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GT Pro Series is one of UBi Soft’s much-touted
Wii Launch titles. Along with the hugely disappointing
Red Steel, Monster Trucks 4X4 and Tom Clancy’s
Splinter Cell: Double Agent,
 GT Pro Series has become the
underdog of the line-up. However, given that the title comes with a
free Steering Wheel Attachment, it’s managed to grab it’s own
fair-share of column inches.
The series has been a very successful franchise in
Japan, yet has rarely seen release in Europe. The Wii edition, like
many early releases, is built upon the engine used for the previous
GameCube release, and so, hasn’t hugely progressed since the
previous hardware generation’s releases. The unique attraction of
the title, however, is of course the innovative Wii Remote Control
System.
The Wii Remote fits horizontally into the Steering Wheel
Attachment, and tilting the device left and right turns your
on-screen vehicle. The 2 Button accelerates, and the 1 Button
operates the brake. As with most Wii titles released as of yet, the
Control System takes quite some getting used to, however, after a
small amount of play, it does become intuitive. The title features
the usual selection of gameplay modes; Championship Mode, Quick Race
Mode, Time Attack Mode and Vs. Mode as well as Drift Combo Mode.
Championship Mode takes you through four Classes, each
 with more
Races than the last, and Licence trials beginning, for some unknown
reason, on the second difficulty setting; Intermediate Class. Being
a Japanese Racer, the emphasis is of course on Drifting, and soon
the Arcade-style of play becomes an easy hook. The Drift Combo Mode
only goes further to prove this fascination, requiring the driver to
execute a precise combination of drifts throughout the entire Track.
The Versus Mode, unfortunately, drops the speed of the game to a
snail’s pace in four-player and restricts you only to human players.
The tracks featured in the title offer a fair deal of
variety, but yet each seems sparsely detailed. Mountains,
cityscapes, race tracks and winding streets compile a short list of
Tracks available for play during both day and night settings. The
Tracks have been well designed to cater for the new control methods,
however, haven’t quite been disguised well enough and often appear a
little too similar to the Mode7-based Tracks on SNES Racers.
The variety of cars may seem extensive, consisting of
eighty-two in total, but falls drastically short of other
Current-Generation titles such as
Project Gotham Racing 3 and
Test Drive: Unlimited’s car compendiums. The Car Modelling on
the Car Selection Screen is simply comical when compared to either
of the Xbox360’s serious-Racer’s Garage’s.
The title’s graphics aren’t exactly inspiring. In
Single-Player, looking akin to some of the GameCube’s better
offerings,
 while they’re comfortable they do little to promote Wii’s
graphical prowess. In Multi-Player the quality of the graphics
tumble along with the speed of the game. Making the Cel-Shaded
effect look jagged and unstable, and completely losing grasp of many
of the off-track textures, you’ll wonder just exactly how the
developers thought they could pass this off as a Current-Generation
title, regardless off the fact that the hardware was not meant to
perform as to quite what we would expect from one.
GT Pro Series is an entertaining title, and
worthwhile for those desperate to try an Arcade Racer with the Wii
Remote. However, even those that feel they fit into this demographic
shouldn’t be expecting too much; anyone hoping for a competitor to
the genre’s giants such as Ridge Racer or
Juiced will
be sorely disappointed. |
