Hidden Gems #24 Kinetica, Wipeout Fusion, & ATV Offroad Fury

Alright we are ''staying the course'' in this case with the racing genre, only we look at some good gems this time, and all three of them have in common was they were you guessed in my favorite era in gaming the 6th gen to my favorite console with the most library of unknowns being the PlayStation 2. The interesting thing about these three games is they were all actually released pretty close from one another whether it was a few months in that early era of the PlayStation 2 I binged through a lot of random games I bought without realizing if its good or not. Luckily for me these were just pretty good for the time do they still hold up great is the question to be answered.

ATV Offroad Fury: Right away from the cover its more of a ATV racing game, but believe it or not it was good... from what I remember, and I even liked it when I had a demo of it at one point. Sounds like a dumb concept right off the bat... well not in this case. the gameplay is surprisingly decent for what they did for attempting some tricks you could pull off while trying to win the race kinda like SSX Tricky without the voices instead motors go off constantly. Back at the menu though you got Training immediately starring at you, MAXXIS Championship which was really exhibition of what the game played like to test out without doing the training, and Stadium Supercross which is basically Motorcross with a ton of tricks to pull off. However screw up, and except to start over from the beginning this game does not wait on you if you make a fatal mistake. It will make it harder for you to win if you lucky to do that well done, but everytime I would occasionally mess up a trick the guy behind me always won. Does that make it bad for being pretty tough no, in fact I like a challenge especially in racing games makes so much logical sense. I say give a chance if you have it laying around a collection of PlayStation 2 games you may have not of touched ever. 7.5 out of 10

Kinetica: Eight months later, and I run in to this game called Kinetica. I did not know what to say of it other than the cover makes it look like the robot has wheels, and moves is kinda awkward looking pose. The intro looks pretty cool, and well I don't mind this cool Japanese like sound in the main menu. Pick the Kinetic suitor, and wow this game is furiously fast I mean once the announcer says go, you go real fast. I gotta say this does feel cool racing through the unique set of levels all in the I guesses i'll call it ''Neo Tokyo'' like setting with the futuristic scenery being the whole setup. According to a certain source here's something I never would of knew until going unreal '' the vehicles are capable of reaching terminal velocity and beyond, reaching speeds of over 350 miles per hour.'' That is insanely fast, another thing I did notice when I revisited the game back then was Kinectia (of the same title name) ran on what would become the God of War series 4 years later. This is one ancient gem I would definitely replay about a few times just to remember what it was like, and that it looks good still. 8 out of 10

Wipeout Fusion: Our final game came out the very next year 4 months later in which looked miles better in terms of graphics still hold up surprisingly today In Wipeout Fusion. Yet as always its never about the graphics I mean Wrestlemania 21 was horrifyingly bad, but had great graphics still for 2005, this is 2002, and if my mind suits I did like this game a lot when I was younger. Like Kientica it was of the futuristic setting, but not what I did gave the label very different at least in story. Here you got human faces where the other you had what looked to be cyborg racing one another in the year 2401 okay I need to stop making timesplitters references. Okay... in the menu you have aq league, challenge, zone, and the generic time trial which is usually in every racing game. I pick the hovercraft looking vehicle, and the race begins, noticed how much speed boosts there are in this then the other two standout making it feel oh Mario Kart-ish in a way, but tries hard not to. Gets addicting, looks great being 15 years is very impressive definitely worth a try. 8 out of 10

Until Next Time!

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