Lotus Challenge may sound familiar to a handful of Xbox owners. The reason for this is because the game originally appeared on North American retail shelves for the Xbox courtesy of Xicat Interactive. The game was scheduled for a GameCube port a few months after the original Xbox release, but somewhere down the line production halted and its release never came to be. Luckily for Lotus enthusiasts only in possession of a GameCube, Ignition Entertainment picked up the publishing duties for the game and decided to bring it to the GameCube, slightly improved over its Xbox predecessor.
Frustration
Lotus Challenge is not a difficult game. After getting an understanding of the game’s controls and track designs, players can easily finish each race in the game in first place, no matter what difficulty your opponents are set to. However, the problem is getting up to this point.
The game’s controls feel very unresponsive at times. When turning it feels as if an opposing force is preventing you from turning with the force desired. So, if you plan on making a hard turn, you’re going to have to slow down a great deal in order to execute it properly. Because of this, it’ll take a great deal of time in order to become adjusted to the game’s mechanics. However, since Lotus Challenge is a racing simulation, this can be somewhat forgiven.
Other aspects of control are handled nicely. For instance, if you oversteer on a powerslide, you should surely expect to spin out of control. And for those wanting to experience something different, Lotus Challenge introduces a new way to steer, which involves performing circular motions with the controller’s analog stick. While this new steering method definitely is an interesting idea, it’s difficult to become accustomed to and ends up just becoming a hassle altogether. The standard (and default) setup that we’re used to is much more user friendly and efficient.
As mentioned earlier, once adjusted to the game’s controls, Lotus Challenge doesn’t offer much of a challenge (no pun intended), especially to seasoned players. However, within the game’s Challenge Mode, aside from actual races, there exist a handful of mini-games and challenges that will really get the blood boiling. One of which is Lotus Soccer. In this mini-game players will have to take penalty shots by accelerating towards a massive soccer ball, getting in contact with it and sending it towards the goal with hopes of scoring on the keeper, which in fact is another Lotus. It’s an interesting concept, but the difficult part is actually getting the ball ahead of the keeper and into the goal. Consider yourself lucky if you can even shoot the ball at an angle or if you can successfully block your opponent’s shots with the restricted movements allowed, which only involves accelerating forward and going in reverse (mind you, this involves changing gears). Fortunately, this is pretty much the worst of the mini-games found within Lotus Challenge. There are others which are just as frustrating, but for the most part, after a few attempts it becomes clear on how to successfully complete these challenges; this statement directly refers to a challenge which involves performing stunts on top of an oil rig and another which involves jumping over parked school buses.
Where’s the Challenge?
The game’s Challenge Mode is nothing more than a handful of races packed together with a few mini-games and challenges. Truthfully, the better single player experience and overall better gameplay experience within Lotus Challenge is its Championship Mode. Championship Mode is nothing more than a tournament of races comprised of different classes of Lotus cars. From the early Lotus Seven to the new Elise, Championship Mode offers a larger selection of vehicles compared to that in the game’s Challenge Mode. Additionally, it doesn’t force you to win in first place every race as is in the game’s Challenge mode. Most racing game veterans wouldn’t settle for anything less anyway.
For the most part, these gameplay modes offer some enjoyment, mostly due to the fact that the game’s tracks (fifteen in total) are designed well enough to keep players on their toes at all times. However, the lack of any real challenge in the form of the game’s opposing AI does detract from things a bit. It’s not too fun if you can easily rip through all your opponents and finish in first place for the better half of your entire gaming experience. And unfortunately, with little more than an odd seven hours of game time ranked up, players will have seen most, if not everything the game has to offer. In truth, the only challenging aspect of Lotus Challenge is mastering its controls. After that point, the only thing to worry about is the game’s questionable car physics. They seem believable, but when getting into head-on collisions with another racer or wall, the whole spinning out of control animation seems a bit out of place.
Upgrades… Or Lack Thereof
Lotus Challenge supposedly received a visual upgrade when brought over to the GameCube. However, I fail to see any real improvement. Sure, the game does look cleaner now, but Kuju overdid it with the reflections on cars to the extent where it looks as if they’re made out of tin foil. Unfortunately this isn’t the only downplaying factor in the game’s visual area. While the game may run at a solid frame rate, it’s flat out unimpressive all around. The tracks themselves are hideous, lacking any signs of respectable quality textures or significant details (sprite trees anyone?). Don’t even get me started on how bad characters look in the game.
I must say, however, that the car damage effects are pulled off pretty well. Tires wobble and fall off of certain vehicles, and debris fly off cars and land on the race track, as they get knocked around by racers plowing into them. Just like in real life, this car damage takes its toll on your actual vehicle’s performance as well. When compared to racers like TOCA Race Driver 2 and RalliSport Challenge 2, these damage effects don’t look all too impressive, but when compared to the rest of the game visually, it manages to stand out.
Now that may have not seemed like much of an upgrade but I can confirm that in sound category things have improved a bit. The original Xbox version of the game didn’t have that great of a soundtrack; in fact, it was terrible. So, for the GameCube release dance artists Hybrid were brought in to dedicate a few tracks for the game’s soundtrack. I must say that these tunes aren’t all that bad. A handful feature some nice pieces of string instrumentals, but on the downside these tunes all sound eerily similar to one another. Getting licensed music was a step in the right direction, but the game’s licensed soundtrack pales in comparison to that of Bizarre Creation’s Project Gotham Racing 2, a game which possibly features the best licensed music in any type of game to date.
As for the other auditory areas, they fair just as well as the game’s soundtrack. Depending on how you felt about my impressions of the game’s music, this can be a good thing, a bad thing, or quite possibly something in between. Actually, it is something in between. You see, effects like the screeching of tires and the roar of the crowd in Lotus Challenge are pulled off very well, sounding very lifelike and believable. However, the sounds of the actual car engines don’t sound the slightest bit authentic, or even believable. As a fan of cars like the Esprit and the Elise, you could say that I’m a bit disappointed with this aspect. One of the most thrilling aspects about driving an actual Lotus is hearing the powerful roar of its engine.
Approaching the Finish
Far too many good racers have been released over the past few years. After playing many of them it becomes very hard to find interest and enjoyment within the lesser appreciated racers such as Kuju’s Lotus Challenge. The game has many flaws. For one, its visuals aren’t impressive in the slightest. And two, its gameplay is quite often more frustrating than it is enjoyable. On a positive note, the game has improved a bit since its Xbox release, but this does not mean Lotus Challenge is worth a second look after experiencing the older Xbox version. Although, if you’re a fan of the Lotus line of supercars, then perhaps Lotus Challenge is worth a look.
The GamersMark Network reviewed Lotus Challenge with a copy of the title purchased off retail.
