It's always dangerous when videogames drop to prices so outrageously
low that they become potential impulse purchases, like "Titanic" for $12
or a bag of Reeses Peanut Butter for under 35 cents; hell, Funcoland has
so many brand-new crappy PSX games under $10 ("Newman-Haas Racing",
"Deathtrap Dungeon") and N64 under $20 ("Dual Heroes", "Forsaken") that
even I take a walk on the wild side every now and then. Sometimes I hit
paydirt with these random purchases with oddities like Dreamwork's
"Skullmonkeys" (a seriously wicked and underrated 2D platform game) or
underrated oldies like Tantalus' port of "WipeOut" for the Saturn (better
than I expected!); sometimes, though, I'm stuck with crappy wannabe
next-generation software like Atlus' first-generation racing game "High
Velocity". Oh well, I paid $5.36 w/taxes for the game used, which is less
than what I have to pay when a rent a game at Blockbuster (and I can
always add another coaster to my already large list of Acclaim Saturn CD's
:-P).
Based on the Japanese concept of racing against the clock while
competing with another vehicle in mountains and assorted highways
surrounding the hills around metropolitan areas of the island (don't
ask... they invented Godzilla and Hello Kitty too!), "High Velocity" is a
fine example of simplicity taken to such an extreme that it becomes even
boring to think about the experience. The graphics are OK, but the musical
department and the gameplay rush of racing against the CPU or another
gamer is simply non-existent; it looks better than the rushed and pop-up
plagued "Daytona U.S.A." released around the same time this came out (late
'95), but that early accolade could only carry the game so far until
gamers took a look under the visual hood and found that Atlus was pulling
a fast one.
GRAPHICS / VISUALS: C+
------------------
Although "Time Warner's Virtua Racing" had frame-rate and speed
problems comparable to those in "High Velocity" (20-24 frames-per-second,
pixely low-resolution, etc.), it at least had an appeal based on the
heritage of Sega's pioneering arcade machine. "High Velocity" features
simple-looking vehicles (with names taken straight from the alphabet: A,
B, C, D, etc.) and flat movie-set backgrounds and environments through
which to race that seem just a gentle push away from collapsing like a
house of cards; the colors are not bright and cheerful, and tend to go
more toward the saccharine and low-end of the hue scale (light browns and
pine green abound). The standard camera angles are there, and a plethora
more open during the replay of the race which allow you to take a good
luck at every curve and hill in this mountaneous racing simulation (think
of a cheapo version of the replays in "Gran Turismo"); even the
menu/option screens seem clunky and amateurish, with cheerful fonts and an
out-of-place musical theme complete with car horns (don't ask!).
As a result of the low-resolution and repetitive environments that get
recycled through the game's three tracks (which can be raced forward and
backward, which would make them six tracks if you use the Saturn "Manx
T.T." formula), Atlus' engine can display plenty of horizon and scenery
with no pop-up whatsoever, even on the two-player split-screen set-up when
racing against someone else (horizontal or vertical, unless both vehicles
are racing next to one another, in which case the game will switch to a
single screen... pretty cool!). Despite the positives, this game simply
can't stand next to the speed demons from Sega's roster of racers:
"WipeOut", "Sega Rally", "Sega Touring Car Championship", etc.
MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: C-
---------------------
The engines sound authentic, I think (??!!)... I really have no idea if
these arcadey vehicles are based on real-life Japanese mountain cars, but
the engines at least sound robust and consistent. The rest of the game's
audio package has to be harshly criticized for not only being sampled and
a low rate (besides the engines, EVERYTHING sounds staticky and fuzzy),
but sounding cheap and crappy; the music sounds like a mix between a drunk
jazz composer and a bad music skit on "Mystery Science Theatre 3000"...
horrible, horrible ear-piercing tunes; make them stop, Arghhhh! Adrenaline
is guaranteed to start flowing out of your ears, if exposed for too long
to the atrocious sounds of "High Velocity".
GAMEPLAY / FUN FACTOR: C
---------------------
Time Trial, Two-Player Mode and Race (w/ several 'Heats' per race) are
at your disposal to claim the title of 'King of the Mountain' (yawn).
Basically you race trying to beat your single opponent AND get the best
time in your 'Heat' (which you can replay as many times as you want to get
the best possible score), and then move through a series of 'Heats' in
which the CPU opponent will start giving you some serious competition.
Memorization of the tracks, which can be rather lengthy because they
involve circling an entire mountain, is essential to knowing when to apply
the brakes and take the curves with your little Japanese cars. Control
with the d-pad (no analog support) is stiff and initially very
frustrating, which is why the races reward the player with dough that can
be used to upgrade the car's many performance inhibitors: brakes,
mufflers, suspension, etc. But even with the improvements from the
upgrades, the cars in "High Velocity" are nowhere near as responsive or
controllable as the one's in Namco's "Ridge Racer" series (and we all know
how awkward those cars handled!), let alone those in other better games
like "Gran Turismo" and the "Test Drive" series; powersliding and taking
curves with the correct brake and acceleration combinations is only fun
for a few seconds unless there is meat behind the racing premise, and
Atlus' first Saturn racer was definitely going for a niche audience that
simply was too small a percentage of the gaming population to make the
game stand out (why it was brought to the States is beyond me, since it's
appeal mostly resides with weekend Japanese drivers).
OVERALL: C
-------
It's a pity that the Saturn is gone from the 32-bit next-generation
picture, but it's easier to understand how Sega lost a crucial early lead
when you consider that games like "High Velocity" sold for $60 and shared
space in a 1995 library of first-generation Saturn releases like "Bug!",
"Clockwork Knight", "Astal" and "Robotica"... is it any wonder Sony's hip
ads and flashy games ("WipeOut", "Destruction Derby", "Tekken",
"B.A.Toshinden") won the early battles? Atlus tried and failed to do a
good racing game, but it's Sega of America who should be recriminated for
bringing such a dog to the United States; feel free to look for this $5.36
dog at the local NYC Funcoland where I dumped it for a handful of bucks...
on a broken Saturn CD case of course (my "Scorcher" box was broken and the
"HV" box was in good shape; oh well, at least Scavenger's game has cool
wannabe techno music instead of jazzy but horrendous Atlus music samples)!
- J.M. Vargas
