Preview: WheelSpin

When we first got our hands on WheelSpin, its duo of juicy technical feats were firmly in mind: 60 frame per second graphics and eight-way splitscreen multiplayer action.

On paper, both are attention-grabbing achievements for a title exclusive to the Nintendo Wii, the most popular but least powerful of the current generation of game consoles. Along with the attachment of renowned game maker Archer ‘Dropzone’ MacLean, these boasts were our initial handle on Bethesda’s upcoming “futuristic racer”.

Wipeout on wheelsWheelSpin is a sci-fi-flavoured racing game featuring ostensibly futuristic supercars rocketing around spacey, fantasy tracks (think alien worlds and asteroid fields) complete with colossal jumps and loop-the-loops.

Wipeout crossed with Mario Kart appears to have been the intention, though we’re told WheelSpin is “not competing directly with Mario Kart” and is “a different kind of game”.

At any rate, we kick off with a suitably sci-fi-looking menu interface: a honeycomb grid of unlocked and unlockable racing events overlaid on three faces of a rotating pyramid. These faces offer up the game’s three modes – solo (time trial), race and battle – with events at the top accessed by completing certain objectives in the events below.

After opting to start with time trial, we’re invited to pick a vehicle, torn between cars with aggressively dynamic names such as Predator, Samurai and Titan. They’re “modelled on existing cars”, we are told, but the gaudy, multi-coloured skins on offer are more immediately striking than any Ferrari resemblance.

Besides skinning a car with our racing livery of choice (pink camouflage), we are able to tweak acceleration, grip and speed. The upper levels of each are upgrades that must be purchased with cash won in races, though we’re promised the key is tuning the right specs for individual tracks rather than maxing out each option. Too high a top speed will mean endlessly careering off some tracks and into the void, for instance.

On to the race itself. Though no individual frame of WheelSpin will stand up graphically to, say, the PlayStation 3’s Wipeout HD, the zippy framerate is very welcome, visually smoothing out the high-speed racing. Textures are basic and edges occasionally jaggy, though if you’re driving slow enough to inspect them closely you’re going to wind up in last place.

The controls aren’t far from those of Mario Kart: hold the Wii remote horizontally and tilt to steer. As with most motion-control driving, it takes a little while to master. Once we had dealt with our oversteering, the cars handled well enough, though less like grittily realistic muscle cars and more like remote-control toys. A driving sim this ain’t.

Looping the loopThe design of the tracks and their environments is fun but cheesy, enlivened by equally cheesy lens flare and sneaky shortcuts. The rollercoaster-style loop-the-loops are particular highlights. They are even amusing when taken at too low a speed, resulting in an undignified, upside-down plummet from the top. The failed loop-the-loop is, in fact, a required moved for picking up one of the collectable golden spanners scattered about the game’s tracks.

Driving over the speed boost strips, often located dangerously close to the edge of a long drop, can push cars up to around 650 mph, making for some chaotic curve-taking. But with the game’s focus on accessibility (this is a Wii game pitched at players aged seven and over, after all), there’s also a green ‘safe line’– a bit like a racing line but with priority given to the easiest drive that keeps you on the track.

Also with accessibility in mind, there’s a quick respawn system for lost or flipped cars, plus an optional respawn button made available when the driver screws up and, for instance, ends up facing the wrong direction. It’s a nice feature that helps to keep the less skilled drivers in with a chance – or from being lapped multiple times, at least.

We sample the local multiplayer (there is, unfortunately, no online play) on a track laid out over an asteroid field, with colossal jumps between the hulking rocks. Eight is the maximum number of players, with four using Wii remotes and the other four on the nunchuk counterparts.

Battle mode, on the other hand, takes place not on a track but in an arena – in our demo, it’s a funkily Tron-inspired neon arena, with weapons for attacking the other cars accessed by driving over power-ups. These weapons include tesla coils, rockets, heat-seeking missiles and Gatling guns and are mapped to the remote’s directional pad corresponding to their position on the car (left, top, right).

The battling is a fun extra but arcade-style racing is really the heart of the game. Quality Wii-exclusive racers are hard to come by and though WheelSpin lacks the polish of a Mario Kart, its intentions are good. Come November, when the game is set for release, it may find a keen audience in young Wii owners with a taste for arcadey racing. Hardcore racing fans, however, may well steer clear.