Thunder Ri... It's Over Already??ATV - Thunder Ridge Riders is a Game Boy Advance game about racing ATV's ( short for All Terrain Vehicles ) which are also sometimes referred to as "Quads." It is played from a First Person perspective, and there isn't any option to change that. It pits you against 3 other A-I controlled opponents and the first to finish, while making sure you reached every check-point, is decided the winner. Racing games of any kind aren't really my forte, so this review will probably be relatively short compared to most of my work. Anyways, let's get to it, shall we?
Graphics 6 / 10 -- The graphics in this game aren't all that great. My biggest complaint would be the environments. Things like bushes, cacti, or the hills you are traversing are extremely pixelated. This would be fine if I truly believed it was the most this system was capable of, but I would like to think the GBA can do better while they just didn't put in the effort. In retrospect I don't think I've ever seen something that was going for a 3D model look and still appear so flat. To be fair, the other racers, the main parts of track you're generally on, and the handlebars with your arms that show from the First-Person perspective all look pretty good. If it had that amount of detail put into everything, the graphics wouldn't have been nearly as disappointing. I'd feel guilty going any higher, so the Graphics get a 6/10.
Sound 5 / 10 -- The sound is even worse than the graphics. The sound track is very mediocre rock style music, featuring electric guitars, drums and probably a bass. Sadly due to the limited audio capabilities of the GBA, it doesn't sound all that great. It's similar to listening to an mp3 file that was put on the lowest possible quality setting when it was uploaded. Even more of a nuisance than that, the sound effects are used obnoxiously. They sound fine, but between the approving "ding" for passing each check-point, and the sound of the ATV's always running engine (which almost completely drowns out the music) it gets annoying very quickly. You pass a check-point every 5 - 10 seconds, and every single one "dings" at you even louder than the ATV's engine runs. I feel I'm being generous here because I muted the game not too far in, but the Sound gets a 5/10.
Addictiveness 2 / 10 -- One of the two worst criteria in this game's rating. When it's all said and done, this game just wasn't fun to play. Every track is more or less the exact same, and it has absolutely no variation in game mode's available. You can either race the AI opponents, or run the same ( very few ) tracks alone in a Time Trial. That's it. The controls are incredibly simplistic. All you can do is Throttle, Brake, and Steer, and not a thing more. The tracks are even set up in a way that there's nothing to make jumps or do anything exciting at all. And the biggest cause of grief here would be the collision mechanic when you bump into another racer. Any time you so much as touch them, you are pushed away from them a good 5-10 feet. That, on top of the fact they almost always bunch together nearly the entire race, makes it difficult for the wrong reasons to pass them or stay in between the check-point markers. If you're making a turn to hit a check-point, and they bump into you from behind, it can send you flying around where you needed to go. There's also no way to go in Reverse, so if you miss a check-point, you have to turn around, go through it, and turn around
again to keep going the right way. Since this game was almost more frustrating than fun to play, the Addictiveness gets 2/10.
Story -- N / A Depth 2 / 10 -- The other area in which this game is extremely lacking. The game only features 7 tracks, all of which are just different routes around the same area. The entire Career mode is just those 7 tracks, each raced one time. After you win that seventh race, it literally gives you the "Congrats. You Won!" game over screen. Each race only takes about 3 to 7 minutes to complete, so the entire game can be finished in under an hour. The game has an upgrade system for your ATV where you can use prize money won from the races to improve your ride, but after 3 or 4 races depending on how well you do, you'll easily be able to purchase every upgrade possible. Even the Time Trial mode only uses those same 7 ( or rather 1 would be more accurate, honestly... ) tracks, so there's very little to do and zero replay value. Since everything this game has to offer can be seen and accomplished so quickly, the Depth gets a 2/10.
Difficulty 5 / 10 -- This is one of those games that is somewhat difficult for the wrong reasons. The other racers are absolute buffoons, so they present very little challenge by themselves. It's actually not rare for them to get stuck off the side of the track against a rock or tree since there's no way for them to back up (lol). The challenge comes from the wack collision mechanics, which I mentioned previously, and fickle steering controls. The steering is set up in an all or nothing fashion. What I mean is, if you hold the controls to the left for .25 seconds, you'll turn maybe 10 degrees to the left. So far so good, right? Well, if you hold it for about .75 seconds then you'll end up turning nearly 90 degrees in that direction. Such a small interval between being able to slightly adjust your direction and just turning all out makes controlling the ATV with any real precision an extremely difficult task. The check-points are also a little frustrating. It doesn't give you credit for hitting it when you go in between the posts like you would think, but rather when you hit the area in between the posts about 5+ feet before you reach it. On more than one occasion I managed to make it between the posts, but since the angle of approach was off, I had to turn around and hit it again to be given credit. Oh, and every single check-point must be hit in the correct order, or that lap won't count, which would be fine if not for the other issues that make this overly difficult that I already mentioned. For all this grievance, but lack of what's meant to be challenging, the Difficulty gets a 5/10.
Overall 5 / 10 -- This is a game that can easily be overlooked, and for good reason. This game presents nothing special or unique, doesn't excel in any given area, and I would even go so far as to say it's hardly even mediocre at it's best. Anything this game could possibly have to offer, others of the same genre have probably done it better.
Hope you enjoyed the review :)
Graphics
6 Sound
5 Addictive
2 Depth
2 Difficulty
5
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