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Coming out later this year for the PlayStation Portable is update of
the hit racer
Juiced on the PlayStation2 and Xbox. Juiced:
Eliminator is actually a port from the Xbox version, under the
new title.
It’s almost finished, at around
ninety percent complete, and looks like a good update of the series
for Sony’s PSP. All the previous ideas have still been implemented
with Nitrous, Mods and loads of tracks to play on. New editions to
this version include new tracks and lots more cars to race and
tinker with. There are the normal Race, Sprint, Time-Trial, and
Drift challenges to keep the Single-Player Mode going and there is
the Multi-Player Mode to test your skills with any mates nearby.
Being a port from the Xbox, the PSP
does very well handling the graphics, looking very close to the
original, with no pop-up, slow-down and a good sense of speed. The
cars look accurate and have enough detail to ensure they all look
realistic and close to the originals.
But it’s not all good news - and this
is where the controls come under the spot light. Racing games need
good controls, hurtling cars around a break neck speeds,
finely-tuning the entry into a corner or drifting round a corner,
there needs to be precise control and Juiced: Eliminator just
doesn’t do it. With either the D-Pad or the
 Analogue Nub the cars
feel heavy, there’s no perkiness to them having to really drag them
round the corners even with Nitrous. Then there’s the handbrake;
normally expecting to flick the back end of the car out to enable a
sweet drift round the corner instead sends the car into a wild spin
usually resulting in a one-eighty to watch the car behind hurtle
past and lose that personal best time. This is worrying in a game
that is virtually completed and might not be addressed.
There’s a little while to tweak these
indiscretions but I would be surprised if they do, never the less
Juiced: Eliminator looks to be shaping-up to be an average Racer
for the PSP, but it’s a platform that needs something astounding.
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