Not another racing game for the PSP!

The phrase 'too much of a good thing can kill you' comes to mind. As you'll see if you browse through our PSP reviews, the PSP has more than enough racing games. It's come to the point where it feels like every other title is to do with racing. (At the time of writing, eighteen racing games are available!) Whether it's bouncing around like a ping-pong in Gripshift, throwing chickens in Crash Tag Team Racing or the arcade stylings of Ridge Racer, it is safe to say that enough is enough with the release of Juiced: Eliminator.

Owners of PSPs are either blessed or cursed with all this choice. Blessed, because if racing games are what revs your engine, you could literally play a different racer every week for several months. Cursed, because if racing games don't get you in a high gear, the task of picking the best of the bunch is like getting at the apple in Operation. Luckily, at least for the latter type of gamer, Juiced: Eliminator doesn't even come close to the great games that have come before - for a whole host of reasons that I'll be speeding onto soon enough.

Following the usual street racing format that Need For Speed perfected, you begin by creating a crew to take on rival teams who are all fronted by sexy virtual ladies that are not as sexy as the box would have you believe. Races are either for money or 'pinkslips' (ownership of vehicles). For the single player a number of modes are available, namely Arcade Mode, Custom Race and Career.

Arcade Mode consists of four challenges that you must complete, such as reach a certain speed or achieve a number of stunts before the timer runs out. Once you have completed the four, you play a final event, usually a timed race, and once this is completed you can move onto the next set of challenges. This unlocks new cars, mods and tracks for Custom Race, which is essentially the 'Quick Play' mode; here you can practice in the cars and tracks you have unlocked. This is a good place to try and hone your skills - as you will need them for the main Career mode.

As you'd expect, the main meat of the game is in Career, where you can take part in races over a year's season. To compete you must pay or place bets on yourself and when you are winning, the feeling is wonderful; taking the money from the losers gives you a buzz that encourages you to play on. The betting and money aspect is a nice touch - or it would be if it weren't so flawed. Money never even covers the basic repairs needed for your vehicle (including paying to replace the nitrous you use) and so you'll find yourself abandoning a season midway as you fall into the vicious circle of play, lose, lose money, can't repair your car, race with your damaged car, lose due to the damage, gain more damage to the car that can't be repaired and so on and so on until you get to the point of depression and just end the game. This is sad, as the game starts off so well, but it just can't keep you going for a full circuit.

The eliminator element of the races reminds me of an old Billy Connolly joke about marathons - "To speed it up you can just shoot the last three every five miles." This is exactly what happens; during a three-lap race, if you're in last position you're automatically eliminated at the start of the next lap. Of everything this game offers, this is by far the worst feature. Within another game this might be the clincher in just being beaten to the finish line by the competition, but in this one it's the last ditch fight-back of a midget against a polar bear and, unfortunately, nine times out of ten you will be the one who's eliminated.

This is where Juiced turns to mush. The controls attempt to follow the simple Ridge Racer structure, but have been given the most sensitive steering I have ever come across. Simple but fairly vital things, like cornering for example, are unresponsive, and when you try to attempt any stunts it's pointless, as you can never get the balance of speed and control right, finding yourself skidding around the tracks instead. In fact, when cornering you may as well face the fact that you'll hit the barriers and also just deal with the fact you'll be paying to repair the damage after every race.

It would be at this point that I would try and stay positive about the two-player mode - but I can't. If you didn't like playing as a single player then it's doubtful you'll enjoy playing against a friend. The only positive about this mode is that you can race a human player with the same faults as yourself, for pinkslips. This means that you get more cars onto your PSP to use. However, if you are playing and your connection cuts out for whatever reason (e.g. you're on a train and go under a tunnel) you will automatically lose your car. Yes, the car you spent the last twelve hours modding, making look pretty and winning or trying to win as many races to turn into a great racer: Gone! Unless can play again for it, or have an understanding friend, this can only make you hate the game more than ever.

As we've come to expect from the PSP, the garnish (i.e. graphics, music and sound) is all great - but it can't hold a game together alone. It's pretty cool that there are so many real cars in the game, but there is a point when you think to yourself "Why would I want to race as a Renault Megane?" With no experimental vehicles or super-bling ones such as Porsches or Ferraris, we are left with a number of Fiats and Nissans that simply don't have the same effect.

Juiced: Eliminator should be fun to play, but it isn't. Maybe it's the fact that you can't corner without crashing, maybe it's the fact you can't bang your car more than twice without causing serious damage and thus rendering your car useless, maybe it's the fact that once you are overtaken you will never ever catch up again, or maybe, just maybe, it's the fact that if you lose more than three races in career mode, you might as well just restart. Perhaps it's because most challenges are nightmarishly difficult, or that even the simplest of stunts are impossible to achieve due to the woeful controls, or that even in two player mode the game falls on its face. In fact, it's all of these things, and it all adds up to give you a game that you will never want to play. With the plethora of quality racing games on the PSP, this one doesn't even make it onto the starting grid.

Reviewed by David Simpson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).