Gameboy Advance - Midnight Club: Street Racing

Format
Gameboy Advance
Publisher
Destination Software
Developer
Rebellion
Country of origin
UK
Genre
Racing

Midnight Club

By David Rasmussen
31st May 05

Do you like racing games?
Do you like racing so much you’ll even play racing games while on the road, even if that means playing them on the GBA? Do you like racing games that much?
Midnight Club for the GBA will either foster that belief in you about portable racing games and make you believe in them, or not. Either way something is going to happen. But then again maybe a different game that even I didn’t consider might be the better racing game… hint : I reviewed it before, but not in the racing genre.

Back to Midnight Club. Based on the popular racing series, Midnight Club continues the street racing style for the GBA… if you can call what you’ll be doing on the GBA “racing” by any stretch of the imagination. However due to it’s “style” of racing the game is not exactly the best in my opinion. It’s more like a nostalgic blast from the past with a modern name attached to it, like playing Spy Hunter but with a nice new coat of spit and polish that makes it look good. Oh, and speaking of “Attached” we have the people who are behind this game yet who didn‘t exactly make this game…. Eh? Now if you look on the gaming box it says “Rockstar Games” are associated, which makes sense since their San Diego branch made the most recent Midnight Run DUB Edition if I remember right, but don’t expect their touch here since they don’t seem to have made this game! In fact it looks more like the game was cranked out by 3rd party releasers (Destination Games/Rebellion) and doesn’t even have any mark on it (on the game itself) that even hints that anyone from Rockstar Games worked on this!

And that, in my opinion at any rate, is probably why this game is a middle of the road racer.
Yes, if you played the large platform versions of Midnight Club you might be a fan of the series.
I didn’t so I didn’t have any preconceived notions about what a Midnight Club game should be like when I rolled into the streets of this game looking for a race. However, if you are approaching this game? Then be ready to approach Midnight Club for the GBA with lowered expectations since you’ll need those reduced ideals to make it through this game… and maybe even find some merit in said game.

Graphics is what you might expect out of a GBA… I.e. the game looks like Spy Hunter (old arcade) as I said above, but with more polish… really. THEN again the other game I keep hinting at has better SNES style Mario Kart (behind the racer camera angles) to talk of, so maybe not all racers have to be top down racers where the GBA is concerned. Anyway the “World” of Midnight Club is top down visuals, and it is also quite dark… as in you better be playing this on a GameBoy Advance SP with it’s lighted screen or in a bright well lit room since you can’t see the action on the game in anything less than quality lighting! I mean talk about dark! Well, if you think about it it IS supposed to be happening at night (or at midnight in some situations) so I guess it should be dark if you think about it eh?

Then, once you got yourself prepared for all that, get ready for “racing” that follows a formula that can be a little wearing on a person for it’s repetitive nature. This is the basics of racing from what I’ve experienced.
1) Find a person to race (sometimes you‘ll have more than one person to pick from for this part)
2) Follow your chosen target around until they race you… more on that later.
3) Once they accept you then you can race them for their cellphone number.
4) After that race them one more time for their car to add to your lineup.
Easy, eh? Ahhh… not so easy.

Cars in this game are plentiful. The game features 42 vechiles which is a nice solid pack of vechiles for a GBA game, but I don’t think any of these are what you call “licensed” cars… maybe they are but I can‘t say since cars and vechiles in general are not exactly my area of expertise.
But they are unique. You start with a cab and can work your way through many vechiles including cars, vans, trucks, police vechiles and even a bus… I think. I know a bus is one of the obstacles that faces you in this game, so I guess you can also drive one which sounds rather interesting.
However the vechiles only have a few points that make them different from one another (besides graphics which does only a so-so job of making vechiles unique) and there is NO cutstomization feature for your vechiles. What you see, and win, is what you get. Period.

The story? As Osaka would say in Azumanga Daioh GN 4... “fuhgeddaboutit”.
The so called “story” isn’t a very good one, and while it does it’s job it’s just not very interesting to read. And while I’m at it here I don’t even think there is a story here, but I guess whatever’s going on in Career mode MIGHT be a story… maybe… I guess. Is it a story? It’s not a very good story.

On the bright side I do have to say that the gameplay is fair, and the graphics is OK for a Spy Hunter style top down driving game. In fact the graphics are pretty good for that style of gameplay graphics.
The little vechiles have their own headlights, the cityscapes have a fair amount of detail (nothing major) and you can see a small amount of vechile damage (but nothing serious)! Also there is even a little meter that shows car damage right up until your car breaks down… until the vechile fairy mends your car that is (in a few seconds you’re going again).

You can race in two cities : New York City & London (London being an unlockable city in career mode).
Speaking of Career mode, where you’ll earn all your vechiles, there is one big disappointment and that would be the way you “Save” your game. Apparently they couldn’t muster enough room on this cart for a save file since the game “saves” via the use of passwords! Passwords! I mean, really, passwords!
Of course it’ll mean you can get your cars faster but just jumping onto a site like GameFaq and checking out the codes for the game, but if you are a racing fan you’ll earn your vechiles and codes the old fashioned way, by winning them. Which isn’t as easy as it sounds since driving in this game is not the easiest thing, and you’ll end up crashing abit though it’ll only mean being brought to a direct stop half of the time which is actually a bad thing… why? Because if you are even two car lengths out of range from the car your following (and it’s green) it’ll immediately shift back to red and you’ll have to follow it again).

Huh? Right. I didn’t explain that yet in detail.
You get races by following other drivers about like a little brother, and once you proved your ability to hang tight to their rear ends they‘ll give you a chance to race them. To do this you’ll have to follow fairly close, and watch their turns so you can stick on their tail tight (just two or so car lengths distance back is all you need to mess this up). Each vechile can be found circling a set area of city blocks (rotating around in circle after circle) until you follow them successfully.

Finding them is easy enough, just follow the pointing arrow at the top of the screen until you find them, simple. Once you find them (best way to do this is to circle some blocks counterclockwise once you are sure you are near them since they always circle blocks in a clockwise motion) notice that they have a small triangle hovering over their vechile. Each vechile has a red triangle (pointing down at it) so you know who to follow, this triangle also indicates how well you are following.

You have to follow them until their triangle shifts from red to yellow, then from yellow to green. Once that happens they leave the small area they were circling and you have to follow close until they finally come to a stop where they’ll talk to you and challenge you to a race.

Then you’ll have to race them, and if you win you get a cellphone number. Then you call them, arrange another race and race again for their car which you’ll add to your arsenal once you beat them. They can’t win your car so don’t worry about it, and you get unlimited chances to run the races (once you do all the following) so that’s a plus.

And that’s it. The basics of the game.
Racing is kind of fun, for a 2D top down racer, and while it has it’s detractions it also has it’s merits. Too bad there isn’t any regular 3D style racers out for the GBA… wait, there IS!
Believe it or not the game that looks better than Midnight Club, and has racing that seems more familiar to you (3D styling racing) is the unexpected Banjo Wings!
This racer, using planes as the “vechiles” didn’t seem like an ideal racer, but visually the game has better merits than Midnight Club and might be the game for you.
Sure it doesn’t have the many racecars to drive, but it has a solid gaming experience and make it look like a better choice. But don’t take my word for it, let’s break this down and see what’s what!

Midnight Club Breakdown GBA
What’s Hot?
Hmmm… I feel as though I’m a little bit of the middle of the road here.
It is a GBA game, after all, so some lowered expectations are needed here… but it could have been a little more exciting and have more things to do. Like Banjo Wings whose look is just that much more special, and whose racing is more fun.

On the plus side the animation is fair for a GBA release (Banjo Wings has a better look to it), and the gameplay has some solid potential points. It’s not the best GBA game I ever played, but it wasn’t a godawful experience either. Still, if it was me I’d gun for Banjo Wings.
Be mindful that it is a GBA so it will be abit underwhelming (except for… say it with me now… Banjo Wings). Still, once you get past that, you might find that Midnight Club does have a few merits worthy of consideration. For instance this has way more vechiles to race than Banjo Wings, so that’s a plus.

What’s Not?
I won’t say it’s the graphics (which is passable), nor the story (which you probably aren’t here for in anycase since you want to race), but my real problem with this game is the music.
While the driving can be chalked up to the limitations of the GBA, and the story isn’t that important anyway… no, no, it’s the generic bland “musical score” that really is a downer for this game.
What this game haphazardly calls music I call a throwback to old arcade games, only now they should know better or at the very least knew well enough to at least put one or two tracks of good music into this game.
Other than that it is a middle of the road game that might only draw in the most diehard driving gamer, otherwise you’d be better off getting the Midnight Club games for the large platformers since they’ll play far better than this.

Moments to Remember?
Hmmm… guess the first time I took the car out for a spin into traffic, and had fun smacking into cars and buildings left and right while trying to understand how driving in the game worked… that was weird.
Not much else is memorable though. Racing is racing but nothing stands out here, sorry.

What to Ignore?
Hmm… ahhh… the story. It’s just not good enough to even think too hard about it.
Just race, that’s all this game is good for in anycase, racing. Race on, driver, race on.

Overall?
The racing is the only thing I can see about this game that’ll be a draw for players.
Being a racing fan is good, being a big racing fan is a big help since I can’t see many people getting this game lest they are the kind that is obsessed with racing games… then this is for you.
If not you’ll have more fun checking out the Midnight Club games on the major platforms like the PS2, since this game doesn’t have enough merits to even warrant buying it if you are only a casual racer fan.
And since it looks like Rockstar Games has very little (if any) input on this game you most certainly aren’t getting this game for the Rockstar Games touch since it doesn’t seem to be present.
But if you are, again, a die hard racer and need a fix while on the road this might be that fix. In anycase it’ll keep your interest long enough until you can get back to your PS2 and throw in Midnight Club DUB or some other racer you enjoy playing.

Then again if you are looking for a fun racer for that GBA that isn’t just there to fill time until you get back to your PS2 then maybe you’d be better off with Banjo Wings, which looks like more fun even if it looks like it’s also last horrah for Banjo and Kazooie. This game, and Midnight Club, might fill the gap in your video gaming life while on the road until you pick up a new PSP or Nintendo DS.

-- David Rasmussen 31st May 05

Gameboy Advance Midnight Club: Street Racing Images