Review: MotoGP 09

[the_dead_man]

MotoGP 09

Mobile Game Review

Title: MotoGP 09
Developer: Vivid Games
Publisher: I-Play
Release Date: July, 2009
Format: J2ME
Game Features: Real tracks, real bikers, tough AI.
Reviewed on: SE W580
Genre: Racing

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Summary

MotoGP is back again. Place yourself in the shoes of the rider of your choice and gear up for a new season of intense action-packed racing. Race against tough and advanced AI riders in the 17 tracks of this year’s MotoGP season and ultimately get crowned as the MotoGP champion. Don’t take any race lightly because one wrong turn can result you in losing the race.


Review

This week it was supposed to be Nitro Street Racing 2, but I’ve decided to postpone it after talking to my partner because we’ll be putting up the Nitro Street Racing reviews together. Anyway this week, the review’s on MotoGP since previously, I had put MotoGP on hold. Being a fan of motorbikes and MotoGP, it’s always been one of my favourite games in the racing genre. In a nutshell, MotoGP 09 is definitely better than its predecessor MotoGP 08 in all aspects.

Graphics are quite good; at least they are way better than MotoGP 08. The tracks are well sketched and the bikes are decent looking. Every time you boost, your bike performs a wheelie and it looks spectacular. The tracks, the speeding bikes, the crashes are worth watching. One might say that there’s nothing great or awesome about the game’s graphics. Well, if you have a racing game that runs so smooth without any lags, and you get the thrill of racing at high speeds, there’s not much to complain about.

The game does well in the sounds department. The main menu music is good. Besides that the sound effects are pretty cool. The sounds of bikes ramming, the screeching of brakes as you slow down before a corner and the boosting of bikes have been detailed to perfection.

You can’t really ask for a story in MotoGP because it’s all about racing and winning the season, so there’s nothing to complain about the game not having a storyline. Moving on to the gameplay, I-Play has done well by introducing awards in this edition of MotoGP. You can win various awards like ‘Pole Position’, ‘Boost Burn’ and other awards for various achievements you accomplish while racing. There are 18 awards in total which makes the game more interesting. Besides this, your bike gets upgraded automatically as you keep winning races. The AI is tough so it’s best not to take the other riders lightly. Ill-timed cornering and braking will result in other riders overtaking you and you might end up losing the race. To be honest, you can’t relax till you have won the race. Just for instance, in a race, I was on the last lap and way ahead of all the other riders, but one ill-timed cornering resulted in me coming third. Another issue is ramming bikes. If you get too close to your fellow riders in the race, you might ram into their bikes or they might do the same to you. Be warned, as this just results in you losing speed and you may often crash. Strangely nothing serious happens to them which is frustrating and I ended up throwing my phone in anger and damaging its display. So I’ll advise you to keep your cool and not do the same thing which I did. Each race is of two laps so it’s not that bad. The qualifiers are a good way to start the main race from the pole position and you can get an overview of the track you’ll be racing on.


Conclusion

Overall, a good racing game and a must have for the MotoGP fans. However you might get bored because the game is mainly based on winning races. Be prepared for some frustration because the AI is tough and challenging.

Screenshots

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Scores

Graphics: 8.2/10
Decent and eye-catching.

Sound: 8.5/10
Good sound effects.

Gameplay: 8.8/10
Tough and Challenging AI.


Overall Score: 8.5 out of 10

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