Pocketbike Racer
Posted December 7, 2006
With Brook Burke's comic figure plastered on the cover of Pocketbike Racer, Burger King is using a little sexual marketing to entice the over-eating populous that caters to its restaurants. Of the three BK games, this easily has the best presentation menu. The gamer is treated of a shot of the King riding a miniature motorcycle with a green screen motion background playing behind him. This creepy design will surely delight King fanatics with its cultish appeal. 
Gameplay:
The game modes are split into single player, multiplayer, and Xbox Live. Single player contains the main tournaments and a free play mode. The tournaments are split into bike classes as well as the four types of races: Standard, Battle Royale, Cone collection, and Hard Core. Standard allows for regular racing with the inclusion of weapons, power-ups and speed boosts. Battle Royale is strictly a face-off to see how many hits can be picked up the quickest. Cone collection requires racing around the track to pick up the cone power-ups before everyone else on the track. Hard Core tosses out all the extras and goes back to strict race rules. Also, the free play mode includes a Time Trial mode where players can repeatedly race around the five tracks setting new fast times.
Weapons include a defensive shield, shooting bottle rocket, a firecracker mine, a heat-seeking missile, a local stun bomb, and a sonic pulse that reverse player controls. Collecting the weapons is done by powering up the cone meter on the right side of the screen. That meter can also be used for speed boosting.
Multiplayer is designed for split-screen play with up to four people and the Xbox Live mode increases the number of possible racers to six. Sadly, racing online is more of a chore than an extra gift. If you are lucky enough to find a game, competing against lag and cheaters is your reward. The multiplayer is not very enjoyable in its current state and I doubt a patch will ever be released for the game.
The racing A.I. within single player is absolutely abysmal. The vast majority of speed races can be won by half the track length and the fighting style of races are won without any effort whatsoever. The A.I. has an extremely difficult time finding the appropriate time to use weapons and speed boosts. They also avoid taking turns with the handbrake and fail to pick up many power-ups. Without any challenge within the competitions, racing becomes overly monotonous.
Beyond the race modes, there is also a minor character creation tool that's really quite pointless. Players can choose from six pre-molded players and modify their hair color, skin tone, and color of their clothing. But seriously, who wants to play as some nameless character when they can be the Subservient Chicken?
The achievements give the standard 200 gamerscore points for completion of 12 tasks. Unfortunately, the actions for completing the entire set are nothing to brag about. The entire 200 points can be racked up in one long sit-down or over a couple days. Only two achievements take a bit of time (25 games online & all competitions finished) and one single achievement is a challenge (1:30 track time in Time Trial). While gamerscore whores will enjoy the slight point boost, anyone seeking a challenge will be sorely disappointed.
Graphics:
In comparison to the broad spectrum of arcade 360 titles, the graphical engine behind Pocketbike racer stands out in originality and detail. The textures must take up more space than the Microsoft Arcade limit of 50 MEG; hence the unavailability on the Marketplace. Each track is highly colorful and the backgrounds are extremely detailed. While the animations are a bit on the stiff side, the physics engine holds up, regardless of the type of race. The slight visual effects, such as minor explosions, are fairly snazzy, especially considering the budget status of the title.
Audio:
Each track has a unique song which plays repeatedly while racing. The upbeat rock tunes are enjoyable for a bit, but finishing the entire lots of competitions with that music becomes tiresome. There are no voice effects, but the sound effects are par for the course. Each little sonic blast, whine of a miniature bike engine, or shield hum sounds fairly accurate to the real deal. Additionally, the developer provided volume controls for the effects and music.
Conclusion:
While entertaining for a couple hours, there is little reason to re-visit Pocketbike Racer after the achievements have been earned. The multiplayer is only slightly interesting and vastly pales in comparison to a title like Mario Kart for the DS. All in all, the game is pretty much worthless after a few hours of playtime. Now if only I could figure out how to assign that oddball menu background to my 360 dashboard…
Gameplay:
The game modes are split into single player, multiplayer, and Xbox Live. Single player contains the main tournaments and a free play mode. The tournaments are split into bike classes as well as the four types of races: Standard, Battle Royale, Cone collection, and Hard Core. Standard allows for regular racing with the inclusion of weapons, power-ups and speed boosts. Battle Royale is strictly a face-off to see how many hits can be picked up the quickest. Cone collection requires racing around the track to pick up the cone power-ups before everyone else on the track. Hard Core tosses out all the extras and goes back to strict race rules. Also, the free play mode includes a Time Trial mode where players can repeatedly race around the five tracks setting new fast times.
Weapons include a defensive shield, shooting bottle rocket, a firecracker mine, a heat-seeking missile, a local stun bomb, and a sonic pulse that reverse player controls. Collecting the weapons is done by powering up the cone meter on the right side of the screen. That meter can also be used for speed boosting.
Multiplayer is designed for split-screen play with up to four people and the Xbox Live mode increases the number of possible racers to six. Sadly, racing online is more of a chore than an extra gift. If you are lucky enough to find a game, competing against lag and cheaters is your reward. The multiplayer is not very enjoyable in its current state and I doubt a patch will ever be released for the game.
The racing A.I. within single player is absolutely abysmal. The vast majority of speed races can be won by half the track length and the fighting style of races are won without any effort whatsoever. The A.I. has an extremely difficult time finding the appropriate time to use weapons and speed boosts. They also avoid taking turns with the handbrake and fail to pick up many power-ups. Without any challenge within the competitions, racing becomes overly monotonous.
Beyond the race modes, there is also a minor character creation tool that's really quite pointless. Players can choose from six pre-molded players and modify their hair color, skin tone, and color of their clothing. But seriously, who wants to play as some nameless character when they can be the Subservient Chicken?
The achievements give the standard 200 gamerscore points for completion of 12 tasks. Unfortunately, the actions for completing the entire set are nothing to brag about. The entire 200 points can be racked up in one long sit-down or over a couple days. Only two achievements take a bit of time (25 games online & all competitions finished) and one single achievement is a challenge (1:30 track time in Time Trial). While gamerscore whores will enjoy the slight point boost, anyone seeking a challenge will be sorely disappointed.
Graphics:
In comparison to the broad spectrum of arcade 360 titles, the graphical engine behind Pocketbike racer stands out in originality and detail. The textures must take up more space than the Microsoft Arcade limit of 50 MEG; hence the unavailability on the Marketplace. Each track is highly colorful and the backgrounds are extremely detailed. While the animations are a bit on the stiff side, the physics engine holds up, regardless of the type of race. The slight visual effects, such as minor explosions, are fairly snazzy, especially considering the budget status of the title.
Audio:
Each track has a unique song which plays repeatedly while racing. The upbeat rock tunes are enjoyable for a bit, but finishing the entire lots of competitions with that music becomes tiresome. There are no voice effects, but the sound effects are par for the course. Each little sonic blast, whine of a miniature bike engine, or shield hum sounds fairly accurate to the real deal. Additionally, the developer provided volume controls for the effects and music.
Conclusion:
While entertaining for a couple hours, there is little reason to re-visit Pocketbike Racer after the achievements have been earned. The multiplayer is only slightly interesting and vastly pales in comparison to a title like Mario Kart for the DS. All in all, the game is pretty much worthless after a few hours of playtime. Now if only I could figure out how to assign that oddball menu background to my 360 dashboard…