by Robert Workman on Monday, January 07, 2008
It has only been a few days into 2008 and we've already stumbled across the first bad game of the year. Indianapolis 500 Legends puts you behind the wheel of classic Indy 500 racecars and lets you relive the glory days of the sport. Unfortunately, the game never puts the pedal to the medal. You're driving a car along the track but you never feel the wondrous force behind it.
Most of the trouble lies within the game's uninspired design. The races take place on the same circular track design, forcing you to deal with the same left turns as you compete with others. This wouldn't be a big deal if one or two tracks were like this, but all of them are. In addition, the artificial intelligence is mostly incompetent. If you aren't able to race past cars using basic acceleration, you can "slingshot" past them by pressing the B button. Even worse, some particular events require you to follow specifics in order to qualify. If you stray too far out of pre-set lines or fail to maintain a certain speed, you won't be able to qualify.
Indianapolis 500 Legends also looks and sounds ancient – and we don't mean in a historic manner. The game's appearance is on par with a budget GameCube title. The tracks don't vary that much in detail and the only real difference between the cars are the custom paint jobs. The frame rate moves steadily at thirty frames per second, but there are noticeable "jaggies" in the trees and stands that are hard to miss – especially on a high-definition TV. The sound department is no better. It highlights dull engine noises and laughably bad music samples that sound like jingles for a country radio station. You'd have a better time listening to weather reports.
Mostly, though, the gameplay just never comes alive. You steer your car by holding the Wii remote sideways and tilting it left and right, but there's really not that much to it. You hold down the "2" button to keep your acceleration while occasionally pressing the B button to "slingshot" past an opponent. Without any real change in the track design or AI intelligence, you're stuck doing the same one-note thing every single time. You can race against a friend in two-player mode, which adds a better sense of competition to the game – but not much.
There is something noteworthy about the game's historic content. You can visit the virtual museum and learn facts about classic Indy 500 drivers, such as A.J. Foyt and Johnny Rutherford. You're also able to watch footage from classic Indianapolis 500 events. The real sad part about all this is you'll have more fun delving into this content rather than trying to replay the races themselves. The drivers don't perform that differently on the track, nor do their vehicles.
What could've been a real chance to capitalize on racing history is instead just another speed bump on the road to better games. Indianapolis 500 Legends is lifeless, boring and flat – everything the actual Indy 500 isn't.
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