The next game in the pack is Adrenalin, an arcade street racer come model management sim. A strange mix I know, but it kind of makes sense. I think. If that doesn't make any sense, read the official statement:
"Adrenalin is a game that successfully blends the genres of thrilling adrenalin-pumping racing
and an economic management sim. The aim of a player is to not only become the fastest driver
around, but to be a talented manager as well.
In the beginning of the game the player has to pick out one of the twelve beautiful young
ladies. One of them even exists in reality – she is the winner of Miss Russia contest in 2003.
Once you choose a character the task is to make your protégé as successful and famous as
possible.
The world of Adrenalin is a world of a TV reality show where girls from different countries
(USA, Russia, Ukraine, Sweden and even the Congo) compete to become the fastest driver and to
make a bid for the sympathy of the audience. The more popular the girl becomes, the higher her
rating grows, the more advertising and promotion offers she receives. The aim is to make the
character a superstar not just on the track, but on TV, radio and covers of magazines.
First of all Adrenalin is a show and the audience loves to be entertained. The winner is not
always the one to cross the finish line first, but the one who manages to amuse the public, the
one who does it spectacularly, the one that makes the audience scream and applaud.
12 characters – each one with her own skills and motivations 8 concept cars designed by
professional auto-designers Over 15 unique tracks built exclusively for the Adrenalin show
Various car upgrades and tuning modifications Original gameplay which combines a racing game
and a management sim Different race types, including Knockout Race, Death Match, Circuit Race,
Drift and others"
Sun Ray
Once I finally figured out how to get this game to actually run (hint: force it into 1024*768 mode) I was greated with some of the worst menu music I have ever encountered; it was bad early 2000s nu-metal, definitely not what you should be opening your game with. Speaking of the music, the soundtrack to the rest of the game was just as bad, if not worse; most of it seemingly obscure too, with this being the only song I could find on the internet.
Once I had overcome the atrocity that was the menu music I found myself in some sort of weird Amsterdam style choose your lady-friend wheel of fortune where you got to choose your model/race-car driver. Each girl had a nice bio underneath that told me all about them, like Vika the former Miss Russia, Bullet the Ukrainian potty mouth forelady, Blitzkrieg the Russian business lady/biker chick, or any of the other 9 ‘beautiful ladies’. I myself chose Sun Ray for no discernible reason other than her slight resemblance to Katy Perry, of whom I would love to manage, naw’m’sayin’? They then gave the option to buy a car, although there were only two I could afford, both with a hardtop and cabriolet version, so I just chose the hardtop hatchback ‘cause why not?
Once I chose my character and car I was given the contracts menu where I was able to choose advertisements to put my on cars and what rewards I would get from winning etc, much like in a Football Management game, or another weird car game my brother used to play on the PS2 that’s name very much escapes me. I didn’t really study this much as it seems you can just roll through them, doing the races each one gives you to gain money. The concept of contract seems entirely superfluous to the game because of this, but I guess it gives the model stuff some context.
Then I got to the actual racing; it was fine. Whether or not fine is a good thing I do not know. It really just felt like you’d expect a weird-ass Russian driving game to feel I guess: arcadey. You rarely had to let go of the accelerator, and you hit nitrous out of every turn, and on every straight, and you would literally never run out, as you get it back for overtaking and drifting and jumping etc, much like in Burnout or the older NFS games. It’s serviceable for sure, and is probably kinda fun with your friends as you can wreck one another and knock each other off the road and other such fun things.
There’s not really much more to be said of this game. It’s ok. That’s it really. Nothing special, but a dumb model managed thing makes it somewhat interesting. More interesting than if it didn’t have it anyway. I doubt I’ll be coming back to this one, or its sequel, which ‘unfortunately’ wasn’t in this pack. Oh well, the next game has a name that has me excited for it, so ‘til tomorrow.
Alex.
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