A decent game I played as a kid, and revisited recently out of curiosity. My friends and I loved this game when I was in primary school, butA decent game I played as a kid, and revisited recently out of curiosity. My friends and I loved this game when I was in primary school, but held up to the scrutiny of my older self it doesn't quite hold up as well. 'Road Trip', or 'Road Trip Adventure' as it is known in PAL regions, is a very unique and imaginative concept. A sort of mesh between an RPG and a racing game, with numerous different mini games scattered throughout. Even more odd is that the game takes place in a world inhabited by cars rather than people. This obviously helps appeal to younger audiences, but there are no googly eyed pixar-style cartoons here. Instead the various vehicles are shrunk down, yet instantly recognisable versions of real life models ranging from the classic Citroen 2CV to the Ferrari Testarossa. I didn't notice this as a kid, but now, as a fan of cars, I was pleasantly surprised that I could choose from 150 different models which can be painted any colour using RGB sliders. So that bright orange and green Lancia Delta you've always dreamed of can now be yours! The game is boasts an entirely open world as well; you can converse with passing cars by driving into them and visit other vehicles in their homes by crashing through the front door. Rather than cause massive amounts of property damage, this actually allows the player to engage in side-quests or mini games, which frequently involves exploring this vast car-world and other cities.
Whilst exploration is encouraged, venturing off the beaten track in some places only introduces the player to barren plains of emptiness, with nothing to look at except the white fog in the distance or the poorly textured ground surface. This really does lift me out of this car world and comes off as a bit lazy. It couldn't have been that hard to fill up some of these open expanses with rocks, trees or hills. The landscape features which are present don't look that great either, with many blurry textures and basic models, even by PS2 standards. This is a shame, as this exploration aspect could be greatly improved with some graphical upgrades. Other than a few really fun mini games such as an obstacle course, car-football and barrel dodging, most feel quite basic and are only enjoyable for a few minutes. Several are borderline frustrating due to the rather clunky control scheme, but this thankfully doesn't impact too much on a much larger aspect of the game: the racing, from which the player earns monetary rewards to upgrade cars with a variety of different parts.
There are many different areas to race around, some of which are very inventive. One interesting feature is that the 23 opponents change between races, and each are characters which the player can interact with in the open-world. Find these other cars, and they can join your own racing team, which means you can earn more cash for each race – neat! Races can be great fun, particularly in the opening 1st or 2nd lap, but this brings me to one major gripe: the horrid AI. It’s so stupid that in most races there are about 5 cars which get stuck on walls. Opponents frequently get bunched together, as faster cars will just ram into the back of slower ones and stay there, rather than overtake. In large open areas the AI either swerves sporadically or follows in one strict line which can be easily overtaken in a single pass. This does make the game very easy in some parts, and even as a child I remember being able to breeze through some races because half of the opponents got trapped behind a tight corner.
The physics and collision detection are also some of the worst I have ever seen in a video game. Seriously. Slightly brushing against walls can send player and AI cars alike into a jittery mess. Furthermore, driving over a slight ramp can launch your car high into the air, only for it to float down gently as if it were a feather. The music and sound is also pretty dreadful. Granted these two faults do add to the charm of this low-budget title, but it can get grating listening to the same repetitive songs over and over again on the car radio. In the unlikely event that you do rank poorly in a race, chances are it happened due to some freak spasm of the physics engine rather than any fault of your own.
However, in spite all of these flaws Road Trip Adventure can be very addictive, and to this day remains a guilty pleasure of mine. It wouldn’t surprise me if many of these 10/10 reviewers have been bitten by the Road Trip Adventure bug as well, since I can forgive some flaws to experience this unique concept. I gained a true sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from uncovering this world and slowly upgrading my car and teammates. There are also several hidden items and Easter eggs so there is a possibility for a few playthroughs. It’s just a shame this great idea didn’t have the big bucks or a major developer behind it – or else we could've had a real gem on the PS2.… Expand
