Corvette

At first glance, you might simply dismiss this title as another one of the endless crap that seems to appear with no fanfare and quickly fade into oblivion.

Well you would be wrong.  Corvette is a simple if not basic racing title that allows players to race in any of the 50 corvettes available across well, err... the country really.

Starting off with a vintage corvette, you must race across sections of the country that hold some sort of relevance in the history of the corvette.  Route 66 being the common denominator running from Chicago to Los Angeles your path will have you winding around treacherous corners and rolling hills as you unlock more cars and upgrades, after market equipment like GM brakes and Lingenfelter heavy duty sports clutches.  It's pretty much a corvette lover's dream, for the rest of us, it's a decent racing title.  

With games Like the Gran Turismo series out there it's tough to find a racing title that kind of "makes it it's own" in terms of options and gameplay.  With Corvette, I found myself drawn in (slightly) to what many believe to be the Mecca of all vehicles.  Now don't get me wrong, I like corvettes and some of the older models are really cool, even by today's standard, but to be honest with you some of the 70's and 80's models brought back some memories of an era that I'd just as soon not be reminded of.

The game has several playable modes including an arcade mode, a quick race mode and career mode, it's all fairly standard stuff in the genre complete with the requisite split-screen two player mode.  Now if this game would have offered online racing against others, I would have been in heaven, but alas it did not and I was forced to play against my 3 year old via the tired split-screen view.  There were several things I liked about the modes.  One, was the quick race function, it allowed you to jump right into several different courses and still pick from many of the car's different years.  Given the amount of options I was allowed right off the bat, I wondered if the game would still be able to provide an ample amount of other "unlockable" items.  My worries were put to rest fairly quickly, the game has a ton.  Another one was the clever way the career mode unfolded, not that there was any sort of storyline, but rather completing sections of the "Route 66 run" so that you race the entire freeway.   

For a game that is in the bargain bin, I was quite happy with the graphics and sound, certainly nothing cutting edge here, but I found the line of sight to be fairly clean, the load screen and in game graphics to be bright and colorful with an adequate amount of engine purring, tire squealing sound.  No bog down when the game was flashing by at 60 frames per second, even when there were several cars jockeying for position.  

Of course there are a couple of things that I didn't like, one being the "auto-catch up" feature that kicks in automatically if you get too far ahead of your competitors or they get too far ahead of you.  And the game takes a little longer to load then most, which started to bug me after a while.  And most importantly the auto-catch up feature which just plain drives me nuts!

Gameplay: 7.1
Fairly easy controls that actually respond differently between the different corvette models AND when upgrades are done on the cars.  An easy to use setup that racing fans will feel very familiar with.  

Graphics: 7.3
Again, I will say I was impressed considering this game isn't supposed to have good graphics.  Cars can have new paint jobs that are unlocked, including the classic two-tone in several shades.  The game is just rendered well, the game developers made this game thinking it was going to be on the shelf next to the $49.99 games.  And so they painted it that way.  

Sound: 7.0
The game doesn't have a lot to say.  Admittedly there isn't even a human being to be found.  I suppose there is one in each of the cars even if you don't see 'em, and I also suppose they were yelling profanities at me when I rammed 'em off the road.  But I sure heard the car's engine as I hammered down on the straight-a-ways.   

Difficulty: Medium
It provides the adequate amount of difficulty to keep things interesting but doesn't become so difficult that you cannot continually make strides towards completing the game.  

Concept: 7.0
The game doesn't go off in new and exciting directions as far as "breaking the mold" goes, but there are some interesting twists and turns on this well traveled path.  What can I say, the game has a basic racing premise but it is a tried and true formula that works.  

Overall: 7.2
I liked this title, it was a fresh breath amidst all the violent and "morally questioning" games that I normally play.  With this one, both my three year old son and my wife took it for a spin.  For the price, you definitely can't go wrong.