth pointing out here. There is nothing so unique in the gameplay that it warrants a detailed explanation. There is nothing confusing or surprising about this game. It was put together well and is a pleasure to play, a comfort to win and lose. True, the Hot Wheels franchise and the “Burnin’ Rubber” title does not prompt me to run into a room of my gaming-skeptic friends and tell them to “try this”. But if I had a non-gaming friend who wanted to try a racing title on the GBA, then I would probably give them this one. It’s nothing complicated, just a staple--bread and cheese. But it’s good bread! And pretty good cheese.
Sound:
The sound is bad-ass. The purr of the engines, the well-written music, the screech of the tires when you “burn rubber” through a power slide--all of these things made me smile the first time I heard them. And this game might actually have some of the best music I’ve ever heard on the Game Boy Advance. Finally, I must give massive props to THQ for the fact that the cars sound small but not whiney. That is such a blessing.
Multiplayer:
Honestly, I don’t have any friends who own the game. Consequently I can’t tell you how the multiplayer is. And yes--I am profoundly and deeply ashamed.
OVERALL:
Hot Wheels: Burnin’ Rubber is one of those games that will probably not be remembered at all by the masses, but will quite possibly be remembered profoundly by a privileged few. It’s no revolution, and even the use of such a heavy franchise failed to spur the designers into creating a unique visual feel. But the game is a tight little production that draws successfully from its peers on the pinnacle of Mode 7 racing game development. Add to that a general competence displayed by the game’s designers and we have a winner on our hands. The graphics are more than adequate, the controls are tight, the sound is fabulous, and the multiplayer mode is shrouded in ignorant mystery. What more could one realistically expect?
If THQ releases a Hot Wheels: Cruisin’ with Barbie game, however, I shall refuse to review it. I am afraid I would like it, and that would cause me to lose everything I hold dear.
The Lowdown on  Hot Wheels Burnin' Rubber
| Aesthetics: Above Average |
Control: Very Good |
| Gameplay: Above Average |
Multiplayer: |
| Sound: Awesome |
Innovation: 2/6 |
| Lasting Appeal: 5/6 |
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Overall: Very Good!
"A Must-Buy"
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This game is:
Very Good
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ADDITIONAL
MEDIA: |
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None Yet
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IN A
NUTSHELL: |
| This game is for everyone. But not anyone in particular! |
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