Valentino Rossi: The Game

Everyone loves a good racing game. Something about the thrill of speed and the imaginary smell of burning rubber on the road is just irreplaceable. Most racing games are of a classing variety with the four wheeled machines designed for pure speed on the one way track many love, or they have a cartoonish take in other forms. Somewhere out there, however, there are the pure adrenaline junkies that racing is not enough. It has to be dangerous racing with even tighter turns and the wind directly on their skin. These people thrive from motorbike racing, and any of them would know the name Valentino Rossi, so seeing Valentino Rossi: The Game become available to play so fans can have their idol teach them to do what they do best is simply a fantasy come true.

Visuals

The graphics on Valentino Rossi: The Game certainly are not state of the art, but they could be worse. The important part of visuals for this game is not in the quality of what the player can see, but what the player can see itself. In the game there are some cool and exclusive customization and visual options that are unique to games like this. The racing industry has the typical graphic features of car smoke, tire burns, and roaring crowds, and while Valentino Rossi: The Game does have these things, it also has some things that are unique to motorbike racing. Some of the racing will take place on dirt paths with a few stunt type features, meaning the graphics have to compensate for these actions, and the developers did not turn a blind eye to that need. Furthermore, unique motorbike sponsors can make their appearances on the bikes of players as well as some famous riders, with Valentino Rossi himself appearing on the screen as the player’s personal coach and guide while they learn to race just like him.

Gameplay and Game Content

The game itself is like any other racing game with its controls and extremely straight forward objective: to win. There is a career mode, however, that offers the player the ability to hone their skills and climb the ranks in a series of races over the course of what in game may be many years. Each race will either add to or take away from the player’s skill rating and chart ranking, while the ultimate goal is to become the #1 racer around, similar to other styled games like Tennis World Tour or PGA World Tour. Even when not in career mode, there are many tracks to choose from and race on, allowing tons of diversity and new experiences for players and keeping them entertained for long periods of time, as well as allowing them to come back to it and not still have all fifty (yes, fifty) of the maps on the game memorized.

Personal Rating

Overall, the game is really nice for those that are into the motorbike racing world. With Valentino Rossi himself (a digital version of course) appearing on the game and coaching you through the ropes, there is no better way to get into the racing world.

Pros

• Tons of tracks
• Valentino Rossi cameo
• Different modes available

Cons

• Repetitive objectives
• Not the best graphics on the market
• Hard to deal with AI