Since its first appearance way back in 2006, Evolution’s acclaimed Motorstorm racing franchise has always been about embolic speed and embellished vehicular devastation. In this post (Motorstorm) Apocalypse era, Evolution have decided to change tact significantly, creating a new Motorstorm experience for Playstation Vita and the PSN that’s less about devastating speed scenes and more about Mega Drive Micro Machines. Say hello to Motorstorm RC.
Those of you fortunate enough to remember Codemasters’ classic Micro Machines games will instantly see the connection between those beloved racers and Motorstorm RC. RC allows you to control 24 shrunken radio controlled variations of our favourite grown up Motorstorm roofed vehicles, as they zing around the track under the guise of a new top down camera angle. Sure, it doesn’t look like Motorstorm as such, but remarkably enough, it still innately feels like a Motorstorm game; all of this despite a very different control palette. Yes, it’s a little more incidental, a little more arcade-like and care free but it’s still competitive, unforgivable and intense.
The RC cars have quite a tight turning circle. You can take to tight corners and hairpins without ever really forgiving any speed. The accelerator is actually mapped to the right analogue stick this time, just like how you would control a real RC car. It takes a little bit of getting used to, particularly seeing as the tracks feel quite claustrophobic and fixed at first, but it won’t be long until you’re buzzing around the tracks like an RC car that just gone lined with a new set of Duracell’s. Circuits and tracks are throw backs to some of the franchise’s most celebrated tracks, albeit much more compact and compressed this time.
Visually, it looks the part. Environmental elements are retained from the previous grown up games; you’ll dash over questionable shaky dust lined bridges and skid over icy fronts and facades. It really does look great and how you interact with whatever environment is put before you will, as ever, determine whether or not you come away in first position or be the last to cross the finish line.
RC promotes community interaction and a number of social features that really compliment what the Vita can do. You can utilise the portables NEAR functionality, pick up ghost trails of previous racers and contribute your achievements to a greater connected leaderboard that can be linked to Facebook. It’s also worth noting that RC is going to provide a 4 player splitscreen mode which, if it can recapture even the smallest inclination of Micro Machines multiplayer magic, will potentially be the game’s biggest selling point. Unfortunately, there are no plans to support cross-platform play but this is only a minor gripe. The fact that you get both Vita and PSN versions of RC for the price of only one game is a fantastic idea and one that should be championed by other similar titles that fall under the Vita/PS/PSN umbrella.
RC is a welcoming break from what we’ve come to expect of Motorstorm. The Playstation Vita just got a day one racer. Stay with TGL for all the latest info on Motorstorm RC.
Motorstorm RC is expected this February on PSN and Playstation Vita.
