Castrol Honda Superbike Racing
| Castrol Honda Superbike Racing | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Interactive Entertainment, Ltd. |
| Publisher(s) |
US Electronic Arts EU THQ Jap Success |
| Director(s) | James Bailey[1] |
| Producer(s) | Tony Love[1] |
| Designer(s) | Tuan Pingster Nguyen[1] |
| Programmer(s) | Dan Azzopardi, Alex Jakes,[2] John Rees,[2] Vladislav Kaipetsky[1] |
| Artist(s) | Imran Hussain[1] |
| Series | Castrol HONDA Superbike |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Racing |
| Mode(s) |
Single-player 2 player splitscreen |
Castrol HONDA -World Superbike Team- Superbike Racing (short: Castrol HONDA Superbike Racing) is a licensed motorcycle racing game, developed by Interactive Entertainment, Ltd.. The game features the Honda RVF750 RC45 and the riders Aaron Slight and Colin Edwards of the 1998 Superbike World Championship season
Gameplay
The player controls a motorcyclist (default names are A.Slight and C.Edwards) in races on various international race tracks. Game types are "Practice Session" (solo practice), "Trainer Session" (where the player has to follow the trainer's bike to learn the optimum racing line), "Single Race" (one race on a chosen track against contestants) and "Championship" (race the whole season). The latter two consist in three parts: "Practice Session", "Qualifying" and "Race". In each race, a field of eight bikers races simultaneously, including the human players. Game options include Difficulty (Rookie, Novice, Amateur, Semi Professional, Professional, Ace), number of laps (3, 5, 10 laps or "full race" which is 100 km). In the bike setup, gearbox (automatic or manual), final drive for each gear and gear sprocket can be modified.
Supported functions
Functions that are supported by the game:
- Local versus: 2 player splitscreen
- Controller setup supports vibration
Features
The game features 14 racing tracks in total, which are all accessible from the beginning:
| Number | Track | Lap Length in Miles |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Sukah Island | 2.19 M |
| 2. | Padang Raceway | 3.63 M |
| 3. | Porto Korinthos | 3.10 M |
| 4. | Palamos G.P. | 2.70 M |
| 5. | North Allerton | 1.86 M |
| 6. | Allerton G.P. | 2.43 M |
| 7. | Motegi | 2.98 M |
| 8. | Motegi Night Time | 2.98 M |
| 9. | Motegi Oval | 0.93 M |
| 10. | Catalunya | 2.94 M |
| 11. | Germany | 2.48 M |
| 12. | Leicester | 2.49 M |
| 13. | USA | 2.48 M |
| 14. | Italy | 3.58 M |
Reception and reviews
The game received a score of 53.55% on GameRankings, based on 15 individual reviews.[4] The game was reviewed by the German multiformat console magazine "MAN!AC" and received a rating of 58%. The review considered the game a "mediocre racer with many racing tracks but simple visuals and little realism in controls".[5]
Sequels and Spin-offs
There are four games in the Castrol HONDA Superbike series of which each one was produced by Interactive Entertainment Ltd:
- Castrol HONDA SuperBike World Champions (1998 for PC)
- Castrol HONDA -World Superbike Team- Superbike Racing (1999 for PlayStation)
- Castrol HONDA World Superbike Team Superbike 2000 (1999 for PC)
- Castrol HONDA World Superbike Team VTR (2001 for PlayStation)
Note: Although the PlayStation version (by Bubble Boy Ltd) and the PC version (with the name suffix "2000") were released the same year, they are individual games (as the different titles suggest) and not just versions of the same game.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 The names of developers can be found in the ingame credits.
- 1 2 This person worked for Bubble Boy Ltd and participated in the console conversion.
- 1 2 3 Castrol Honda Superbike on GiantBomb.com
- ↑ Castrol Honda Superbike Racing on GameRankings
- ↑ Castrol Honda Superbike Racing. Review in MAN!AC 8/99. page 68. Cybermedia Verlag.