Speeding down the home straight
The presentation in Grid is superb, with the upper screen showing the likes of race position, race time , lap time and so forth, and the lower of the two screens used to show the circuit map and damage indicators. When you crash, the relevant damaged area of your vehicle - be it the brakes, steering or suspension - is highlighted on the lower screen and the affects on your car can be felt until you manage to get to a pt-stop.The presentation continues to impress with the pre-race lobby, which shows you a map of the world and a choice of different events that you can enter. This is also the place where you can access the garage and apply upgrades, view cars or customise your vehicle with a superb decal designer. Incidentally, you can also bring your custom vehicles online as well as sharing your custom tracks with fellow racers.
If you did play Race Driver : Create and Race you’ll be familiar with the track designer interface, which boasts some deep customisation options. As well as being offered a Blueprint challenge in career mode, where you’re given a budget and told to build a track based on strict criteria, you can also build your own tracks at your leisure. Although there’s a multitude of options, the editor is easy to use as you click and drag pieces of the track onto the grid. To give you an idea of the depth of the customisation options, there’s 14 types of ‘straights’ that you can choose, from long uneven ones, to ones that are enclosed under a bridge and you can also fiddle around with how the sky looks and create custom-made decals on the advertising hoardings or billboards around the track.
Grid is one of the most complete racing games on DS, boasting tons of unlockables, a great variety of events and a solid online component. If you're a fan of the racing genre, you need this in your collection.
Pros
Great variety of game modes
Smooth game mechanics
Deep customisation
Nice presentation
Online multiplayer
Cons
Hard to see corners approaching
Boasting a fine array features, Race Driver: Grid captures the speed and thrill of racing superbly on the DS.
HEXUS Awards
Race Driver: Grid – Nintendo DS (8.5/10)
