Game review: MotorStorm: Arctic Edge - Sony PSP

Try getting down and dirty instead by revving up for some full-throttle racing action in the PSP debut of MotorStorm.

Unashamedly an arcade style racer in contrast to the high-profile driving sims recently released on Sony’s portable device, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge provides fast-paced play in the rough and rugged landscape of the Alaskan mountain wilderness.

MotorStorm has had two previous outings on PS3, and now PSP gamers can get in on the fun with the third instalment which gives the series a very extreme cold-weather twist.

How does Arctic Edge measure up to the console versions? Not a clue as I’ve never played them. What I can tell PSP players without any bias towards the MotorStorm series is that Arctic Edge provides a uniquely exhilarating experience on the handheld platform. It’s loud, it’s big and it’s very entertaining.

Arctic Edge features an eclectic mix of eight vehicles, including bike, buggy, ATV, snow mobile and snow plow.

During race action some of the vehicles look a little chunky and ungainly but they all handle very impressively. There are noticeable differences in their speed, acceleration and sturdiness, while distinctions can also be seen in the way the vehicles behave on the changing terrains in the game.

There are three variants of each vehicle, making 24 in total, though only a small selection is unlocked at the beginning of the game.

Vehicle customisation is included, though it’s limited to cosmetic changes to the colour and style of different components. Again, only a small number of items are unlocked at the start.

While the quantity of courses in Arctic Edge isn’t anything remarkable (24 layouts in total – 12 tracks, forwards and backwards options), the quality of the tracks is immense.

They all have individual characteristics – some of them featuring slushy mud roads and tight turns, others snow-covered trails and big drops. All the tracks have high and low paths which can be taken as well as multiple routes to the finish line, including some crafty shortcuts.

There are spectacular jumps, caves, canyons and big banked curves. There are even changeable features such as avalanches and crumbling bridges.

The tracks are sprawling, with vast views and incredible scenery.

It’s hard not to be impressed (and in some cases distracted) by all the nice touches, such as moving water, sun glinting in your eyes and mud splattering on the screen.

The texturing and attention to detail in the graphics are superb. Arctic Edge is easily one of the best looking PSP games I have seen.

The one slight drawback of such meticulous design on the courses is that it can be tricky spotting small obstacles or perilous ridges on the small screen, leading to some unnecessary crashes.

When you crash, as I frequently do, you get the rather odd sound of breaking glass rather than crunching metal. It sounds like you’ve dropped a vase rather than smashed a car into a rock. You also get a slightly tedious cut scene showing the crash in slow-mo, which luckily can be skipped.

Being an arcade game, your vehicle suffers no long-lasting damage when you crash, not even when you fly off a cliff.

Sounds are a bit lame overall but the rocking soundtrack featuring the likes of the Chemical Brothers and Prodigy makes up for this.

Controls in the game work very well. You can alter the configuration for accelerate, brake, handbrake and steering. There is also a power boost button to provide a temporary surge of speed. This must be used sparingly – too much boost and your vehicle might overheat. You can keep the temperature down by driving through snow or water but this slows you down, so it’s a balancing act.

My only very slight gripe with the controls is they can occasionally be a little over-sensitive and loose. This fits in with the tone of the game where you’re racing on slippery snow, ice and slush, but the vehicles can be a bit too twitchy.

This aside, the game runs very smoothly and the sense of speed the racing evokes is very exciting. Switch to the cockpit camera angle and you get a real white-knuckle ride.

Though the computer AI doesn’t have a lot of charisma, especially on the easier levels, the racing still gets very fast and frantic.

Another strong point of the game is that it features 10 vehicles in each race, more than double many other racing games on the PSP.

Arctic Edge comes with two modes of play – Festival and Wreckreation.

Festival is the main single-player mode, and is basically a career mode.

There are about 100 events to compete in as you work your way up through eight ranks.

As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, I’m not a fan of constrictive career modes which prevent players enjoying all the features in a game until they’ve reached a certain standard.

But that’s what you get in Arctic Edge – grinding your way through dozens of events, levelling up and slowly unlocking vehicles and customisations.

In fairness, MotorStorm does spice things up a little by providing some objective-based events as well as the standard races. Overall the festival is pretty challenging and good fun for the most part, just a little rigid in how it dictates progression through the game.

In the Wreckreation mode you can do time trials on any of the course or set up one-off races on any of the tracks with the AI set to easy, medium of hard. The race element is called free play but it isn’t really free play because you can only drive vehicles which have been unlocked in the festival mode.

Events in Wreckreation don’t count towards anything or provide any rewards, so they are really practice sessions for the festival.

The third and final part of Wreckreation is multiplayer in which you compete online against up to five other human racers.

In conclusion, getting such a big game as MotorStorm on to such a small device as the PSP is a great achievement from Bigbig Studios.

Overall it’s a cracking game. Arctic Edge offers high-tempo wild fun, with oodles of eye candy in the visuals.

It’s not quite the top PSP racing game, but it certainly deserves a place up on the podium alongside Need For Speed Shift and Gran Turismio.

Verdict: 8.5 out of 10 – The action might take place in freezing temperatures but MotorStorm: Arctic Edge is one hot racing game.