Motorstorm RC

Not many would have guessed the MotorStorm series debut on the Vita would be under the guise of a Radio Controlled spin-off, but when it comes with a £4.79 price tag no-one seems to be thinking twice about it. Seeing as you are controlling RC cars it’s unsurprising to find that the camera has shifted to more of a bird’s eye view and cars feel noticeably lighter while playing.

The game is jam-packed with content. The meat of the game is in Festival mode, where there are four different festivals available each with 16 different challenges. Each festival is themed after previous entries in the MotorStorm series: Monument Valley, Pacific Rift, Arctic Edge and Apocalypse. There are four different types of challenges on offer: Race does what is says on the tin, Hot Lap is essentially a time attack mode, Pursuit has you overtaking a certain number of other cars in a limited amount of time and Drift asks you to burn rubber around corners as fast as possible.

16 tracks are available to play, each harking back to tracks seen elsewhere in the MotorStorm series and shaking things up a bit with different traction and scenery. Expect to see deserts, jungles, cold climates and cityscapes. You’ll be venturing around these tracks in one of eight types of cars. Each type of car has three different cars available – two which need to be unlocked. Cars and paint jobs are unlocked as you gain medals in the game. There are 192 medals to collect. Obtaining a gold in an event will net you three medals, while a bronze will nab you one. Needless to say, the more medals and cars you unlock, the easier the game becomes when you go back to old tracks to play with your newly unlocked cars. Ghost cars help you keep track of your gold, silver and bronze target times as well as your previous efforts.

The control scheme is a little odd on the Vita. You are given the choice of regular or alternative controls. Regular controls are in relation to the car, whereas alternative controls are in relation to the camera. However, both make use of the right analogue pad for acceleration and reversing. Why there is no option to use the X and O or L and R buttons is beyond me. The PlayStation 3 version of the game (bundled with the Vita version or vice-versa) uses R2 for acceleration, giving the impression that the developers chose to force use both analogue pads just because they’re the Vita’s primary new feature on a Sony handheld. The electronic / dubstep soundtrack is nothing to write home about and loading times often reach a rather disappointing 10 seconds on the Vita.

The Playground mode is fun muck about in for short bursts whilst Wreckreation mode houses the Time Attack mode and Free Play mode. The PS3’s 4-player split-screen multiplayer mode is absent for obvious reasons, but the lack of an Ad hoc wireless versus mode or, indeed, online versus mode is quite apparent. Instead there are plenty of leaderboards are flaunted all around the game. Upon loading up the game you’ll receive dozens of updates stating how other players have “crushed,” “trounced” and “steamrolled” your records, beckoning you to keep replaying old challenges.

Right now the available DLC  comes in the shape of unlock keys for all the stages and cars and two rare cars (one free and the other 79p). If this is anything to go by it looks like new rare cars will be released two at a time fortnightly. The Trophy list reveals that two more sets of challenges should be coming shortly: the Pro-Am Festival and the Carnival Festival.