Club Drive

Yes, I know some of you are already groaning about the subject of this review, Club Drive. A favorite among "Worst Video Games Ever" lists but I for one kinda enjoy this game, for the reasons I shall explain to you all in this review! But just because I like it, doesn't mean Ill be unfair to it. Mind you this was my first Atari Jaguar game I ever played/owned.

The Game

The game is simple: You are an indestructible car in some futuristic island because driving is still illegal everywhere else. You can drive around in San Francisco in 2010, some sort of Future City, a western town, and a giant house with silly cats, toilets, mice and pianos you can run into. The Western town and San Francisco are pretty good to drive around in.

A couple of the games levels are pretty well done but the game could have used at least 3 more tracks. There are like 4 to 6 (including hidden tracks) where you can just race around, or collect odd little balls in a game.

There are no other cars in the race and you play against a time clock unless you are playing against a friend. Time racing doesn't make the game very challenging.

Graphics

So yes, it is a polygon game, and as most Jaguar fans know that most polygon games on the Jag didn't always turn out all too well. But there are a few good polygon games out there, Like Iron Soldier II, Fight for Life, Battlemorph, and that other space flying game, you know the one ;). But Club Drive... Well... At least they tried... kinda.

The graphics on this game are really not good. At best. They are blocky, oddly coloured and not even shaded. Even Cybermorph, the Jaguars FIRST game, had gourad shaded polygons! This was Club Drive's many faults. No texture mapping either. And the backgrounds are all somewhat off in their colour blends.

Sound & Music

Well, as you jaguar fans also know, many Jaguar games had pretty good music. Tempest 2000 sticking out rather easily and even Defender 2000 had some pretty good sounds as well. But guess what? Club Drive does not. It has awful music. Cheesy, corny, and just all out not good. At best.

If Atari had just given this game some really nice music, I'm sure Club Drive could have sold a few more copies than it did. 

And the sound effects. Not good either. The engine sound wasn't very well done, try driving up a little hill and the engine sounds like a screeching, annoying, horrible thing! It hardly sounds like an engine. But what's fun is running into that toilet and piano and cat and mouse since they make sounds when you hit em!

Control

The controls are rather simple. The number pad selects your camera modes and also can change the "radio channel" meaning it changes the music (off as well thankfully.) Driving around is simple, except when you hit something, then it gets really hard to stay in control or to get back to how you were driving. If you have your game set on fast engines, which allows you to drive really fast, control is almost impossible.

Overall

A game to play by yourself? No.
A game to play with your new friends? No.
A game to play with your family? No.
A game to play to impress women? No.
A game that supplies a million laughs? Yes!

So go and find a copy of Club Drive, its most likely in someone's dumpster RIGHT NOW!

But honestly, it is a nice game to play every once and a while and especially when driving through the city, (not the future city, its just a race track.) And its a fun game to play with your old friends that already know your weird in a silly little race around the western expansion, and even finding the hidden Atari Headquarters and a couple other hidden places are fun little treats that make you want to play Club Drive every so often.

And hey, there is even a Club Drive fan club on Yahoo! Groups! (Alright I admit, I'm the President.)