GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Terrible
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 02/05/2009
- Released on: 01/09/2009
- Originally published on GameSpot: Bigfoot: Collision Course (DS) Review
When Bob Chandler started work on the first Bigfoot monster truck in the mid '70s, he surely had no idea that his creation would spawn a popular new motorsport. He also couldn't have guessed that Bigfoot would be headlining a handheld racing game more than 30 years later. That's just as well, because if he'd known about Bigfoot Collision Course for the Nintendo DS back then, he might have abandoned the whole monster-truck idea to save us from it. Bigfoot Collision Course isn't just a racing game that lacks any real sense of speed--it's also a racing game with less than two hours' worth of uninspired content and which lacks any multiplayer component whatsoever. In short, it's almost impossible to recommend.
Gameplay options are limited to practice sessions, quick races, and a bare-bones Career mode. Practice sessions afford you an opportunity to drive around tracks without any opposition, but none of the course designs are even close to being challenging enough to warrant you learning your way around them. The Quick Race mode is literally pointless because the only difference between it and the Career mode is that you can't unlock any additional trucks or tracks in quick races. At the outset of your career, you have access to only two monster trucks, there are only four tracks to race, and you can compete only at an amateur level. Eight easy three-lap races later, you're done with the amateurs and can race in "Pro Stock" competitions. Winning races doesn't get any harder when you step up to the Pro Stock class, but the trucks are faster and some of the courses are a little longer. After winning another eight three-lap races, you get to go head-to-head against a truck named Bigwheels on the only remotely interesting course in the game, and after winning that, there's nothing else to do unless you feel compelled to go back and beat your best times.
Bigfoot Collision Course's only distinguishing feature is that you're encouraged to drive through obstacles rather than around them. Tracks are littered with oil drums, crushed cars, caravans, and even wooden shacks that you can crash through to replenish a power-boost meter that, when full, can be used to significantly increase your speed for a few seconds. There are also a lot of tree stumps, logs, and rocks on some of the tracks that, for the most part, you can just race over the top of. Occasionally, though, and seemingly at random these innocuous objects will bring your truck to a grinding halt and, if you're really unlucky, you might have to reverse and go around them because you no longer have the momentum to get over them.
There are 13 different monster trucks in Bigfoot Collision Course, with varying ratings in just two areas: speed and handling. Early on, your choices are limited to either fast trucks with appalling handling or slower trucks that are much easier to get around corners. You're generally better off with the latter, but you're in for a frustrating ride either way. Every truck that you unlock is better than the rest that are available, so you rarely use the same one for more than one or two races. Toward the end of the amateur and pro seasons, you gain access to trucks that can both drive fast and turn around corners with a minimum effort. Unsurprisingly, these are the licensed Bigfoot ("First Bigfoot" and "Bigfoot") and Snake Bite ("Snake Bite 1" and "Snake Bite 2") trucks, the latter of which, in real life, are actually Bigfoot trucks competing with different paint jobs.
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Where to buy
Bigfoot: Collision Course (DS):
$12.60 - $20.99
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
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$19.99 | Yes |
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$12.60 | No |
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$20.99 | Yes |
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