Auto Modellista - Review

Added April 15th, 2004 by Sallizar

Introduction:

I’ve been a racing game fan since I played Pole Position on the Atari 2600. I’m also a fan of games that use cel-shading to provide a cartoon like ambience. Capcom must have tapped my brain waves because they smashed cel-shading and racing together too give gamers Auto Modellista. For some reason Xbox gamers have had to wait for this one for a good while, but now we finally get to race over sixty cel-shaded versions of real autos on nine different tracks. So was the wait worth it?

Gameplay:

Did you have a slot car set when you were a kid? I did. Auto Modellista reminds me of those days. You’d start by getting the awesome track set up with all its cool looking curves. Then you’d line up the little pin in the front of the car with the slot in the track and hammer the trigger down on your controller. The car would speed down the straight away until you hit a turn. What’s this? My car just spun out in the turn and flew off the track! That’s what Auto Modellista is like. The cars in the game feel like they have a pin in the front and no matter what combination of braking, letting of the gas and/or turning you attempt, the car just slides sidewise in the corners until you correct it or ram into a wall. At least they give you a neat tire smoking effect when you’re sliding around. Hope you like it, because you’ll see it a lot.

Ok, now that I have the ranting about the terrible car physics off my chest, let’s talk about what Auto Modellista has to offer. The meat and potatoes of the game is the Garage Life mode. Modeled after other racers, Garage Life lets you pick a vehicle and start running races. Winning races unlocks decals for the vehicles, all sorts of stuff to put in your garage screen, and upgrade kits for your car. The weird part is that there is no monetary system involved. You unlock an upgrade and you can immediately slap it on your vehicle. It sort of confused me because, I’m so used to games like Sega GT making me watch every nickel and dime. The races gradually get tougher as you play, but the cpu controlled cars have as much trouble turning as you, so you should be able to beat them easily if you get used to the wacky controls.


Graphics:

The biggest “wow, that looks cool!” factor in Auto Modellista is the cel-shaded vehicles of course. I must admit that seeing some of my favorite imports with a cartoon look is pretty neat. Besides the cel-shading, the cars have very little pizzazz. There are no motion blurs, real time lighting effects or any other spiffy eye candy that we’ve become used to in modern driving games. Even worse, the tracks are extremely dull and lifeless. Billboards sprinkle the sides of the road along with trees and buildings on some tracks, but it all seems cold and barren. The cars actually look out of place when you’re playing the game. The cel-shading gimmick is cool to see in screen shots, but in action leaves a lot to be desired.

Audio:

The announcer is the most terrible sounding thing you have ever heard and you can’t shut him up. He hollers out asinine comments in the middle of races, when you click buttons, when you start, when you exit, when you go to the fridge to get a drink. It absolutely drove me batty. Car sounds aren’t much better. I’ve test driven a few of these cars and they didn’t sound like high pitched bumblebees in real life. They sure do in the game though. I kept wondering when Winnie the Pooh was going to come running by with a bees nest stuck to his head. Bzzzzz. And last, but certainly not least the music belongs in a Vegas lounge at four in the morning. The guy in Japan that thinks elevator music and racing go together has never met a NASCAR fan or a street racer. If you must put this terrible music (I hesitate to even call it that) on the disc, at least give me the option to have custom soundtracks next time.

Controls:

At first glance the controls seem pretty normal. Unfortunately, the in-game physics ruin any sense of control you might have had with this setup. Hope your thumbstick is tight, because any play in it will have you sliding sideways in no time.

Directional Pad - Steer
Left Thumbstick - Steer
A - Accelerate
B - Hand brake
X - Brake
Y - Hazard Lights
White - Change Camera Angle
Black - Switch to Rear View
Left Trigger - Downshift
Right Trigger - Shift Up
Start - Start game/Pause/Open Pause Menu
Back - Horn

Replay:

The one shiny point for Auto Modellista is the amount of replayability in the game. Garage Life will keep you busy unlocking parts and making sure the Feng Shui in your garage is correct. On top of that you also get split screen multiplayer and Xbox Live support. Ok, you barely get Xbox Live support. I had a ton of trouble finding a game or getting enough players in my game to start. The few times I did get in a race, it was relatively smooth, but as soon as the race was over you get dumped back to the menu. So, after I just spent an hour finding people to race with, now I have to start the process over. So, if you have more free time than you know what to do with and you’re brave enough (or just crazy) to actually learn how to drive these cars, you could conceivably play Auto Modellista for a good while.

Summary:

I was really looking forward to finally getting my hands on Auto Modellista. It wasn’t a huge let down, like Enter the Matrix or Marvel vs. Capcom 2, but it’s a close third. I don’t understand how Capcom can expect gamers to pony up cash for this game when Project Gotham Racing 2 and Need for Speed Underground are on the shelf right next to it. The clunky controls, boring tracks, and no-frills Xbox Live implementation leave Auto Modellista at the starting line choking on the competition’s exhaust. If you absolutely must try the world’s first cel-shaded racer, I highly recommend making Auto Modellista a rental. I doubt you’ll be paying any late fees on it.