Street racing, one of the newest forms of youthful expression, has taken the videogame world by storm. Dozens of titles have flooded the market since "The Fast and the Furious" trend began, but only a handful have proved to be worthy of purchase. Is THQ's latest release, Juiced, one of the few successful interpretations, or is it just another face in the crowd?
Juiced is an import racer that focuses on all the right areas and paints a pretty realistic picture of the import scene. It accurately reflects the process of racing for pink slips, or dropping down thousands of dollars on a race between a Honda CRX and a Volkswagen Beetle. The requisite over-the-top "street" attitude isn't really indicative of real life, but the game does provide an opportunity for players to trick out their rides with all the aluminum wings and neon they could want.
Juiced's core gameplay will be nothing new to anyone who has ever played an import racer such as Need for Speed: Underground or the Midnight Club series. There are standard circuit races that have players racing on tracks against various opponents, drag races, and the showoff events that give players the opportunity to perform donuts and drifts to score points. The circuit races make up the majority of the game and can often be the most puzzling. Bets are placed before each circuit race, and the amount of the bet determines how much respect is earned by a victory in that race. The strange thing is that opposing vehicles that are clearly inferior to your own are impossible to catch on the straightaway once the race begins. This begs the question: why tune up a car if it doesn't result in a more competitive vehicle?
As mentioned above, Juiced incorporates a "respect" meter that governs the places you can explore in the game. Respect is earned by winning races, and higher levels of respect result in access to higher money races, pink slip races, and the "pimpest" cars around. The respect meter is a great addition to the standard racing formula, but it doesn't come without consequences. In Juiced, cars will actually take damage, and this can lead to a loss of respect when you plow into your opponents and damage their rides. This sounds logical, but the feature is hamstrung by the fact that the other drivers sport horrible A.I. Instead of avoiding you in order to maintain their cars' street value, they decide that going through you would be better. All computer cars take the same line through certain corners; even if your car happens to be in the way. Making matters even more frustrating is the fact that competitors can always catch up to you once they fall behind, no matter how much of a lead you command. This certainly makes the game challenging, but it is also very frustrating.
The other two race types (drag racing and show-off events) help to bulk up the game, but not by much. The drag racing challenges are basically a blatant rip-off of the drags in NFS: U. Gas it, shift at the right time, use nitrous. However, not a lot of challenge or fun can be found in this mode, as players are given a ridiculous amount of nitrous and can breeze through the challenge almost every time. The show-off events fare a little bit better, giving you the opportunity to show off your skills with power drifts, high speed 180s, 360s and donuts. There is a fair amount of variety to the tricks, but ultimately, cars are only capable of so much, and you'll eventually find yourself falling back on the old faithful 360 in order to rack up points.
In terms of car customization ability, Juiced certainly gets the job done. THQ claims there are over a billion different modding combinations, but (realistically) there are only about a hundred per car. This still gives players quite a bit of latitude when tricking out their vehicles, however, and it is right on par with the competition. You get to change everything from the color of your ride to the body kit; and even tweak the sound of your engine. Sadly, there is only so much you can do to the vehicles before they start looking cluttered and messy, but if you're looking for a huge variety of visual customization in your racers, Juiced has it.
Visually, Juiced is actually a pretty stunning game. It's not as realistic as the Gran Turismos or Forzas of the racing genre, but this surprisingly works to the game's advantage. The cars look exactly like their real life counterparts but they also sport a cartoon-y look that really matches the spirit of the game. The tracks are vibrant and have a fair number of events happening in the background during the races. Similarly, weather effects look great and really spice up the various environments. A nice addition that Juiced brings to the import genre is actually being able to race in the daylight. No longer are street racers forced to find refuge in the cover of darkness. Finally, tuners can live and drive among the normal people! It's nice to see the stereotype finally stripped away, and hopefully some of Juiced's competitors will follow suit.
The soundtrack in Juiced, while small, has something for everyone. A good amount of electronica, hip-hop, and rock ensures that there is going to be at least one song that you�ll enjoy driving to. THQ could have gone the extra mile and licensed about a dozen more songs, but what you get is a pretty good assortment of driving tunes. The sound effects are exactly what you would expect from a racing game�louder in the higher RPMs, and even more screaming in the corners. While it�s nowhere near as authentic as Gran Turismo, the sound effects in Juiced are polished enough to get by.
What Juiced has going for it that the many of its competitors do not is the online mode. Juiced is an average racing title offline, but online it's an unreal amount of fun. Not only can you race, but you can also challenge other people to put up their cars in a pink slip match. It can be very satisfying to defeat a trash-talker online and then use his or her car to fund your own ride. THQ even included a feature that results in the loss of both the race and your car if the power or connection is cut to the Xbox. No longer can players pull out mid-game in order to save themselves from an embarrassing loss. While some latency issues mar the experience from time to time, Juice is still a great addition to the Live! roster.
THQ has brought a very decent import racer to the market; it's just unfortunate that it couldn't have come out at an earlier date. With all of the other, more refined titles out there, it is very likely that Juiced is going to be pushed aside and overlooked by the gaming public. If released even six months earlier, Juiced would have made more of an impact, but at this point it doesn't have what it takes to make a huge impression. However, if you�re looking for a decent, customizable racer that takes it to the streets, Juiced might be for you.
Kim Fidler