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NASCAR HEAT (GBC)
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Publisher: Hasbro Interactive.
Developer: Game Titan. Released: September 2000 (US). Genre: Racing. Other versions: PS; PC. Posted 2nd September 2022. By Tom Clare © 2022 |
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Hasbro’s second attempt to wring a Game Boy Color game from the NASCAR license proved slightly less disastrous than the first. Only slightly though and this should be taken along with the caveat that NASCAR Challenge didn’t set the bar very high at all. It provided three tracks and all of a twenty minutes distraction, in what felt less like a turn-of-the-millennium racer and more a mid-late eighties NES tech demo. By comparison, NASCAR Heat felt like a poor man’s top-down racer which, had it released during the early nineties, we would have been comparing unfavourably to Micro Machines and Super Cars. So, er, some progress there!
It takes a few tentative steps in the right direction. This time, the player can race as real NASCAR drivers: the likes of Rusty Wallace, 2000 series champion Bobby Labonte and Jeff Gordon are all selectable. They feature in a pretty sequence of vehicle selection screens, though these rather serve to highlight how featureless and crude their in-game equivalents are and how little they resemble the motors they’re based on. The prospect of driving as Dale Earnhardt is somewhat less compelling when you consider his iconic black motor looks more like a floating lunch box.
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Imagine Micro Machines but without the speed, finesse of control, fun-factor and design creativity and you have NASCAR Heat
With Championship, Quick Race and Beat the Heat avenues to explore, Heat appears far better stocked than Challenge. At least, that’s how things seem initially. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find a promising but ultimately rather half-hearted suite of modes. Championship is especially disappointing, because of Heat’s 10 race tracks, nine are near-identical, anti-clockwise ovals and speedway variants. The playing space is small and with nearly all of the tracks recycling road, pit lane and run-off area graphics, repetition bites almost immediately.
Accuracy and realism were never going to be high on the agenda in a Game Boy Color title and Game Titan might have been wiser to focus on gameplay, simple fun and enjoyment. They might have used fictitious layouts or prioritised the inclusion of saloon-car-friendly street circuits. Unfortunately, Heat misses the mark in this regard, something that’s highlighted by its grossly simplified version of Watkins Glen. It’s a really poor interpretation of what should have been, by a distance, the most technical course to drive. Bizarrely, Heat provides no results screens and no championship updates to speak of. When the chequered flag falls to wrap up the final race of the season, not only is there no indication of who is champion, there isn’t even a basic acknowledgement that the season has finished: you’re just dumped back to the menu.
Accuracy and realism were never going to be high on the agenda in a Game Boy Color title and Game Titan might have been wiser to focus on gameplay, simple fun and enjoyment. They might have used fictitious layouts or prioritised the inclusion of saloon-car-friendly street circuits. Unfortunately, Heat misses the mark in this regard, something that’s highlighted by its grossly simplified version of Watkins Glen. It’s a really poor interpretation of what should have been, by a distance, the most technical course to drive. Bizarrely, Heat provides no results screens and no championship updates to speak of. When the chequered flag falls to wrap up the final race of the season, not only is there no indication of who is champion, there isn’t even a basic acknowledgement that the season has finished: you’re just dumped back to the menu.
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Then there’s Beat the Heat mode. Here the player is tasked with completing a range of challenges under different conditions. Win a lengthy, nine-lap race. Win without touching another competitor (this was frustrating as it’s very easy to run up the back of an opponent and they won’t think twice about cutting across the player’s line). Beat a particular lap time. It’s a nice idea but only goes to show how little variety and depth the game has to offer. It’s beatable in a little over half an hour and, much like Championship mode, sends you straight back to the menu upon completion.
Racing a sequence of near-identical ovals would have been bearable had the racing been fun. Sadly, whilst the basic running is acceptable, the game lacks any sense of speed or excitement. Opponents pose more of a hazard as roadblocks than as competitors. The handling is a little patchy and collisions are cumbersome and naff: glancing a wall either stops the player dead in their tracks or sends them shooting very quickly backwards. The trouble is, when you’re heading into Micro Machines territory without any of the speed, personality, or circuit variety, it was always going to face an uphill struggle.
Racing a sequence of near-identical ovals would have been bearable had the racing been fun. Sadly, whilst the basic running is acceptable, the game lacks any sense of speed or excitement. Opponents pose more of a hazard as roadblocks than as competitors. The handling is a little patchy and collisions are cumbersome and naff: glancing a wall either stops the player dead in their tracks or sends them shooting very quickly backwards. The trouble is, when you’re heading into Micro Machines territory without any of the speed, personality, or circuit variety, it was always going to face an uphill struggle.
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Expectation / Reality
One or two nice touches spare the game’s blushes to a degree. The pit stops, which involve the player having to coordinate the jacks, fuel and tyre changes, are fairly simple but require some skillfulness in the middle of a race to avoid dropping down the order. These sections allow Heat to show off some excellent and considerably more detailed car models, as well as a crew swarming your car to get the work done. It’s a nice addition, though the racing is sadly too simple for it to influence the outcome in any meaningful way.
NASCAR Heat could have made for an interesting top-down racer, but it ultimately comes up well short. Routine, unexciting races are further exposed by featureless tracks and a paper-thin trio of game modes. Heat fails to capture what the racing series is best known for: fast, close racing. A little endeavour could have seen a reasonable gameplay foundation turned into something a little more arcade-centric, but as it is, this bare racer will serve to remind a generation of gamers that top-down racers had been developed to a far higher standard a decade earlier.
NASCAR Heat could have made for an interesting top-down racer, but it ultimately comes up well short. Routine, unexciting races are further exposed by featureless tracks and a paper-thin trio of game modes. Heat fails to capture what the racing series is best known for: fast, close racing. A little endeavour could have seen a reasonable gameplay foundation turned into something a little more arcade-centric, but as it is, this bare racer will serve to remind a generation of gamers that top-down racers had been developed to a far higher standard a decade earlier.
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VERDICT
"Another NASCAR racer from Hasbro that misses the mark. This bare effort serves as a reminder that top-down racers had been developed to a far higher standard a decade earlier." OVERALL: 3/10 |