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The street racer finally hits stores. Juiced was scheduled for release some time ago by Acclaim. When that publisher went bankrupt a bidding war began – ultimately ending with THQ securing the rights to the game. The publisher gave Juice Games some additional time to develop Juiced. The end result is a good but not outstanding street racing game. Unfortunately for Juiced, the genre already has heavyweights.
The game’s main mode is the career mode. Juiced doesn’t skimp out on features, so you’ll be able to buy cars, bet on races, and earn respect. You’ll begin with a decent car as you progress to build an enviable collection. To do this, you’ll need to earn some cash. This is harder than it sounds though since most of the beginning events are free events. You can also bet to gain some money and it is needed to get somewhere without racing too much. Damaging your car costs money, meaning that free races don’t tend to be free at all.
Most of the racing in Juiced is standard stuff. You’ll encounter the typical point-to-point, spring, and circuit races. You’ll also find some team race events in which members of your crew can raise along you. There are races where the winner is the team that first gets all its members to finish. For some events, you can have a CPU-controller racer take the race instead of you. This raises the racer’s skills, which in turn will come in handy for the full team races. Aside from racing, there is also a style competition of sorts. You’ll gain points by doing cool tricks like 360s or just getting some speed. The more modified your car is the better the scores will be. The customization is certainly there but is lacking compared to recent entries in the genre. After Midnight Club 3, it’s going to take a serious customization feature to get gamers to notice it.
If you want a quick race, the game features an arcade mode and a multiplayer mode. The multiplayer can be played in split-screen or online (for up to six players). Online you can play in either custom or career races. In the latter, you can use the cars and teammates from your own career mode. The gameplay was smooth in our online tests.
The actual racing is competent but nothing else. Juiced falls in the arcade racing category though it doesn’t fit in quite as well as its peers. The controls are fine, though you need to be careful when turning since it will end with the car going out of control. Likewise, crashing (or even bumping) into other cars is strictly discouraged since you’ll end up paying for damages. The sense of speed, while decent, is nothing spectacular.
The game’s visuals are a bit better than average. The car models are undoubtedly the best part but even they don’t have the attention to detail found in some of Juiced’s competitors. The tracks don’t do quite as well since they’re all fairly repetitive and don’t do much to entice you to race. Technically, the game does well with a sustainable framerate throughout its duration.
The audio holds up about as well as the visuals. The soundtrack is the best part with artists like Xzibit and Dub Pistols found in the lineup of other unknowns. All of the music, however, is pretty good and certainly fitting to the game. The sound effects don’t do quite as well since they lack authenticity and instead appear generic. There is some voice acting in the game of decent quality.
Juiced isn’t a bad game by any means. The action is competent if underwhelming but some of the career mode choices were right on. Indeed, Juiced is hurt more by its release date than anything else. Last year, the game might have been a commendable effort. Unfortunately, since then, games like Midnight Club 3, Need for Speed Underground 2 and Burnout 3 have been released. Juiced just doesn’t compare. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Jul 6, 2005
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