Crescent Suzuki Racing – Review

Motorbike racing games have been around since the days of the spectrum, but only every now again comes a gem of a game where even non motorbike enthusiasts and fans alike bow down to their greatness, is Crescent Suzuki Racing one such game? In a word, no and we’ll now examine why…

Kuju and Midas have done a grand job of bringing the gamer something a little different, as mentioned, motor cycle racing has been around for eons in gaming terms but has it ever been done with sidecars? Well that is something Crescent Suzuki has going for it, it has tried a new approach to an old genre. Not only can you play dozens of the meanest superbikes you can also race the circuits sidecar style. There’s no doubt there are a lot of features packed into this title, particularly given it is a budget release. Features include 16 race circuits, hidden tracks, bikes and upgrades, over 25 superbikes and super sidecars and two player mode and all of this is wrapped up in some big name sponsors and affiliates, sadly though the game fails in so many areas none of this means diddly.

Graphically speaking Crescent Suzuki Racing is actually hard to come to any middle ground on, some of the tracks are actually pretty nice, the bikes themselves are ‘ok’ but there’s nothing new here, in fact it all just feels a little old.

Audio also lets this game slip further into the quagmire of below par games, the sound of the bikes alone is enough to set your teeth on edge and the rest of the in game sounds just sound like a bit of a pre-recorded repetitive shambles.

Gameplay is sadly also lacking, the AI of the other racers is ridiculous and to even use the term Intelligence is in all honesty a bit of nonsense. Controlling your bike regardless of bike type also suffers from all manner of problems, particularly I found whilst playing sidecar and the really sad part about this is I enjoyed the sidecar races more. The bikes don’t travel so much as glide, this doesn’t have the feel of say an A-Grade title such as Moto GP, the bike and character animation also suffers from that unfinished look and feel.

The female gamer angle is the usual problem, there are no women racers so of course in a make believe world of gaming there are none either, but as you have little personalization overall (you can’t even rename your character) I guess there’s no reason to complain, anyway they’re wearing helmets, perhaps there are girls lurking.

Overall I found the experience a sad and sorry one, there’s so many little irky things wrong with the title that it just sucked the fun right out of it, yes the tracks are nice, yes it’s something new to the genre (as far as I’m aware), it’s also cheap and God bless Midas for once again aiming to please gamers everywhere by releasing cheaper games, but if the quality is this bad I guess the price is a mute point. If you’re a big fan of side car racing then you’ll be happy enough I suppose, me, I’d rather forgo the sidecar and purchase a cheap copy of Moto GP.

Review by Angela

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