List of BEST 4 Kids Car Racing Games of 2009
1. Colin McRae: DiRT 2
Colin McRae Dirt 2
Although DiRT 2 won’t satisfy the hardcore’s demands for a return to the serious tone of the old-school Colin McRae titles, this is nevertheless a fine sequel to an admirable title. Adding GRID’s flashback feature allows the game to hit that sweet spot of accessibility without blunting its appeal, and allied to a plethora of consistently entertaining race disciplines and locations, it’s an absorbing and technically accomplished experience from start to finish.
A special mention, too, should be made of the game’s flexible multiplayer features. Although the absence of split-screen play is an annoyance, the online and system-link play is exceptional, and retains all of what makes the offline single-player so entertaining. Essentially, all of the game’s offline event types are present and correct in the game’s ranked Pro Tour online mode, so you can take on up to seven opponents in any mode in the exact same way you would offline, with team-based racing for up to four players. And for those who fancy breaking the game’s rules, the unranked Jam Sessions mode allows you to tinker with all manner of elements to create your own custom race as you see fit. Want to race trucks on a rally course? Go for it. The game warns you if it thinks you’re doing something silly, but the point is, it’s fun to try.
2. MotorStorm: Arctic Edge
MotorStorm: Arctic Edge
At its heart, Arctic Edge plays exactly like its console forbearers; you’re dropped into the middle of the titular racing festival, this time moved to the arctic circle, and will race up, down and around a huge mountain that offers a ton of variety in environments and track designs. You’ll launch off huge jumps, manage boost temperature by driving through water or deep snow to cool things off and come to grips with the wild differences in how and where a two-wheeled bike drives vs. a big rig (or, now, a snowmobile and snowplow).
MotorStorm: Arctic Edge is not a pretty game – and not just because, like its big console cousins, it’s concerned with rough-and-tumble racing through perilous terrain in angry, roaring machines.
No, MotorStorm’s PSP debut simply isn’t very good looking. Vehicles are boxy, their deformation patterns strangely triangular, details a tad smudgy. This is partly due to the game being developed simultaneously for the PS2, but mostly it’s because developer Bigbig – a subsidiary of MotorStorm creator Evolution – has made a very wise design decision.
3. Need for Speed: Shift
Need for Speed Shift
Need for Speed Shift is a glorious return to greatness (and even excellence) for EA’s seminal racing franchise. Slightly Mad Studios has delivered a driving experience that, while not completely accurate in terms of its simulation aspects, is practically dead-on in terms of what it’s like to race around some of the world’s best racing circuits. The career mode could (and should) have been a little better, but the act of driving is basically phenomenal.
After a wobbly couple of years in which open-world racing and police chases were thrown away and then hastily reinstated in ProStreet and Undercover (improving matters neither time), uncertainty has tipped over into full-blown schizophrenia. This year, Need for Speed is heading in three different directions at once: a free-to-play PC game for the Asian bubble-tea crowd (World Online), the old-school arcade thrills of Nitro on Nintendo, and SHIFT, a po-faced tilt at the gritty world of simulation motor racing. In other words, the burnt-out matinee idol is taking some time to tour the world, write a children’s book and do some off-broadway theatre.
4. Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box
Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box
Paradise made its first appearance on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3 in January of 2008, and since then, the games have been expanded with several downloadable packs. All the content so far, including a day / night cycle in the world, a collection of bikes, and additional online challenges, is built into the Ultimate Box version for the PC. There’s also an option to restart events in the game, meaning you don’t have to drive all the way back to the starting area if you want to try one again like was the case with the original release, which certainly makes things more convenient.
Burnout Paradise reinvigorated Criterion’s ultra-successful smash-up racing series when it launched this time last year on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box brings the series’ trademark racing action to the PC for the first time. With solid online and offline play, an almost staggering number of events, and more than 70 vehicles, Ultimate Box is at the front of the PC racer pack.
