GripShift

very good
key review info
  • Game: GripShift
  • Platform: PSP
  • Show system requirements
  • Gamepad support: N/a
  • Reviewed on:

There comes a time in a reviewer's life when he will discriminate some game, because he's never heard of its producers and because it starts poorly. Who is Sidhe Interactive? Why does my car fall off the track all the time? Finding no answers to those questions, I left GripShift aside and turned to seemingly more entertaining games. However, a game is still a game, I gave this title a chance and it managed to surprise me in ways that few PSP games have ever done before. GripShift is a threat to Ridge Racer's supremacy in the field of portable driving games. It's not all driving and the shooting and pickups remind me of Wipeout Pure or the antique S.C.A.R.S. With the superficiality gone, the game can be extremely fun and fill many hours of your life without leaving a sour taste in your mouth.

Story While being behind the wheel of a car that's going upside down in a crazy maze filled with traps, the plot is the last thing on your mind. Forget about any storyline concept in this title. GripShift is a fast game, the type you play between classes at school and stories or motivations would be futile, probably spoiling the fun.

Concept We're dealing with an unique genre: puzzle-platform-driving-action. This hybrid doesn't come with the hype of Crash Bandicoot Tag Team Racing or any of the Mario racing games. It surfaced all of a sudden and I can guarantee it will blow your mind. Before playing the actual game, you should choose a proper ride and a driver. Pick one of the sexy girls or one of the cool guys and select the car you need to become the king of the highway. There's even some tweaking you can do to the vehicles and you'll be able to change their skin, wheels, hood decal or body color. With only 6 cars available, you'll take full advantage of the tweaking process and make them unrecognizable.

While picking a vehicle, remember that certain cars are useful on tracks that require special abilities like better handling or higher top speed. Choose the single-player mode to get the hang of it and select Challenge, Race Mode or Bonus Games. The Challenge is divided into Easy, Intermediate, Hard, Insane and Custom. Insane is not just a name and when unlocked, if ever, it can unleash a terrible wave of curses towards the producers' wicked ways of tormenting gamers. What kind of driving game would this be without a race mode? Pick the single race, race against the clock with the time challenge or face the bureaucracy of tables and points through the championship. Watch the standings and bomb your way through the races, regretting however that there are only 3 opponents to push off the track's edge.

In case you want to have some sort of an advantage before playing the multiplayer game, you should try playing the practice mode first to get used to drills of this freshly-born genre. The Bonus Games are the final and maybe the most entertaining of the game modes and their names really say it all about your objectives: Penguin Bowling, Bomb Pool, Ice hockey or Soccer Crazy. Failing the mission's primary task, exploding or falling off the track can frustrate the impatient gamer to the point of shutting down the PSP and inserting another UMD. The good thing is that the loading times are very short and there's no extra frustration due to the lag that PSP games can sometimes have. GripShift has a cleverly designed credit-based system that allows the player to access further game modes only by completing other easier missions. You'll get ratings and medals for your performances and you should remember that there are three basic things you must do when playing most of the game's levels: collect stars, finish within the time limit and find the hidden GripShift logo.

Gameplay The reason for the often "fall out" screens you'll get are the sensitive analog controls and the fact that the vehicles have an unnatural tendency to float in mid-air. During this levitation part, you'll be free to brake, boost, speed or change direction. This will be vital for the parts of the game when you'll be making huge jumps and you'll have to land on minuscule platforms. GripShift doesn't need additional explanations, but a short briefing will welcome you at the beginning of each level. In the races against the AI, there will be some weapon pickups that will make things spicier. Variety is not one of those weapons' characteristics, as there are only three pickups to use throughout the competitions. If Wipeout Pure can do it, why not try the same with this racing game too?

Shiny golden stars are the game's main pickup and they give you points and good ratings of the end of each level. No more fair racing for you, because the opponents are hungry for victory and will push you off the track firing rockets at you without mercy. Use the shield to deflect their missiles, leave red TNT boxes behind (Crash Bandicoot anyone?) or collect missiles and fire them towards the other cars. Auto-locking is something that happens from time to time in GripShift and pushing a targeting button while racing at formidable speeds would have been a real pain. Using Nitrous boosts is one of the ways you can get golden medals in every challenge, but be wary, because you might be tempted to use it all the time making the car more difficult to handle. The firing will be done with the circle button, which makes the control system pretty intuitive considering that Nitrous is used with the R button. Use the handbrake at any time, especially in the curves to feel the rush while your car spins almost to death near the track's edge.

While in the racing mode, you can't be destroyed and if a rocket hits you or you fall, the vehicle will be reseted back on track and be invincible for a short while. The Challenge modes will be insanely fun and a "fall out" there equals a game over. No level will require more than about two minutes to complete, but the challenges are so many, that time is not your biggest concern. "Puzzle" is not just some word that describes the game's genre and you'll have to figure out the perfect way to reach the finishing line by using jump pads, teleports and the surrounding environments. Other puzzle games will have you scratching your head, while thinking about a solution. GripShift is fast-paced and you'll experience the fast heartbeat and sweaty palms phenomena without even knowing it. Sometimes you'll reach a seemingly dead end and wonder what's the perfect way out of this. Reaching the finishing line may sometimes require you to pass through some checkpoints first or collecting some items before clearing the level.

Gamers complain about too much floating and the lack of realism in GripShift, but I say that it's a great game considering its type and expectations. All that floating offers the needed seconds to think about your following actions. It may not be realistic, but it's extremely useful and highly entertaining. Vehicles have pretty good physics and the weight concept is present, so if you'll leave your car on top of a hill in a slope, you'll see it gently going downhill. Any of the tracks in the game would make a rollercoaster jealous and getting out of these complicated mazes is not an easy task. What's more, you can create your own track through a tool called Track Editor. Select the X, Y or Z coordinates and place ramps, teleports, and pieces of the track wherever you like. You might want to raise the track's level a little higher or place tiles till you get a decent highway. Some might even create levels that allow vehicles to race upside down, hairpins and many other track twists to ruin another gamer's day. These creations can be shared through the PSP's wi-fi connection, so other players can prove themselves too.

Video GripShift is not an easy game and mastering it is something that you'll brag about to your friends. That's what the replays are for and watching them can become a real pleasure, while warming up for the next challenge. If you have some extra millisecond, you'll probably like to check out the backgrounds. There are many themes you'll notice while racing and you'll drive through lava levels, snowy mountains, forest levels and many, many more. Beautiful waterfalls, scary dinosaurs, elephants or just race tracks are nice visual elements that show the producer's desire to make this game feel more like a racing one and less like an arcade. Changing the camera view by pressing the triangle button is something that you'll surely want to do, because certain angles help you take the curves adequately. Be greeted by fireworks after completing the levels and check out the sexy babes that can be selected as drivers. Sun reflections and realistic tire behavior are some of the features that any game of this genre should have. A nitrous boost will make the car vibrate and the background look like in the older Need for Speed games and you should consider that as a compliment.

Sound GripShift begins with a rap song that says something about shifting gears on a very cool car. The whole soundtrack generates the feeling that you're cruising behind the blocks, showing off with a low-rider system and some new spoilers. Rap and techno music are fit for such games, but you can't really tell who's singing although some tracks are really good. Drums and booms will increase your already high adrenaline level and the sound of a nitrous boost will be another Need for Speed memento. In case you fall out of the track, you'll hear some screams and usually the driver reacts to the way the race is going. "Oh man!", "wow" and the classical "3,2,1...Go!" said by a childish voice, add a little flavor to GripShift and reveal its racing side. In the same field, you can hear some awesome sound effects of rockets being fired, tires screeching or shield activation.

Multiplayer If the AI was capable of causing frustration through its unfair ways of winning races, wait till you try the multiplayer mode with three of your friends. Select a 1-on-1 race, try the single races or maybe you want to enter a championship.

In the multiplayer mode, there are no puzzles and a lot less platform jumping. Collecting pickups now has a purpose: blasting the other players to outer space. Aside from the standard races, you can host a deathmatch or a tag game. It's the good old "Tag, you're it" game we've been playing since childhood, with buggies and rockets. Bonus games are available in this mode too, but they're more fun in the single-player mode and you'd better stick to racing levels if you're looking for quick fun.

Conclusion This is one of the best PSP titles I have played so far and it comes as a surprise, because the producers seemed to have lost their touch in the innovations field. A new genre hit the consoles' universe and its features will leave many players frustrated, but if you're an open-minded gamer, you'll have the fun of your life. There hasn't been a title that combined vehicles, rockets and crazy tracks since the times of S.C.A.R.S or Rollcage. Although GripShift is an entertaining game designed for short and often plays, its high replay value will soon make it one of your favorite PSP racing games.

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story 0
gameplay 8
concept 9
graphics 8
audio 7
multiplayer 8
final rating 8
Editor's review
very good
 
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