MotorToon GP (by SCE)

1 Player
Category: Racing
Memory Card (1-15 blocks)
Link Cable(2 consoles)
Kids to Adults
Negcon analog compatible

Well, looks like SCE has another winner in their hands -- is called
MotorToonGP, a wild and zany ride in a topsy-turvy grand prix! (As the
back of the jewel case states it’s the WACKIEST RACE EVER!) Does I, the
gamer, believe this Post-script advertising, definitely.

Sony did a marvelous job taking the theme of Road Rash(EA) and
incorporating new features in technique to add to game play. When ESPN
Extreme Games debuted for the PSX it was a resounding success, 
mainly because SCE took the theme and gameplay pioneered by EA and
beefed up the gameplay in every category. To me, ESPN Extreme Games was
SCE’s best shinning moment when the PSX debuted in the USA in 95. The
game just screams with classic gameplay and offers beautiful scenarios
that still today can rival 2nd generation software titles.

About a year later, MotortoonGP is release and offers a lot under the
hood. The game resembles quite a lot like Wipeout. (More on this
later.) And again, SCE seems to have a cunning eye for repackaging an 
existing work pioneered by another license company and creating their
own game engine. Does Sony win the COPYCAT Award for best ‘Game mimic
act?" Yes! Is this BAD? No! Although the game carries a few ideas and
techniques from an existing game, in no way does this hinder or is less
generic than the original formula. ESPN Extreme Games is proof of that,
and again MotorToonGP reassures us SCE is no mediocre game company. But
before we unveil the heart of MotorToonGP, let us first delve into the
game menu’s and options.

Since MotorToonGP is one of the most attractive games I come to known
(of course to the exception of WipeoutXL) the main menu by all means is
excellent. In fact, the menu is very stylish, almost psychedelic 
with decorative symbols of the game’s power ups rotating on the screen.
A neat and great idea you’ll find in the Main menu is having the option
to change the ‘wall paper’ to fit your taste, and there’s a ton of 
patterns to choose. Very cute!

But let us continue, the Main menu choices include:

CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: In this mode you’ll race on individual courses
provided with other Toon racers competing for first place. You will
start in last at every race. Move on to the next course by finishing in
the top 6 of each race. Here you’ll earn points for every race you win,
depending of course on what place you came in. (1st place will win you
10 points. 2nd 6 points, 3rd 4 points, 4rth 3 points, 5th 2 points, and
6th 1 point) The character with the most total points after all 5 races
becomes the world champion. Points are only awarded to the top 6
finisher's only. 7th place and below will disqualified you and the game
will not allow you to advance to the next course. However, even if you
disqualified you can retry the race for as long as you have any life
points left.

SINGLE RACE: Select one course to race. As a general rule, you can only
select a course that you have raced on in the Championship Race -- the
more races you open up in Championship Mode, the more courses become
available in single race. Single Race mode default setting will allow
you to race the first course only. This applies to Time Attack, and
Free Run. Bear this in mind! Under Single Race, Time Attack, and Free
Run, you will have additional choices as, Change Machine(the first five
are available, additional racers open up when beating certain tracks),
Change track, Records, Instant Replay Video, Save Video and Load Ghost
from Video.

TIME ATTACK: You will race three laps competing solely for time.

FREE RUN: This is a practice mode.

TWO PLAYER BATTLE: Hook up two playstations using a link cable for
head-to-head game play. In this Mode, you can Boost 2nd car for more
speed, allowing the less experience player a better chance and compete
against you. Laps: Set the number to 2-20. Items: Set this to off/on.
In normal Game style the first to cross the finish line wins. In
Scratch Mode, the first crossing the finish line earns points. (1
point). The player who accumulates 3 points first wins the match. When
the score is at 2-2, the word "Deuce" will be display just as in
tennis. When one of the players receives 1 point after the next lap
(the word "advantage" will display) and the score becomes 3-2, the game
will not end until one of the player leads by at least two points. 

REPLAY THEATER: The system reads and replays data that you have saved,
races, etc. You’ll find Copy Video, Edit Video Label, Delete Video,
creates Video Folder, Resize Video Folder, and Delete Video Folder.

OPTIONS: These include Controller settings (when using the Negcon, you
can control the amount of sensitivity, and calibration), Save Records &
Settings, Load Records & Settings, Difficulty (easy, normal, hard,
professional, and expert), Cartoon Animation (This limits or stops
exaggerated animation moves to the Toon vehicles when driving), Auto
Saving, Background Music/Sound Effects Balance(BGM/SE), Music (stops
music entirely throughout the game), Wallpaper (Changes the pattern of
the wallpaper used in the menu background.), Restore Default Settings.
But there’s more, entering this "CODE" will let you access hidden
options: Highlight the options from the main Menu. Now press and hold
L1+L2+R1+R2. With these held, press X. Now more options become
available such as Ghost Car, View Angle, Missile View, Position Marker,
Panel Layout, Track Map, Headup Speed Meter and much more. Excellent!

Now lets get to the meat and bones of MotorToonGP and open the hood.
When booting the game, you’ll be treated to a great Intro, along with
Motortoons’ music and characters. The lyrics of the song are in 
Japanese, but the tune is so catchy you’ll want to hear the Intro every
time you boot the game -- "Go, Go, motortoon! Go, Go, motortoon!". I
love it! As the Intro plays you’ll see the Toon characters being 
introduced one by one -- here you’ll watch Captain Rock, Princes Jean,
Bolbox, Raptor, Penguin Bros., etc. Excellent Intro!

I mentioned earlier MotorToonGP plays very much like WipeoutXl, and at
that it does in almost every category. How so? First, the speed up
symbols on the tracks are reminiscent to the exact technique used in 
WipeoutXL, which allows your vehicle an extra speed boost when racing
over it. Second, several of the tracks will offer a couple jumps.
Third, symbol grids on tracks to use as weapons operate in the same 
manner as WipeoutXL. This time in Motortoon, the grids are dollars
signs. When you drive over them you have the ability to use your
weapons and power-ups. Sounds familiar? Yes, this has all been done 
before. The only factor resembling any difference against WipeoutXL is
the heart of Motortoon -- the rotating power-up wheel! When you earn
coins while racing over the yellow $ signs, you have the ability 
to spin the wheel when pressing the O button. The power-up wheel
features: bomb, fire ball, jump, missile, crazy mushroom, dynamites, 32
ton weight, stealth field, turbo, big-bigger-biggest, tiny tiny tiny, 
oil can, Pandora's box, wonder clock, power up, and super shield. For
example, when you use the wonder clock, your contenders will all stop
briefly for about two seconds. The jump power-up will allow you to 
take short cuts by jumping over the overpath. The big-bigger-biggest is
a self-inflicted wound when use and your vehicle will enlarge and lose
speed. The same will result when you use the tiny tiny tiny power-
up. As you can see, these items will cause a different toll on other
racers, just like WipeoutXl. However, what’s unique about MotorToon GP
is that when racing and using the power-up wheel, you don’t know
what you’re going to get. When activating it, the roulette, spinning
wheel will determine what powerup or weapon you will use for that
particular moment, and purposely, you cannot discard the powerup,
unless you want to go all the way through the race without using
another power-up. Now, this is what makes the game interesting. Some
power-ups are mean to inflict a wound on you. For example, the
big-bigger-biggest, or the tiny tiny tiny power-up will manifest a loss
of speed and if used at the wrong moment, you could lose a position in
the track. The end result of this feature allows you to constantly
press the O button to spin the wheel, and hoping you get a power-up
that you can use to your advantage, so long you keep raking up coins
when driving over the $ signs. A great added addition to MotortoonGp is
the many wacky vehicles you can use. There’s a total of eight and each
has its attributes for racing the tracks. I found Captain Rock and
Princess Jean, the first two selections, the easiest vehicles to manage
against tight corners and drifting. I found Princess Jean the most
favorite of the characters to handle. Her float machine is specially
built for cornering, thus it’s the best candidate to win most of your
races on the easy, normal, hard, and professional difficulty settings.
On the ‘expert’ setting she struggles and often comes in second, so try
another faster vehicle, like Billy the Tough.

The drifting here in this game varies from each vehicle. But it
requires little skill depending on what character toon you decide to
race. The drifting is often short and requires little skill, unlike the
drifts in Tokyo Highway Battle where some of the drifts needed to be
precise. For example, Billy the Tough requires long drifts to
compensate for his weak breaking system, so often you have to
decelerate and start drifting before you enter a sharp curb. While
Princess Jean requires little drift since her vehicle is built for 
cornering. Other way, most vehicles are manageable. Some are meant for
advance players who want speed and are willing to learn the difficulty
handling of Raptor, Penguin Bros., vanity, and Ching Tong Shang. 
Captain Rock, Princess Jean, Bolbox, and Billy the Tough offer
excellent handling for beginners. Although the learning curve varies,
the game is quite easy to pick up and play. If you played WipeoutXL 
you’ll feel right at home playing MotorToonGP.

Another WipeoutXL gimmick used in Motortoon is when your vehicle alerts
you of incoming danger. When the contender in front of you is about to
lay bombs on the track, the computer announces "Bombs!" or "Fireball!"
when a driver is hot on your tail -- each time letting you know this
ain’t a sidewalk stroll. But this is not all. The same amplification by
finishing first place in a certain Class in WipeoutXL, is also 
implemented in MotorToon GP as forms of goodies. To acquire the goodies
you must enter the Championship Mode and ultimately setting ‘First
Place’ by racking up the highest total points. If you do manage to
succeed, and you will, the game will award you ‘First Place’ and
congratulate you on a great race for racing all five tracks. At that,
if you happen to beat the game in the EASY setting, three additional
(hidden) characters will become available in all tracks. If you beat
the game in the NORMAL setting, five additional tracks will now be
open. These are the same tracks as the first but only this time 
you’ll race them reversed. The scenery have been tweaked and graphical
add-ons offers a new refreshing look.

If you beat the game in the Hard setting, a 3D tank game opens up.
Excellent! More Bang for the buck! The tank game offers several levels,
about 5. These are repeated as you progress into the game and more 
obstacles are lay out in the game as you repeat the levels. The deeper
you go, the more obstacles clutter the levels. You play the toon
characters as tanks, and can pick your fav. They basically all play the
same, except for Raptor whose really fast. You fight against one toon
at a time, and have to defeat him about 5 times before you proceed to
the next level. You have about four different shots. These include:
bank shots that bounce, normal straight shots, over obstacle shots, and
cruise missiles that you can guide to your target. Also, the tank game
is linkable to really add to the fun. Great 3D graphics.

If you beat the game in the PROFESSIONAL setting, an electronic 3D
Battleship game is revealed. Play against the computer, or a friend by
choosing the LINK mode. This is the classic Battleship game where 
you place four of your ships(Carrier, Dreadnought, cruise, and Sub) on
the checker board and try to figure out where your opponent has
positioned his. When you choose a block in the checker board, a plane
fly’s over the target and drops a bomb, you’ll receive a MSG by audio
‘miss’ or ‘nearly’, or ‘hit’ You have three chances per turn. Excellent
3D graphics.

NOTE: When you choose PROFESSIONAL and EXPERT mode in the difficult
setting the game weapons are deactivated. You’ll race without powerups
or weapons; this is strictly racing without combat.

If you beat the game in the EXPERT setting mode, another Goodie is
revealed for your gaming pleasure -- an F1/nascar racing game, also
linkable. If you have been counting, that’s a total of 4 games, all
linkable and fun to play. That’s 4 linkable games in one CD! That’s
call packing a punch. Definitely, this is one rare find.

Graphics!

How does it look? Well, Poly’s -- the developer of this software -- has
pretty much gone the same way as JumpingFlash2. The graphics look
identical, with 30fps and bright flashy colours. If you have not seen
the gorgeous graphics of JumpingFlash2, the graphics are very clean,
lush textures of the best 32-bit can offer. Obviously, this is 2nd
generation work, setting new visual standards that offers crisp, highly
detailed polygons that don’t show a tinge of graininess. The game is
filled with a breathtaking 3D terrain, and among the details, real 3D
obstacles are near postcard-perfect graphics that are littered near the
side of the road to show impressive light-hearted scenes. You’ll even
see planes fly overhead without resembling any simplistic visual. But
more impressive is the non-existent graphic breakup. There’s none! No
funny jagged lines across the screen like DD2, you won’t see that here.
Overall, the animation is plain eye-candy and wacky. What grabs your
attention from the get-go is the characters animation. They come alive
when the vehicle is moving. For example, when you turn left, the
animation of the vehicle will bend to the turn as though you were
watching a Saturday morning cartoon. The vehicles will often get up on
their hind wheels and wiggle from side to side, humorous landings, etc.
NOTE: pressing on the L1 button will let you see the front of your
vehicle, and the rest of the track in reverse! Very very cute! Also,
the tracks are very imaginative! There’s one track named ‘Crazy
Coaster’ and is an enormous circuit that soars into the sky. On the
side you will see giant mills winding to give the track that
free-floating effect in the sky. Some of the road is transparent, and
only the rails are visible, very cool. The track ‘Gulliver House II’
has tons of giant decorations plaguing the track, almost looking down
at you as you race pass them, and racing over the keyboard piano is
just a hint of what you’ll see. The tracks are very inventive looking, 
imaginative and share a venturous effect.

Music/Fx

First off, the music is catchy, but the default setting is too low,
you’ll hear the Fx overpowering the music if you don’t set the settings
correctly. I had to change it to 9:1 in the options screen. At this
setting you’ll really hear the music volume really kick along with the
Fx.

Again, if you found yourself familiar with the intelligent wacky tunes
from JumpingFlash2, you’ll love MotorToon’s Music/Fx. The Music style
goes pretty much to the roots of Arcade Video games music. The 
production here is all first rate, with catchy tunes deliberately set
for a young audience, or for that matter, give you that feeling you’re
strolling through a recreational park place. As you would expect,
there’s some great flute tunes to compliment the realistic programming
to fit with the gameplay. I also found an aggressive drum track that
really kicks. The sizzling cymbals and analog synthesizers stack some
upbeat bass lines, with tabs of organic-like accordions, sax,
clarinets, etc. The Fx coincide with the natural music. There’s a cute
‘boing’ spring effect when the toons collide. Also, the toons have
their distinctive horn effect that they use when you pass them. Clean
audio lines of the characters congratulating you for winning the
championship race abound in the game.

Bottom line: An excellent package for the whole family. This rare find
has bang for the buck with Four separate games in one CD-ROM, all
linkable. Furthermore, this game is for everyone. With 5 difficult 
settings, this game AIMS for the young, average and season player. 96%

Grade A Title! A classic Playstation title for your personal library!
Best Feature: All four games can be LINK. Worst Feature: Sometimes you
can see beyond the wall when up close.(nit-picking)
Graphics:      10
Gameplay       9 
ReplayValue    10(great link up game, and great challenge.)
Music/Fx       10
FunFactor      9

Reviewed by Leogamer.