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Auto Modellista Review

Cel-shaded racing comes to a screeching halt on Xbox.
By Tyrone Rodriguez

Let us preface this by saying that most of us here at IGN love Capcom games, but you should already know this. If you don't believe us, take a look at our glowing Viewtiful Joe review. Most of the stuff from the Mega Man camp is usually blessed with a magical touch.

We remember being all amped when we heard Capcom was in the process of developing a cel-shaded racing game that had a lot of Initial D influence. That was a few years back.

We weren't so excited when we finally got behind the wheel of said game on the Japanese PlayStation 2. Actually, we were very disappointed. Yeah, the game looked good enough, but its play mechanics in no way matched its visuals.

It didn't end there, though -- Capcom promised the control would be revised for the American release. The anguish continued when we got our grubby little hands on the American PS2 version and the control was actually worse than it was before. The fact that Capcom added a few cars didn't make much of a difference. Its online component was barely enough to make it a total dog.
 Auto Modellista for Xbox, like the GameCube and PS2 versions before it, feels as if it doesn't actually have four-point physics, but single-point physics. That is, cars in AM don't feel as if they're reacting to the contact patch from four wheels, but a single contact patch possibly under the car.

In the end it makes the vehicles feel as if they're just under the mercy of bad physics. Also, the physics don't seem to have any sort of variance from the Z-axis, it's strictly a two-dimensional physics model. Your car will never bounce, catch air or show any significant weight transfer -- even when you drive over some rumble strips.

Good control can make a huge difference when you have bad physics. But do we really have to tell you that Capcom didn't get this part of the game right? The revised control actually feels even worse than it did in the original Japanese version. Every car, no matter which one, feels like it wants to slide at all times. There is no sense of traction or true grip racing in this slide-fest.

It's really frustrating to try to tackle a corner and see a vehicle's ass-end come out even when you're doing everything right. And let's say that you really do want to try some drift-style driving; well, that isn't done right, either. Try to drift in a turn and you'll wind up spinning nine times out of ten. And on the rare occasion that you do a perfect counter-steer and slide right you'll lose all power to the wheels and come to an almost complete halt.

Who thought up this stuff? We haven't cursed so much in years -- it's just that tedious and makes even the uber-simplistic Smashing Drive feel ten times more satisfying.
