At the 2011 New York auto show, Volkswagen created a bit of a stir when they announced that they will be releasing a new iteration of the iconic Beetle late in 2011. A million happy possibilities are brought about because of this announcement (the return of the Slug Bug game! Huzzah!), but for me, one idea stands above all others:

Electronic Arts should use the vehicle’s re-introduction to release another Beetle Adventure Racing! game.

For those that don’t remember, Beetle Adventure Racing! was a racing title released for the Nintendo 64 in early 1999. The game, which capitalized on the 1998 release of the New Beetle, featured a roster consisting entirely of different iterations of Volkswagen’s infamous li’l bug, with faster Beetles being unlocked as more races were finished. Similar to other then-current racing games, players progressed through the game one track at a time, unlocking new courses after old ones were completed.

What set Beetle Adventure Racing! apart from its peers (other than its unusually homogenous garage of cars) was its game and level design. The “Adventure” part of the title wasn’t merely for show: players could only advance through the game by collecting a certain number of points, and had to explore their environments in order to find all of the game's point boxes. This placed a large emphasis on pouring over courses for shortcuts and alternate routes in addition to shaving seconds off lap times in order to advance. The tracks themselves were huge, often taking 2–3 minutes to complete a single lap, making each level more akin to Super Mario 64 than Gran Turismo. Shortcuts ran the gamut of settings, from launching off of a ski-jump (Mount Mayhem) to driving through a lake to a replica of Stonehenge (Coventry Cove).

In short, the game was nuts. And it was awesome.


A name like "Beetle Adventure Racing!” all but promises some sort of Wii shovelware title, released to exploit brand loyalty for Volkswagen and anyone with affection for Herbie. Not so. The original Beetle Adventure Racing! was released to surprisingly solid reviews that made it the highest-ranked Nintendo 64 game of 1999 (according to GameRankings.com). The game sold around 600,000 copies, which, while not spectacular, wasn’t too bad for a third party, N64 exclusive racing game (the original Extreme-G sold less). I personally played the crap out of Beetle Adventure Racing! back when it came out, though I had to make due with playing only the first few levels, as I lacked the now ancient Controller Pak required to save the game.

Since the Beetle is getting a new facelift (again), now is the perfect time for the franchise to throw its hat back into the ring. The racing genre has shifted even more to the simulation end of the spectrum, and a new Beetle Adventure Racing! would make a great antidote for those who don’t care for tweaking gear ratios or worrying about tire wear. The emphasis on huge, explorable tracks would help set it apart from its other arcade peers, and could help it cater to players who don’t usually play racing games.

Moreover, the power of modern consoles could help enhance the adventure aspects of the game. Paradigm Entertainment managed to squeeze a series of huge environments out of the N64 hardware, complete with many, many shortcuts and scripted events (a T-Rex pops out of the woods to greet racers on Inferno Isle). The technical jump from the N64 to the Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 means bigger environments, more scripted events, and even more shortcuts to take advantage of. Online gameplay could help round out the package, whether it’s an 8-player point race or Team Deathmatch-style Battle Mode from the first game.


The biggest, most difficult question to answer is how Beetle Adventure Racing! would be distributed; as much as I like to think that eight million people would pay $60 for a video game adaptation of The Love Bug, it’s probably not in the cards. EA could try for digital distribution, similar to the remixed version of Vigilante 8 that came out in 2008, but I think Beetle Adventure Racing! would perform better as a budget title, similar to last year’s cult hit, Deadly Premonition. The distribution costs would be higher, but EA would be able to take advantage of parents looking for a good, cheap family title, especially if it were released for the Wii. Throw in compatibility with Mario Kart Wii’s steering wheel, Kinect support on the Xbox 360, and put an enthusiastic review score on the box, and there’s a cool million sales right there.

It’s been a good twelve years since Beetle Adventure Racing! graced the shores of the N64, but a good franchise never truly dies, and EA would do well to capitalize on the hype surrounding the new Beetle and release another entry in the Adventure Racing! series. Volkswagen would get brand awareness, EA would get game sales, and gamers would get a quality title. Everybody wins.

Labels: 2011, Andrew Testerman, Beetle Adventure Racing, EA, Kinect, N64, Volswagen, WiiWare

Today, as I walked the fifty meters between my small Denver apartment and the treadmill and dumbbell'd corner dungeon under the leasing office that it calls a gymnasium, I noticed how peaceful the scenery was. For those of you who've never been to the Rocky Mountains during late spring or summer, the effect of warmer weather on our alpine climate creates a mix of sunny mornings, cool air, calm breezes and occasional five o'clock thunderstorms which ebb at dusk, merging with the morning tranquility to create a mountain horizon painted by some of the most serene and colorful twilight skies on this planet; the type of environment aspiring poets make pilgrimages to in search of their muse. It was while walking through this meteorological paradise, breathing in the serenity of nature, that I found myself wishing I spent as much time outdoors, being active.

I wished - God help me - that I spent more time playing sports.

Gaming has been at odds with athleticism since its earliest days, when nerds exchanged their allowances for quarters and hung out at the arcade while jocks spent their money on booze and talked to girls under the bleachers after practice. For whatever reason, the two have never completely reconciled - every high school in America has a series of gamer tables (Magic the Gathering players, over-caffeinated programmers who own their own Minecraft servers, etc.) and jock tables (separated by sport and Alpha male) that remain on opposite ends of the cafeteria. There's a definite schism that goes on in grammar school when children begin focusing their time on either athletic or game-related activities, and that's a shame.

The stereotype of a meatheaded jock who can't pass basic Algebra, let alone make it through fifteen minutes of Myst, is just as unfairly broad as that of the asthmatic gamer who instinctively raises his overly skinny/flabby arms when going outside in order to protect himself from the harmful barrage of UV rays pelting his papier-mâché exoskeleton from the sun. Just as athletes are more than capable of becoming passionate, talented gamers, so too are gamers able to thrive in the wide world of sports.

I'm willing to take that statement one step further. By tapping into their complex critical thinking, keen analytical, and confident hair-trigger decision making skills, gamers could be some of the most amazing, talented athletes ever to put on goggles, cleats, or hockey pads in a locker room. With only a slight change in lifestyle, chronic gamers who dedicate themselves to a specific sport could easily become gods of their respective arena, rising to the immortal level of a Lionel Messi, Payton Manning, or Michael Phelps.

It's not even a stretch.


Let's address why. First of all, gamers are notorious for their ability to put up with a hellishly arduous grind in order to achieve a specific goal. World of Warcraft and other MMORPG players are famous for this - they'll lay the sacrifice of their retinas upon the altar of their computer screen for hours, days, and months just to obtain that new chestpiece all of Azeroth has been lusting over. Even an impressive-looking fishing pole provides enough motivation for millions of gamers to spend millions of hours setting the mood for the proud and lusty walrus. It's already been established that gamers can call on this hardened determination in order to enhance their studies. Why not use it in a gym or on a field?

Secondly, athletics are exponentially more cerebral than most non-athletes give them credit for. It takes real intelligence to know where your body is and how best to alter it in a way that fools or surpasses your opponents. In martial arts, a fighter has to assess the skills of whoever they are fighting and develop a strategy as to how best to implement their own abiities (reach, stamina, power, et cetera) to exploit any weaknesses. It's the same process as any multiplayer game that pits human minds against other human minds. In an online first person shooter, a gamer has to find and assess the talents of his or her opponents, then strike at their Achilles heel repeatedly until they are bested. Discover. Assess. Exploit. Whether it's Mario Kart or Scandinavian Whale Wrestling, this formula applies.

If it helps, think of athletics as its own console that encompasses any setting requiring repetitive physical movement far away from a screen, be it an outdoor field, lake, pool, ice rink, mountain slope, beach, or open-ceilinged Japanese dojo littered with falling plum blossoms hailing from parent trees lingering overhead. In lieu of a controller, one's body itself becomes the conduit through which decisions from the brain are manifested into being. That's the main, perhaps only, difference separating video games and athletics - both involving confidently implementing coherent decisions in a fraction of a second via a specific conduit, be it by pressing a button o a controller or reaching one's arm out to divert an oncoming kick.

Like in games, success at athletics offers an impressive reward system: Respect from fans and peers. A feeling of accomplishment. Lifelong friends. A goal-oriented work ethic. Confidence in oneself. A compassionate winning personality. The ability to eat seven wedding cakes whole and not gain a pound. There are more than just douchey letterman jackets and tales of glory to be had. Sometimes athletic rewards can be as concrete as that shiny new World of Warcraft chestpiece, manifesting themselves in the form of gear, trophies, even multimillion dollar advertising deals and all the Wranglers you can eat.


The Ancient Romans and Greeks believed strongly in the concept of mens sana in corpore sano, "a sound mind in a sound body." To them, a person who had only one or the other was limiting their potential as a human being. To achieve true arete, roughly translated as excellence of any kind, one had no choice but to be a huge brain in a ripped-up body. It may sound douchey, or even impossible, but more than anything it's healthy. The gaming community is beginning to learn and promote, albeit slowly, the need for balance and health mens sana in corpore sano with titles like Dance Central or Wii Fit, both of which force players to get off the couch and move.

Given their near-instantaneously problem solving and decision making skills, veteran gamers have more than enough mental capability to excel at athletics. As time goes on and technologies like Playstation Move, the Wii Fit pad, and Kinect tempt gamers to replace their stretchy pants for $300 bike shorts, the antiquated stereotype of unhealthy gamers who abhor athleticism - who live on a diet of Mountain Dew and sadness - may follow the Dodo. Technological advancement blurs the line between jock and nerd a little more each day, and that's a terrific thing. After all, whether they're attempting to solve a puzzle using a gun that creates portals on their PC or striving to kick a ball through a net on a grassy field, both jocks and nerds are doing the same thing:

They're playing games.

Labels: 2011, Athletics, Greg Mengel, Kinect, PlayStation Eye, PlayStation Move, Wii Fit

Music karaoke games are something that we're all pretty familiar with; whether it's SingStar on the Playstation 3 or Lips on the Xbox 360, they can be enjoyed by people ranging from budding pop stars to those of us who can't hold a note. No doubt about it, the music karaoke genre is pretty entertaining and really quite popular. But how would you feel if I told you there was a thing called movie karaoke? The concept may seem incredibly strange, but Yoostar 2 manages to make it incredibly enticing. Being dropped into your favourite films is something everyone can get a kick out of. I have no doubt that anyone who much as rents it for a weekend will have many a laugh, but does it have the longevity to remain a party favourite, or will it be eclipsed by other music games? Will your relationship with Yoostar 2 be a one-night stand basis?

Truth is, it depends.

In concept, Yoostar 2 is both cool and simple. There are 80 famous film scenes on the disc and you can step into the role of one or two of the characters involved to either perfectly recapture the original performance or ad-lib your own craziness. Some of the scenes can be performed with two people at once, some involve no dialogue at all, and others are set up as action battlegrounds in which you direct yourself. You simply step in front of the PlayStation Eye or Kinect camera, line yourself up in the correct position and presto! - you're in a scene. It sounds simple because it is - there isn't really much complexity to Yoostar 2. not only do its rating systems seem a little off, but unless you get creative redoing scenes multiple times won't be as appealing as singing your favourite songs again and again via SingStar, Lips, Rock Band, or one of the other classics.


Whilst the process of playing the game itself is simple, getting everything to work correctly from a technical standpoint can be an exercise in frustration. For the camera technology to work as it should, you're going to need stand in front of a clear backdrop and ensure that lighting is completely even. Objects such as sofas, or minor lighting issues like furniture shadows will result in your surroundings bleeding into the scene. While it may be amusing to see a lampshade appear on top of Marlon Brando's head during a scene from The Godfather, it does kill the illusion.

I'm lucky enough to be in a position where it's relatively easy to set up the camera in a furniture-free, well-lit location, and everything works as it should, but these technical shenanigans are certainly something to consider if you only have access to a clustered living room. When the camera does work as intended, the effect is fantastic (especially in scenes where you are working with other real actors). The illusion is certainly there, so it's worth putting some effort in to ensure you get the best experience possible as there are laughs and fun to be had if you get it to work.


In terms of modes, Quick Play is the one to choose. It simply lets you pick any scene you want and act it out without any faffing around - it's quick and simple enough that most people will probably stick with it rather than head into the Challenge mode, which plays out like some sort of half-hearted attempt at a single player career mode. It's not particularly appealing, and will leave you trudging through a fair amount of scenes that you may not be remotely interested in.

Speaking of scenes you may not be interested in, that is what will ultimately make or break Yoostar 2 - the content it offers you. There are some great scenes on its list, but inevitably there are a few duff ones too (Angels and Demons, who chose that one?!). DLC has been promised, but as of now nothing is available, meaning that it's difficult to predict what kind of scenes will eventually be put on sale (or more importantly, how much they are going to cost). If there's good enough DLC support in store for us, then Yoostar 2's Quick Play mode will make it well worth returning to months down the line.

What's also impressive about Yoostar 2 is it's social networking element. You can save all your scenes locally and also upload them to the Yoostar Playground, an online hub where they can be viewed and rated by other users. From here they can easily be posted onto Facebook and Twitter, which is a nice touch. It's these sort of options which will keep people engaged with the game, and if a budding community can flourish and grow then Yoostar 2 may have a healthy future in store for it.


The length of playtime you'll get out of Yoostar 2 will depend on:

a) Your love for films
b) How creative you are
c) Whether or not it ever receives DLC worth buying

There are some pretty good scenes on the disc, and Quick Play mode can be an absolute barrel of laughs when enjoyed with friends, but beyond that there isn't anything else to do with Yoostar 2. The social networking element is an innovative and well realised step forward for party games of this style, but what will keep you coming back is the ad-lib option to mess around with famous scenes and the future DLC support. As it stands today, Yoostar 2 is an amusing party game with some neat technology behind it and one that will keep you entertained for a few Saturday nights at the very least.

7/10 [?]

Labels: 2011, 360, Kinect, PlayStation Move, PS3, Review, Tom Acres, Yoostar 2