Only managed 40 minutes on this before work. Personally been waiting for a good handheld Moto GP game since the year dot. Menu?s etc are about 60% English and 40% Japanese (Japanese bits are the bike stats and setup, all the options.), sure I?ll work them all out over the weekend ? USA version is down to come out in a fortnight btw.
Anyway, the game, as you?d expect from Namco, nice and slick front-end. The game is very similar to it?s previous PS2 incarnations (which is not a bad thing). The game uses 2005 rider/manufacturer data, so it?s fairly current.
Graphically ? bit blocky at times, tyres etc can look sometimes look a bit square, bike themselves are well detailed though, I?ve not seen any slowdown yet, even with a dozen bikes on screen ? a full grid is 22 bikes. Couple of in game shots here, courtesy of a guy from gamefaqs.
Sound ? not bad, bit tinny through PSP speaker, improved via headphones.
Gameplay ? four views available, behind rider, further behind bike, rider view, front wheel view. You can use either dpad or nub for steering, nub works really well imo. Control is as realistic as bike games go, nice touches of the bike weaving under heavy braking etc. Usual game types of Arcade/ Season/ Time Trial etc. Race lengths seem to offer 2 laps, 5 laps or full race distance, so, importantly for a handheld, 5 minute blasts are possible. Collision detection is quite lenient, a collision with other riders means a small bump and loss of speed, it?s the same for both bikes involved so benefit to the AI
Think I?ve covered the basics so far, pleased to say the game seems to live up to the hype so far, time will tell.
Anyway, the game, as you?d expect from Namco, nice and slick front-end. The game is very similar to it?s previous PS2 incarnations (which is not a bad thing). The game uses 2005 rider/manufacturer data, so it?s fairly current.
Graphically ? bit blocky at times, tyres etc can look sometimes look a bit square, bike themselves are well detailed though, I?ve not seen any slowdown yet, even with a dozen bikes on screen ? a full grid is 22 bikes. Couple of in game shots here, courtesy of a guy from gamefaqs.
Sound ? not bad, bit tinny through PSP speaker, improved via headphones.
Gameplay ? four views available, behind rider, further behind bike, rider view, front wheel view. You can use either dpad or nub for steering, nub works really well imo. Control is as realistic as bike games go, nice touches of the bike weaving under heavy braking etc. Usual game types of Arcade/ Season/ Time Trial etc. Race lengths seem to offer 2 laps, 5 laps or full race distance, so, importantly for a handheld, 5 minute blasts are possible. Collision detection is quite lenient, a collision with other riders means a small bump and loss of speed, it?s the same for both bikes involved so benefit to the AI

Think I?ve covered the basics so far, pleased to say the game seems to live up to the hype so far, time will tell.
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