June 24, 2004 - The fact that there are literally millions of Game Boy Advance owners out there means that there's a market to produce and sell games as cheaply as possible. It's unfortunate that Nintendo's "strict" quality control is letting games like XS Moto through. This motorcycle racer is clearly a rush job; either produced on a shoestring budget or developed by a team that just didn't care. Or both. Either way, there's no way you're getting 20 dollars worth of playtime out of this rushjob.

Features

• 12 tracks
• 4 bikes

If you're going to build a game using as little time and money as possible, it's best to go to a development team that's already been, as they say, around the block on the system. In this case, XS Games went to DC Studios, who in turn reused its tech built for Majesco's Cartoon Network Speedway. Already we're looking at a troubled product, since Cartoon Network Speedway was one of the worst Mode 7 racers to hit the system, second only to Shrek Swamp Kart Speedway. To XS Moto's credit, the engine has improved just a tad over the last project that used it, but with its sluggish rotation, flickering imagery, and slower framerate this "Mode 7" can't compare with other more successful (at least graphically) racers on the GBA.

So, this racing design puts players against three other computer opponents in several different circuits of several tracks each. Which would be fine if A) the control didn't suck so much, and B) the computer didn't cheat so bad. In essence, everything that's supposed to make a racing design "good" isn't anywhere near that in XS Moto. First of all, the game has this unhealthy focus on bike "balance." In essence, if players take a turn too long, they're thrown of their bikes in a clumsy heap for no obvious reason. The upper corner indicates a "balance" meter that flashes when players get close to falling off their bikes, and to stay up players must use both the L and R with the D-pad during turns. But in many cases it doesn't do what it's supposed to do, and players end up skidding on the pavement regardless of what the balance meter said.

Then, there's the cheating aspect, and it's this that really kills any fun. Essentially, it's an AI shortcut to keep races close; instead of programmers actually putting any sort of intelligent logic to pattern out the traffic and keep things competitive, the routines simply give the computer opponents a ridiculous boost of speed after they're passed by the player. So, once the player passes a competitor, that competitor will either zoom! right back into position, or crash right into the rear wheel of the bike...sending the player to the pavement and giving the opponents the necessary distance to win the race.

If players actually manage to win the circuit, there's barely any fanfare, and absolutely no indication that a new circuit's been unlocked. And even when these circuits are made available, the lack of cartridge save means that once the system's turned off...out goes any progress made in the game. No cartridge save also means no "best time" recorded per track, either. And don't expect any sort of multiplayer options, either; there's no support for link cable, so no player vs. player gameplay modes. Terrible.