Juiced

Added August 13th, 2004 by dondo

A demo of Juice Games’ Juiced is out and it looks to be competition for some of the other racing games coming up. The demo features just one track and three cars but hints at a plethora of options in the final release. The only final game will allow you to pick form 4 game modes: custom race, arcade, career and online. In the demo, only custom race is allowed but we can assume that the other modes will be even deeper than the basic option. From there, you are taken to a list of car types and you select the type you wish to race with. Only Import Coupe is selectable from a list of: Hot Hatch (sports cars with hatchbacks), Mid Size Sportcars (duh), Classics (double duh), All Wheel Drive (cars with only all wheel drive), Japanese Super Cars (I’m sure the Acura NSX will be in here), Muscle Cars (all American baby!) and Prototype Mods (the requisite super cars that you can only hope to even see in your lifetime).

When you pick Import Coupe, you are presented with three car choices, all Toyota. You can pick from a Supra, a Celica (pre-2000) and a newer Celica, the VVTLi. Although Juice is being quiet about what cars are licensed, we can be sure that Toyota is in the mix. When you have picked your car, you press the Y button to auto mod your car. This adds the prerequisite ground effects, spoiler, neon headlights, neon ground lights, flashy decals and of course, nitrous oxide. You can pick your own paint color and believe, you wont find these choices in any dealership!

From there you are taken you a menu of race types: race, sprint (what I assume to be a quarter mile mode), show off (use your imagination) and solo run. Race is the only option allowed right now and you can pick to race up to 4 cars. Next, is the race location. The game takes place in a fictional California type city with varying areas. Of the 8 locations with 64 total tracks planned for the final release, only one is available: Route 2 of San Ricardo. This track takes place in the middle of a city with the roads blocked off for the race. The track itself is pretty basic but does a good job of showing what Juiced has in store for us.

The game is planned to have several crews, specific to the locations that you race in. You must earn the respect of the area crew before you can move on or organize your own events. You will have your own team to race with in Juiced so you wont be left alone. They will be useful in Career mode when you battle in 2 on 2 and 3 on 3 races where your entire team has to win. This is something I have never seen before and I am excited to experience it.

Juiced will be Live compatible with up to 6 players joining in on a race. Bring your headset and you can trash talk until your mom walks into the room. You can even bring your AI team from the single player onto Live to race with you. With stats kept and invites to send, you can be sure that Juiced will keep you busy online.

The cars themselves are the main attraction with over 50 planned. Couple that with the hundreds of after market modifications and Juiced claims that you can have up to 7.2 trillion combinations. Not billions, trillions. Excited yet?

The graphics are clean and there are some nice high-res textures in the game. The sound wasn’t very apparent in the demo but if the few songs that I heard are any indication, we can expect some pleasing techno music to background our race for the finish.

The controls were tight and the cars responded well to your input. My favorite part was when you hit the nitrous button, the camera pans back and gets really shaky. The controller vibrates uncontrollably in your hands as you surge forward under the power of the nitro.

My qualms with the game were few. The nitrous felt like an arcade gimmick than an actual nitrous boost. You were given a meter that empties as you use the nitrous, quite unlike real life where you get one or two shots. Second, the control felt too tight for an arcade game, I expected more drift from the cars but they cornered really well, even in the rain. Other than those things, I was impressed with Juiced’s style and presentation.

Juiced looks to be a contender for the crown of racing games this fall and the competition had better keep an eye in the rear view mirror for this newcomer.