Glimmerati – NG – Review

Glimmerati
is one of the coolest racers I’ve played in a long, long time. Its premise of
racing celebrities didn’t sound too intriguing, and the restricted overheard
view – that didn’t sit too well either, not when we have the best Ridge Racer
iteration running on the PSP.

My fears
kept getting drowned out by the sound of praise that poured out of anyone who
got the chance to try it. By the time I finally got a serious impression of it
(at this year’s E3) I, too, found myself overflowing with praise. And now that
I have the final version running in my game deck, praise is all I’ve got to
give.

Glimmerati
is one of those rare games that takes a look at the current technology and
says, "We could do this or this, but let’s do this." The third "this" being
the unexpected, unconventional choice. For starters the top-down view — it
seems like something you’d get from an N-Gage game because the system isn’t as
powerful as its competitors. In truth they could’ve made an in-the-car view,
but that would have removed the game’s uniqueness.

 

Taking us
back to the days of the Micro Machine racing games, Glimmerati has a
semi-retro appeal. The remarkable thing is that it doesn’t copy the Micro
Machine games in any way. The vehicles feel small due to the camera position,
but the environments come across as being big and lively. Traffic interferes
whenever it pleases, having a "I have the right to be on the road too!"
attitude. That makes each race a lot more interesting (and a lot more
dangerous!). Up until now I don’t think any of the N-Gage racing games even
acknowledged that traffic exists.

Avoiding
collisions is no small task. Crashing won’t total your fancy sports car,
though it will slow you down immensely. In other words, get good at steering,
swerving, and become a master at last-minute evasions.

While you’re
at it you might as well become a master of cornering and high-speed
maneuvering. Glimmerati’s controls are excellent, but the courses, while also
impressive in their design, include countless twists, turns, and valuable
shortcuts that could lead you to a quicker victory. Or, in some cases, leave
you in a ditch. Then the paparazzi catches up to you, take a bunch of
pictures, and by sunrise you’re on the cover of a mock magazine with a hot
supermodel. The cover story: you’re in love and you’re having a baby!

 

That’s not
exactly what happens, but the game does have a cool sense of humor, and a
killer lineup of objectives that massively increase the difficulty. Glimmerati
is a true racing game, but its requests can be very unusual. Pick-ups and
drop-offs – they’re not the most fun thing to do. But when a rich businessman
asks you to take his wife, or a hot model, or anyone else to and from a
particular location, the gameplay doesn’t veer off course. Being a chauffer
merely means that you have cargo onboard. It’s still a race to the finish line
(in this case, a specific location). If a time limit isn’t given then chances
are you’ll have to race someone, like the evil press. Should they catch up to
you the race could end and then you’d have to start over.

The solution
to the game’s challenges almost always lies within your map. There’s really no
way of knowing where you’ll end up unless you check and study the map
frequently. How’s that for originality? I can’t think of the last racing game
I played where that was necessary. It applies a Grand Theft Auto quality that
isn’t commonly found in racing games. It’s usually reserved for driving games
like Crazy Taxi.

In between
the main story mode are challenges that can reward you with additional cars
and other goodies. These challenges are all racing-based. One of the more
unique challenges lets you take control of a special rocket vehicle. This
vehicle is probably the fastest in the game, surpassing 400mph! Controlling
this fuel-guzzling beast is extremely difficult, making it next to impossible
to defeat the 13-second record the rocket scientist asks you to beat. The only
way to do that (presumably) is to pick up speed on the first lap, in which
case you’ll probably make the run in about 20 seconds. After that it’s all
about hugging the center of the track while doing your best not to hit the
sides. Good luck gamers! You’ll need it.

Determined
to engross and be successful at doing so, Glimmerati is an incredible N-Gage
racer. I’d recommend it on any platform – DS, PSP or Gizmondo – but it was
designed exclusively for the N-Gage. The challenging, arcade gameplay and the
absolute wealth of objective types (and the way the game masks the concept of
racing by asking you to avoid the press, etc.) make Glimmerati more than a
glimmer of hope for N-Gage users. It’s a hardcore game that all developers
should look up to and work their butts off to compete with.


Review
Scoring Details

for Glimmerati

Gameplay: 8.9
Unbelievable. So
much from such a little package. The cars look tiny and, during some of the
crashes, get tossed around like Micro Machines. But the gameplay is as big as
an in-your-face racer created for a home console. The tight controls, stellar
course layout, and the excellent sense of speed come together for an
experience that will not be forgotten.


Graphics: 8.6
Most impressive.
Aside from clipping (which occurs every now and then), Glimmerati is smooth,
smooth, smooth. Tiny, hard-to-notice details (like the intricacy of other
vehicles) highlight the larger objects like buildings, streetlights, varying
terrain. No one’s going to walk away unimpressed.


Sound: 7.9
The sound quality
isn’t the best, but wow! There’s something really special about the music.
It’s somewhat techno-ish, and a bit orchestral … Like a cross between a good
RPG and a good racing game (if the sounds of those games could be merged).
Glimmerati’s voice-acting is weird at times but makes the story a lot more
entertaining than if they had just included text.

And just to
make something clear to eavesdropping publishers: it took more than that to
make the sound interesting! The majority of Glimmerati’s voice actors know how
to recite lines with different levels of emotion. It’s far from perfect but
it’s better than most. You got that, copycats?


Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Glimmerati gets
really tough really quick. The paparazzi are fast! And your opponents quickly
up the ante as well. It’ll take a good deal of practice to get through some of
the challenges. Look forward to a fairly long and highly enjoyable journey.


Concept: 8.0
The first guilty
pleasure video game? Glimmerati’s great gameplay is a grand distraction, but
there are several suggestive moments (and suggestive images) that caused the
ESRB to say, "Wait a minute, this racer needs an ‘M.’" No gore, no violence,
just sexual images and references.


Multiplayer: 8.0
Multiplayer for
up to four local players! Now if only I could find someone who has an
N-Gage…


Overall: 8.9
Nokia had a
strong showing at E3, making it really difficult to predict which game would
turn out to be the best. No one can make that final call until all the titles
showcased are released, but of all the games to come out thus far, Glimmerati
earns the gold trophy. The gameplay is unbeatable. You really can’t find
anything like it anywhere else. That’s where this game succeeds the most –
it’s different. Good different.