Best to Leave the British Classics in the Past…
Like so many titles for the Wii, Classic British Motor Racing has great potential. The thought of racing classic European cars just like those you see in Hollywood movies is definitely appealing. But again, like so many titles for the Wii, this title just doesn’t follow through. Classic British Motor Racing suffers from poor control, meager visuals, and just doesn’t deliver the type of high-octane thrills that would be appropriate for the exciting and unique world of British racing.
One of the biggest outright flaws that are immediately visible in Classic British Motor Racing is the absolute lack of any variance in gameplay. There are only three modes in the game, and they are all basically the same. There’s a single race mode, time trial, and challenge mode. Single race is essentially free play mode, and allows you to select any car and track you’ve unlocked, and then race against either five A.I. opponents or one human with four other A.I. opponents. Time Trial mode is exactly what you would expect, and lets you master different time records using the various cars and tracks available to you. The final mode, Championship mode, is the closest thing this game has to a linear experience, and it has different tournaments to compete in. Each tournament consists of several tracks, and success will result in unlocking the majority of your unlockable cars and tracks. The only saving grace results when you unlock new modes through going through these different modes. But unfortunately, these modes also tread on familiar territory and offer nothing truly exciting.
In addition to unlocking different modes of play, you’ll also be able to unlock different tracks and cars. There’s about twenty different tracks and about the same number of cars to unlock as well. Most of the cars that you will unlock will be of the golden era of British racing, and feature classics like the Triumph Spitfire and the Austin Mini Cooper. Each car that you unlock will come with three pre-loaded paint jobs that you can switch out to suit your stylistic preference. And while the selection of cars is somewhat dynamic, the real tragedy here is that every car essentially handles the same. Generally in modern automotive games, you strive to earn the best car so that you can tackle harder courses. Not so in Classic British Motor Racing. Unlocking different cars in this series only serves to satisfy car aficionados who appreciate the ability to use the coolest classic British cars in a game setting. And this is not a bad thing for that select crowd. But it is a bad thing for those who crave a deeper racing experience.
The unlocked tracks are also an aesthetic gain more than anything. Although you’ll unlock different locales from areas all over Great Britain, from Scotland to Wales, all of these areas look remarkably the same. A green/ grey color palate, a few rocks, and a few clouds, and you have a one-size-fits-all track that only requires the smallest modification to transform into a different track. Of course, they’re all not completely the same, and you might see some distinguishing landmarks across the tracks, but on the whole, the similarity between the different tracks outweighs the differences
The sound in this game is definitely what I would call uninspired. There’s some generic sounding music in the background that sort of resembles a Beach Boys sound, and there’s some looping motor noises that accompany the music. The resulting dynamic between these two lackluster audio elements is something that you don’t really want to experience. Overall, the sound scheme does nothing for this game, and this title is best played with the sound turned down.
Visually, this game is disappointing as well. The track environments are very basic with a featureless landscape with minimal details on the track itself. The color palate in this game is also very basic and hinders the overall look of the game by making the whole thing just a little too homogeneous.
Vehicles don’t look bad, but they don’t exactly impress either. One very interesting thing that I noticed about the visuals in this game was how the fonts on menu screens were pixilated. I don’t think I’ve seen pixilated text in a game since the Nintendo 64, so it was a little shocking to see in this title.
Classic British Motor Racing is a title that most people should avoid. It does not provide a satisfying racing experience, and it does not provide any real satisfying gameplay elements. The gameplay may work to an “alright” degree, but there’s nothing that really stands out about this title’s core gameplay, and the bad quality of the visuals and the sound to make this a title to steer clear of. So even though Classic British Motor Racing looks like a cool title, and it is available at a budget price, this one is best left on the shelf.
RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 2.2 Graphics
Below average for the Wii. Cars and environments are formless, and text is pixilated. 3.0 Control
Steering wheel mechanics work on a base level but suffer from imprecision and make any type of serious handling impossible. 2.2 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Generic tunes accompany each level, and car noises are repetitive. 2.0
Play Value
Tracks are way too similar and cars all handle essentially the same. Only about an hour or two of gameplay is required to unlock everything.
2.5 Overall Rating – Average
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.
Game Features: