Speed Racer: The Video Game - E
Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this game is a direct offshoot of the Speed Racer movie. Seeing the film will make many children want to play the game and vice versa. Experiencing both will probably result in an overwhelming desire to buy lots of Speed Racer toys. Still, it's a good quality racing game with little in the way of worrisome content. Trixie's skirt will seem a little short for some parents' taste, and a fair bit of cartoonish violence takes place in the form of vehicles attacking one another with spins and jumps, but there is little else in the way of potentially offensive material.
Families can talk about games based on movies. Do they provide insight into a film's imaginary world? Do you come away feeling as though you know more about the movie's characters? Or are movie-based games simply a means of pretending that you are in a movie, reliving its most memorable scenes? Are these games generally as entertaining as the films upon which they are based? Do you ever enjoy games based on movies more than the movies themselves?
Common Sense Review
Not surprisingly, SPEED RACER: THE VIDEO GAME, which is based on the similarly named movie, is a racing game. It allows players to jump into the boots of the film's lead characters and zoom around the same sort of spectacular, gravity defying, sci-fi race tracks seen in the movie. Racers can also attack their competitors using Car-Fu, which is a sort of vehicular martial art that involves jumping onto and bumping into nearby cars to slow them down. As the single-player portion of the game progresses, additional races, tracks, and cars become unlocked. The game also offers a two-player split screen mode.
Games based on movies have a reputation for being hastily thrown together, and typically occupy the middle or lower rungs of whichever genre into which they happen to fall. That's not the case with Speed Racer: The Video Game. While it could have done more in the way of narrative (which is to say there really isn't any sort of story at all), it's actually a solid little racing game that delivers a thrilling sense of speed -- the in-game speedometer measures velocities as high as 500 miles per hour -- and plenty of exciting, gravity defying tracks.
What's more, it provides excellent motion sensitive steering controls designed with the Wii remote's snap-on steering peripheral in mind (though it plays just as well without it). The Car-Fu attack moves employ the remote's motion sensitive functionality as well, requiring players to jerk the remote left or right to bump into other cars and make a pancake flipping motion to perform jumps. The attacks are generally pretty easy to pull off -- and it's a good thing, since players will need to master them in order to win harder races later in the game. The only real downside to the races is that computer-controlled opponents adjust performance based on the player, which means they slow down when you take a spill and speed up when you are racing well. It's nice to be given a chance when you fall behind, but it's aggravating when you're in the lead and unable to put more than a second or two between you and your nearest opponent, even when racing flawlessly.
Other all-ages racers worth checking include Mario Kart Wii and Excite Truck. Slightly older Wii fans may appreciate Need for Speed: Carbon.
Platform Notes
Nintendo DS
The Nintendo DS version was developed specifically for Nintendo’s handheld gaming machine. The DS edition of Speed Racer: The Video Game has little in common with the Wii edition, save that it, too, is a racing game based on Speed Racer the movie. It offers a completely different set of race tracks, its own collection of Car-Fu moves, and original single- and multi-player modes. It has terrific 3-D graphics, provides the option for up to six players to face off in wireless multi-card play, and is perhaps even more challenging than its console-based cousin -- though also more frustrating for it. Like the Wii edition, it’s a family friendly game safe for children ages seven and up. Keep in mind, however, that its higher difficulty may be a turn-off for younger kids.
Nintendo Wii
This is the game described in our review.
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Sexual ContentSome female racers wear mildly suggestive outfits |
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ViolencePlenty of cartoonish vehicular combat. Cars spin out of control, smoke, and eventually explode. |
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Social BehaviorThe competition is generally friendly, but racers often taunt each other, saying things like "This is the part where you wish you were me." |
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CommercialismThis game is based on the Speed Racer movie, which in turn was inspired by a television show of the same name. |
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