As criminal as any of the Joker's pranks
Batman: Gotham City Racer Sony PlayStation £19.99 Ubi Soft *
Holy Cow! Sneakily released in the middle of E3, when eyes were focused on LA, Batman: Gotham City Racer is another appalling misuse of a licence (see Simpsons Wrestling for another).
While fellow superhero Spiderman has made the leap to consoles with panache, old Batman limps across with a derivative racer that looks half finished and lacks both polish and excitement.
Initially, however, it looks great. Players can choose from vehicles, including the Batmobile, and are introduced to the action by a splendidly animated cut-scene from the TV series.
Unfortunately, this is as good as it gets. From the off the graphics appal, with scenery appearing from nowhere and a lack of detail as criminal as any of the Joker's pranks.
Even on the ancient PlayStation, you would expect better visuals, although the pedestrian gameplay means you won't be playing for long enough to really hate them.
Your basic aim is to roam Gotham, fighting crime and generally saving the day. But whether you decide to complete the main mission section (with increasingly difficult, yet similarly dull levels) or opt for some random villain pursuit, the graphical and control flaws are obvious. Manoeuvring the Batmobile as it veers from side to side is annoying enough, especially with little tangible reward.
Perhaps the only incentive is the upgradeable weaponry that adds some variety to the staid 3D-driving/blasting format. A two-player pursuit mode helps but is unlikely to keep even the most ardent Bat-fan interested for long.
Whether aimed at kids or not, Batman: Gotham City Racer is a stinker of a game and harassed half-term parents should resist any offspring's demands for it. (GH)
Phantom characters strike back
Star Wars Super Bombad Racing Sony PlayStation 2 £44.99 LucasArts ***
It's hard to know what Lucas-Arts is up to at the moment. Only recently, it announced hiring Ensemble (maker of Age of Empires) to produce the next Star Wars title, suggesting it may have tired of over-reaching itself after a clutch of appaling Star Wars games. If so, this will hopefully be the last shameless cash-in.
Bombad Racing is a curious combination of Super Mario Kart and F-Zero - both originally SNES (Super Nintendo) games. Bombad takes eight vaguely familiar characters from The Phantom Menace and squeezes them down in proportion and power to fit into little hover cars. It is a little silly, but being taunted by a mini Darth Maul manages to raise a smile.
The graphics look fine, with lengthy distances giving the appearance of a variety of alien worlds. However, there are only nine courses to complete. Things improve, with a stunning Coruscant raceway featuring multiple routes and levels, but in this age of V-Rally and Metropolis Street Racer, it is not good enough.
Handling is like F-Zero: floaty and with maximum reliance on air-brakes. There are power ups too, which are colourful to use but not particularly deadly. The way to win this game is to know the courses and keep to a tight racing line. This is the opposite of Mario Kart, where maximum kudos was reserved for taking out the race leader with a missile in the home straight. Sadly, such brinkmanship is impossible here.
There are three race modes: Race, Teams and Arena. This last mode is rendered useless by courses that have so many places to hide that you can wait until one opponent is left and concentrate your efforts accordingly. In fairness, this is not a bad game, just an instantly forgettable one. (MA)
Spoof Bond on a hit and miss mission
Confidential Mission Sega Dreamcast £29.99 Hitmaker/Sega ***
Lightgun video games boast the purest and most instantly satisfying human computer interface designed: just point the gun at thescreen and fire.
Confidential Mission is a near-perfect conversion of the coin-op which, in turn, is a Virtua Cop game in all but name. The enemy is surrounded by a rotating target that lets you know how much time is left to shoot him before he shoots you: accurate threat assessment is required to pick off the most lethal goons first. You're not encouraged to be too trigger-happy, though: civilians regularly pop up who cost you a life if you kill them.
The milieu is spoof Bond, especially Goldeneye: adopting the role of a lugubriously stupid spy wearing a tuxedo, you must find out who has taken control of a satellite and stop them. Along with the terrorists, who react according to where they're hit, there are thrilling showdowns with snowmobiles, tanks and helicopters. Pick-ups include extra lives and an assault rifle.
Compared to Dreamcast's other lightgun game, House of the Dead 2, Confidential Mission has the advantage of a one-shot-kill paradigm.
Rather than showering pus-oozing zombies with bullets until they keel over, you have the pleasurable challenge of downing six terrorists with a single six-bullet clip.
But CM lacks the clever branching structure of HOTD2, the game is too short and the dull training modes don't offer much replay value.
It is far better than Namco's atrociously flat Time Crisis: Project Titan on the PlayStation, but a few bonus missions could have made the difference between diverting gunplay and a lightgun classic. (SP)
