Gripshift

Added January 3rd, 2008 by Justin McBride

In an effort to branch out from traditional racing or puzzling, the latest from Sidhe Interactive combines both with GripShift. These two genres, which are typically kept far apart, seem like they could work quite well here. The game is best described as a cross between the winding suspended tracks of Super Monkey Ball, with the battle centric racing of Mario Kart. Unfortunately, due to the focus being split between the two genres, GripShift never shines in any one area and has its fair share of flaws.

GripShift seems to focus primarily on the puzzling, offering 120 Challenge levels across several difficulties. The goals are straightforward be it collecting a number of stars, finding each stage’s hidden GS token or simply making it to the goal in the shortest time possible. These goals remain the same throughout the game but the many unique and interesting track designs certainly help. These tracks, often suspended above ice-covered or desert plains, feature loops, ramps and various environmental hazards such as magnets placed on either side of the track, TNT and various teleporters designed with the sole purpose of making your trek to the finish more difficult and as with all good puzzlers, forces you to change the way you approach each situation.

One of the game’s more interesting gimmicks is its aerial controls. Due to the incredibly light feeling physics, you’ll spend plenty of time in the air. While airborne, you’ll be able to turn, adjust your pitch and even accelerate which factors into many of the puzzles you’ll come across.

I’m less enthusiastic about the racing component. The sense of speed is sorely lacking, draining the much-needed excitement from the races. Not to mention that it just isn’t very deep. I didn’t approach this title expecting depth on the level of Forza Motorsport 2 or anything of the sort, but I didn’t expect something so shallow. The generic weapons and powerups don’t do much to help matters either. Aside from the standard homing missile, the powerups feel ineffective, even against the faceless AI opponents you’ll be racing.

As you complete the many challenges, you earn credits. As you progress and these credits accumulate, you unlock things such as new music to add to the game’s soundtrack, new skins and rims for your roadster and even new vehicles to tool around in and decorate as you see fit with the abovementioned skins and rims. This is an age-old concept that has stood the test of time in many games. Well, the problem here is the lack of attachment you usually obtain from unlocking things in other games. Once you realize you can easily progress through the entire game with what you have at the start, you’ll be left wondering what the point is.

The online multiplayer is easily the game’s best asset. While it shares many of the race mode’s flaws, they’re far less glaring when racing against a couple of friends as opposed to the brainless AI. There are single race and championship game modes available, but the mode that easily takes the cake here is the deathmatch mode. While it doesn’t make the powerups any less uninspired, it does give you an entertaining way to use them. The stages specifically designed for the deathmatch mode are some of the most creative, well designed, and for the most part, fun to play.

GripShift’s clean visuals are easily one of the game’s strengths. Nice looking vehicle designs, respectable lighting effects and the decent environments further accentuate the solid framerate. The game’s audio is nothing special, sporting some unnecessary and, every so often, annoying voice acting (If I hear “That’s hella tight” one more time…). The cars all sound like you’d think they should, which is good. The soundtrack however is quite large for a game such as this, hosting a good selection of hip-hop, dance and techno songs.

A problem GripShift has suffered with since its inception on the PSP is its utter lack of personality. GripShift doesn’t come close to the iconic status of such a game as Mario Kart (which this game seems desperate to imitate) and comes across as yet another fish in the sea of clones out there. Any attempt to tie together the various puzzle and racing challenges would be welcome as opposed to the lack of such a concept seen here.

Despite my complaints, GripShift isn’t a bad game, it’s just flawed in all the wrong places and at the end of the day, it’s completely unremarkable. On one hand, there’s a great deal of content here that can keep you busy for quite some time but on the other, few players will want to play long enough to uncover half of them. The racing sections are weak, but the puzzles are enough fun to make up for it. GripShift is far from perfect, but for those looking for a fun puzzle game; the ten-dollar investment is easily justified.