GamesRelay

Name: Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars

Isn't it a shame that most game titles don't truly describe the nature of the game you are buying?

If this was the case, I would have saved myself a fortune in avoiding some simply awful, but well marketed games. Taking this example, I would not have purchased 'Halo 3'... I would have walked straight past 'Been done better, earlier and made only for annoying, whiney fan boys 3'...

But I digress...

Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars or SARPBC for short, is something of an odd one. On paper, it reads like Psyonix had either hit the pipe far too hard or were down to the last few doodles on the drawing board.

Picture the scene - A world where the landscape is green and lush, filled with cute castles and bursting with colour, whilst at the same time, intergalactic travel has been mastered and residents can hop up to one of many space stations in the blink of an eye. A place where everything has been achieved, and there is nothing left to do... no goal left to pursue... No goal except that is, to create indestructible automobiles with jet engines, slap them in a futuristic arena and play football until the end of time. Welcome to the world of Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket Powered Battle Cars! So the idea is a little out there. If it was submitted to EA it would have been skim read, balled up and fired towards the bin marked “don't call us... we'll call you”.

SARPBC is a break away from the typical games we see in the shops or on PSN, and it doesn't quite fit into any genre in your collection. This does not stop the game from being ten kinds of awesome. Whilst I had reservations about the elongated name and the hybrid game play concept, as well as not liking football in the slightest, I was blown away by it in seconds.

SARPBC is powered by the Unreal engine, which has given it a clean and shiny feel. It is well animated and the style will cause the seasoned gamer to imagine that the original PlayStation's Micro Machines has been kicked forward 10 years into the 21st Century. No bad thing in my book!

The concept is simple. Form a team of 1-4 players, and use your jumping, bouncing, rocket powered car to score goals in an allotted time. You will find nitro collectibles scattered across the playing area to boost your speed and allow for some quite outrageous moves.

The single player game is average - I can't say more than that. The trial and tournament are nothing more than elongated training missions, good for mastering skills like flying and unlocking new cars If these were the only components of the game, this review would have taken a completely different direction.

Thankfully, it is not. It is in the multiplayer that this game really comes alive. The physics of the game are not easy to master and whilst this might be a negative in some titles, it is not in SARPBC. In fact, it adds a fantastic level of unpredictability (and therefore tension) to the gameplay. The game is intentionally frustrating at times, because your opponent can 'tackle' you by ramming into your car, instantly pinging you across the arena, and in many cases can destroy it for a short time. That's the other added advantage of boost in this game - if you hold the circle button down for a few seconds, you will go "Supersonic" and at this point you will be traveling at such a rate to drive straight through an opponent, albeit at a cost of half your boost gauge. Approximately 4 seconds later you will realise why the voice chat is so important – you will hear a satisfyingly painful groan from your opponent; a reaction that will never get old. Ever. Any frustration you experience from a momentary loss of coordination is short-lived however, because when the magic works (and after a couple of games, it will…) you will execute a text book move that will result in much gloating, you will pull your shirt over your head and knee slide across the living room floor in celebration of your natural God-given talent. This will leave your opponent stunned for a second only to respond by hammering the X button, in a vain attempt to skip the action-replay. But, when you score – you won't skip. In fact you will use the in-game feature of saving the match to your PS3 hard drive and then, if you are feeling extra charitable, you can upload that video to YouTube, so your opponents' failure can be immortalized on the interweb for all to see. Nice. But this is not the kind of game that will cause the other side to give up and quit out, if the winning team is too far ahead. The design is such that if you are 3 nil down with 1 minute on the clock, you still have every chance to equalize and go to sudden death! It is that fast paced.

The concept is simple and yet it is sometimes the simplest of ideas that can be the most appealing. Despite some minor lag issues and the odd matchmaking delay, the game is well executed and offers a strong replay appeal. There are many games that have had massive Hollywood size budgets thrown at them and are technically amazing, but in that production mix, the designers all too often forget the first and most important component in game design – FUN.

Whilst a more involving single player experience and few more maps could have been included at the launch of SARPBC, it does not reduce the appeal of this little game. Flushing the toilet is more inspiring than playing UT3's single player campaign, but the online multiplayer experience is where you get the bang for your buck. The same thing can be said about this little gem.

If there is one thing that can be said about SARPBC... it is the only game in recent history that has caused yours truly to smile – and I mean REALLY smile – from start to finish, every time I play it.

It brings fun to a marketplace that is overloaded with style over substance and in today's saturated market; this is by no means an easy feat...