MotorStorm: Arctic Edge (PSP) Review

Posted by Joe Roche on 11.04.2009

Perhaps the most fun you can have on an icy cliff.



Game: MotorStorm: Arctic Edge
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: BigBig Studios
Genre: Racing
Players: 1-8
Rating: T (Lyrics/Mild Violence)

Gameplay

I wanted to come up with an interesting way to describe the game but other then calling MotorStorm: Arctic Edge a MotorStorm game on the side of an icy mountain I couldn’t think of anything intelligent to write. The game has a couple of different modes Festival Mode which is essentially a season mode which operates on a points basis where points are awarded for your placement in the previous race and/or special conditions which you meet during the previous race (which you learn about when you select a course). In Festival Mode you are gaining points to unlock vehicles, and additional levels where additional courses/alternate paths on pre-existing courses are opened. Each vehicle has its own special purpose – something you will learn quickly while driving incredibly fast on a motocross bike before being sideswiped by a Big Rig and flying 75 feet across the frozen tundra – motocross bikes have good speed and handling, not so much on the protection front. Meanwhile the big rig will let you essentially smash into everything in sight; too bad none of what is in sight will be other racers (10 in all for each race) because they’re too fast for you to catch up with.



In addition to the Festival Mode there is also a Time Attack Mode which lets you compete for the fastest time on each of the 12 tracks, and then see your progress on the online leaderboards. One of the cool features on the Time Attack Mode is that you can select a ghost to race against that will pace you against the top leaderboard time. I’m not necessarily the best guy when it comes to reaching top times in these time trial modes and for the most part I just ignore them – but I love the ghost addition because what it does is essentially give you a training partner for when you jump online and compete in the 8 person races. What I would do is highlight a track, get the ghost chase to set the best course for the best time, and then jump online and try to duplicate that course of action. Does that make me an underhanded psychopath? Perhaps, but it was better then hitting boost and flying off the side of an icy cliff while seven other people point and laugh as they’re lapping me.

There is also a Free Play mode which is pretty self explanatory. You can select the cars, course, direction of the course, laps and number of competitors and then play till your heart is content. I did not do much fooling around with the Free Play Mode but I guess if you wanted to re-create the Daytona 500 in the ice and snow using hot rods, big rigs, and snowmobiles this would be your chance to do just that.

When you’re actually playing the game everything is seamless and simplistic – which is a very good thing for a portable racing game. I can’t even tell you where the handbrake button is because I refused to use it, but everything else is simple to pick up and go. One feature that I enjoyed was the boost feature which may be relic from MotorStorm’s past but with the ice and snow there are times when you’ll be able to cool your boost which lets you perform longer boosts – always a nice tactic until you stop paying attention and your ATV burst into flames sending you shooting off the side of a mountain (notice a theme?).

I found the races themselves to be simplistic to start, which is a nice feature because who the hell wants to lose right off the bat? I will go into more detail about my problems with the game’s mechanics – and lack of punishment for ignoring those mechanics – later but I will say that I wish there was more of a penalty for crashing; at least it would’ve had me learn where the handbrake was. The problem that I had was that while the races were fun on the first lap, by the second (or third) lap I was so far ahead that I had time to attempt a jump, miss said jump, fall to my death, have my car return to the mountain and continue racing without giving up my first spot or even noticing a different in the race. I felt as if once I passed everyone and got into first place the rest of the cars disappeared, a feeling that you don’t have at the beginning of the race when cars are passing you left and right.

Now some of my complaints come from not unlocking all of the different levels because the game does get progressively harder – which is why my one complaint with the game isn’t a major one. At the end of the day what you get is a very fine racing game for the PSP that provides exactly what you want it to provide. It’s fast, explosive, engaging, and very easy to pick up and play. Each vehicle has its own pluses and minuses, each course can be attacked a different way every time you play (adding a lot of replayability to each course), and with online support you have a very good racing game in your hands if you pick up MotorStorm: Arctic Edge.

Graphics

It may be due to the fact that I haven’t used my PSP much recently, but this game looks fantastic. The level of detail on the courses as you drive from snow/ice to dirt/mud is pretty great, and the mud getting kicked up by your tires and flung onto the screen seems like a minor detail but it adds a level of realism that I completely enjoyed. I also love the crashes. Your car doesn’t sustain lasting damage in a crash, but if you hit your BOOST and run full speed into the side of a cliff your vehicle will be smashed to pieces but even better then that – your lifeless body will be flung about fifty yards through the air. There is something oddly compelling about a body hurling through the air as a car bursts into flames underneath. Graphically the game is crisp and clean – it’s one of the best games I’ve seen on the PSP as minor details stick out which is something you don’t always get on the PSP, and the game has a very polished look.

Sound

The soundtrack is about what you’d expect from an “extreme racing” game – but that doesn’t make it a bad thing. The soundtrack includes music from Bullet for my Valentine, The Chemical Brothers, The Hives, Motorhead, The Prodigy, Queens of the Stone Age and Radiohead among others, a pretty solid lineup of contributors you have to admit. There is a feature where you can select your playlist from Normal (plays through, restarts when all songs have played), Shuffle (self explanatory) and Repeat (in case you want to hear one song exclusively). As far as how the vehicles sound – I really don’t remember the sound off the top of my head which I consider a plus. I’ve played racing games where the engine sounds were horrendously out of place and you noticed it immediately – not so in this game.



Lasting Appeal

There is a lot going on in this game. The Single Player mode has you trying to unlock 24 vehicles in 8 different classes. You’re competing in Festival Mode which takes you across 12 different racing tracks – that are reversible and even more important then that each track has different paths that are distinctly unique and helpful depending on the type of vehicle you happen to be driving in that particular race. While hearing that there are 12 different tracks might make you feel as if the game is limited in scope trust me each track feels unique, even when you’re driving on the same track for the second time because you can take different angles/slopes and when you switch vehicles it adds a whole new dimension to each level. Once you’ve tried to beat a course driving a Motocross bike, and a Big Rig on the same course you’ll realize that there is plenty of reason to keep coming back to the same course and try a new strategy.

The game also features multiplayer which – surprise, surprise – actually works. I’m not sure if my hesitation to play online with my PSP is due to the fact that I’m an original PSP owner so I feel as though I’ve been burned with the PSP online more then any other console I’ve owned but I actually enjoyed MotorStorm: Arctic Edge online. You can play with up to 8 players and even in my backwoods country home I didn’t lag or feel as though the entire handheld was going to burst into flames because I was making it work too hard. Online mode allows you to join a game based on game mode, track, and track direction – you can also create your own race and hope that people jump in and join your created race. I didn’t get too in depth with the online mode because I tried to cram an entire weeks worth of playing the game into one night but it ran smoothly, it didn’t break apart or lag like I feared it would considering the detail of the tracks, and I enjoyed myself while I was playing – there is nothing more you could ask for form a handheld racer then that right?

Fun Factor

Here’s the weird thing about MotorStorm: Arctic Edge, I can honestly only pick out one huge problem that I have with the game – that when you crash it almost never hurts you in the actual race – and that one thing hurts the entire game’s overall fun factor by at least one point. Maybe it’s just the way I was playing the game but for the first couple of hours in the Festival Mode I would drive as fast as I could without breaking and occasionally fly off a cliff, or smash headfirst into a post (sending my driver head over heels the length of a football field) – the crash was spectacular but when my car would return to the track I’d still be in first place, really? I drove off a one hundred foot cliff and didn’t even lose a single spot in the race? Not only that but when I’d look behind my car after coming back to life there was nobody behind me – so it didn’t even feel like there was any reason to slow down while driving because there was no penalty for crashing and/or blowing up because you used too much boost. Now all of that being said the game was imminently more fun because I didn’t have to worry about things like breaking, and slowing down in corners. So the game has a more arcade feel to it – I promise you that you’ll have more fun playing MotorStorm on the PSP then you will with Gran Turismo because while there is a place for finely tuned suspensions and hand brakes when I’m on the train heading to work I’d much rather mindlessly drive very fast and slide around a slippery course then worry about whether or not the tires that I’m using provide the appropriate level of grip.



The 411

The reason that I own a PSP is that I like to have bite sized moments of entertainment on car/train/plane rides. I understand the value of owning Final Fantasy on the PSP, but at the same time needing hours of free time to invest in an portable game seems to defeat the whole “portable” purpose. MotorStorm: Arctic Edge does everything that you want a portable video game to do. It provides quick snippets of highly entertaining, high octane racing, it gives you the chance to expand the game into multiplayer to add extended life to the game, and it doesn’t require more then your passive engagement which is precisely what I want when I’m playing on the PSP. I honestly think that other then the one issue that you aren’t penalized at all for crashing/flying off the mountain MotorStorm: Arctic Edge is the most fun that I’ve had with my PSP since purchasing the thing when it was still about $250 bucks to own one --- oh wait that’s still true? Well the game is still fantastic as a portable game and worth owning if you’re looking for a reason to dust off that PSP.

Graphics	9.0	One of the best looking PSP games I've played
Gameplay	9.0	Everything you'd want out of a portable racing game
Sound	9.0	Great soundtrack that fits the
Lasting Appeal	8.5	Good multiplayer, game gets a bit repetitive after awhile
Fun Factor	8.5	Great fun at first, some tappering off after a bit
Overall	8.7   [ Very Good ]

Screenshots
All 20 MotorStorm Screenshots