Realize your potential energy.
Every scrawny young video game junkie dreams of raw physical prowess. But obtaining
this, dependending on how hard you game, can be near impossible. So often we
create and play video game characters that best represent our ideal selves.
Capable, agile and preternaturally proficient is usually what we we’re working
for. We want our digital images to possess Olympian abilities and look just
as cool when performing their actions. And if they don’t, stomping feet, pouting
lips, kicking walls, screaming to heaven and a flood of tears most often follow
suit.
Sony apparently knows this and has decided to make Kinetica, an amalgamation
of the Playstation’s Wipeout series
and Olympic figure skating. Hard to imagine, eh? Well. hopefully we can paint
a decent picture and provide a bit of information as well.
Kinetica is a ferociously fast racing title with a few cart battle elements
and some tricks to boot (that’s the figure skating part). It’s a cool game that’s
been suspended from greatness due to its less-than-stellar track design, lame
weapons and stunts that are often not as cool as they should be. But don’t be
fooled, the game is a lot fun if you like yours fast and furious.
Like most arcade racers, Kinetica is another relatively storyless game.
Obviously, it’s the future and here the affluent masses dump tons of cash into
their greatest addiction: the underground and highly illegal Kinetica
races.
The contestants have been outfitted with thin mechanical exoskeletons that
are called ‘kinetic’ suits. Dusting off my brain so I could mentally search
its dark unused recesses for old physics facts, I slowly recalled that kinetic
energy is the energy of motion. And that’s exactly what these kinetic suits
do – collect energy, then release it in the form of blazing speed.
I can’t express enough just how fast this game is. Thanks to a blazing, rock
solid framerate, there is never the slightest bit of a hiccup or slowdown. For
that matter, everything looks great, from the riders and their crazy anime style
design to the massive tracks. This is why games on DVD-ROM kick ass.
There are a total of twelve contestants per race all wearing kinetic suits,
which makes for some much welcome chaos. You race across huge, elaborate areas
that are very reminiscent of the bustling outside scenes in Blade Runner.
During the race, you collect yellow crystals and perform dazzling stunts. After
picking up five crystals, one of the game’s half-dozen power-ups will be randomly
selected for you to use. The power-ups don’t add much to the game at all. Three
of them are various turbo or boosting abilities, but there are no missiles,
bombs, oil slicks or anything particularly exciting. A power-up that allows
you to do faster tricks just doesn’t cut it. They could learn a lot from the
Wipeout series.
Successfully executed stunts build up your boost meter. The more difficult
the stunt, the more boost you will receive. This makes performing tricks pretty
essential as it gives much needed boost energy that can then be used as nitro
boost or turbos. I usually link a three or four move combo together and then
activate the boost before it even fills the meter. This keeps your speed and
momentum at its best. It’s fun to do, and even more impressive to watch an elaborate
stunt followed by a perfect landing into a turbo boost. Awesome!
The
tricks themselves are a mixed bag of great fun and poor design. They’re executed
the same way for each character (hold R1 and spin the left analog stick in various
ways), which makes learning them a breeze. However, each rider has their own
brand of stunts to perform based on their driving style. Some are fast and flashy,
some are slow and more stylish and the others are just weak.
But overall, the trick system is pretty slim. Look, you are just guys and gals
with wheels attached to your extremities. Trick-wise, the sky should be the
limit. The animation is done really well, no problem there. So why not blend
a little running and ground acrobatics in with the racing or some obstacles
for you to trick off (ala Tony
Hawk’s Pro Skater)? One of the characters is listed with “martial-art
style” stunt moves. I thought, “Ok, this should be cool.” WRONG! I’ve seen
a lot of martial art moves, stances and techniques and never felt that I was
watching anything remotely martial. It’s more like a glorified Disney
On Ice.
Though certainly fast and big, the tracks aren’t exactly inspired. There is
a fine line between dizzying and fun. “Dizzying” is more akin to “sickening”
than it is to enjoyment, and unfortunately some of the Kinetica tracks
are just that: sickening! All the Wipeout games suffered from this on
one track or another. Apparently in the future we’re all going to be nauseated
beyond belief.
The two-player split is good fun as well but it limits the viewing area. A
link option would have been ideal. Here we go again with no one supporting Sony’s
link feature. Curses,
foiled again!
But with that said, I must confess Kinetica is a good game if a bit
thin. It’s faster than a cheetah hopped up on meth and the simple stunts are
fun to pull off. More thought could have gone into the trick and track designs,
but it doesn’t cripple the game. It’s worth more than a rental if you’re a fan
of the Tron style, Extreme
G, Wipeout thing. At any rate, it’s a solid distraction until Wipeout
Fusion arrives.