Superbike 2001 reviewGame Over Online - Sports' titles are often some of the toughest assignments areviewer can get. While more often than not their yearly editionsare relatively worthwhile, too frequently some of their series getlittle more than a simple facelift. Superbike 2001 is one suchfranchise, which makes this review that much more difficult. Yousee, Superbike 2000 was one of the best racing games of the year.Wait a second, did I just say of the year? I certainly did, becauseSuperbike 2000 was released and reviewed in March of 2000. Inother words, Superbike 2001 has made its way to storesapproximately 7 months later.
What should this tell you?Superbike 2001 is little more than a facelift.That's not to say that the Superbike series isn't a great franchise.Heck, Superbike 2000 received our Gamers' Choice Award earlierthis year. But I'm not here to judge the Superbike series fromscratch, my job is too evaluate it as a new product, an upgradefrom previous years.
Superbike 2001 is a Racing game, developed by Milestone S.r.l and published by Electronic Arts, which was released in Europe in 2000.
In that respect, this is little more than a patch ifyou purchased Superbike 2000. I could really only recommendthis game is if you never acquired a copy of Superbike 2000. If that's thecase, than Superbike 2001 should be on your shopping list. Ifyou fall into that category, I suggest you read our review ofSuperbike 2000 as published in March of this year. For those of youwho already own 'last year's' edition, let's get this show underwayand see what new additions have been brought to the raceway.Fresh to Superbike 2001 are new bikes for this season. They includeHonda's VTR1000SP and the Suzuki Bimota SB8R. Also added tothe package this year are new tracks that include Imola, Valenciaand Oscherslebe in Germany.
Let's see, what else is here. There'sa new training mode, which basically guides beginners throughthe basic elements of a race.
You can race every circuitin the training mode and it's an excellent way of learning each ofthe circuits without having to race against opponents. Yep, thatshould juuuuust about do it in terms of new additions.Making a return appearance are the three other modes of play:Quick Start, Single Race and Championship.
The Championshipcircuit now consists of 15 events with the addition of the threeaforementioned circuits, and is clearly the meat of the game.Superbike 2001 continues to blend both an arcade style racingexperience with a realistic racing simulation. The bikes react anddrive like they should as the bike physics and course layout arerelatively accurate. The only real downside to the entire racingexperience is the lack of damage modelling.
You can certainlycrash your bike, so convincingly in fact that you can almost hearthe bones-a-breakin' and smell the rubber and skin-a-burnin', butyou won't see the damage on the bike. If you crash too manytimes, you're out of the race, not that your bike is worse for thewear, but just because.Graphically, Superbike 2001 is just as gorgeous, if not more so,than Superbike 2000. Of course, coming from EA Sports, that'scertainly not unexpected. This year, they've added effects alongthe lines of smoking tires, flying bike debris and improved weathereffects. The bike models, and riders themselves, have all beenrealistically motion-captured and the circuits continue to lookincredible. The distant environments still lack the detail foundwithin the circuit itself, but overall the atmosphere is fantastic.Once again, the audio is slightly disappointing due to the lack ofcommentary.
In fact, the commentary hasn't been changed at allsince Superbike 2000. The bike and ambient sound effects remainthe same as well, but that's not such a bad thing.Superbike 2001 does support multiplayer via LAN, Internet and ofcourse a split-screen two player mode. EA Sports has decided notto set-up a lounge, like they have for NHL 2001 and Madden NFL2001, so don't expect a match-making service to find drivers foryou, you'll have to search for riders on your own.That's basically Superbike 2001 in a nutshell. Quick review yousay? Well, quick review for a quick release, so quick in fact that EASports hasn't even set-up a website for Superbike 2001.
I guessthey didn't think it'd be out this quickly either. If you're interestedin some of the more intricate details of the Superbike series, suchas handling, suspension settings, gear ratios and othercustomizable options, I suggest you read our Superbike 2000review, it covers all of those areas. It'll also list the different bikesin the game and the circuits as well.
Why didn't I mention any ofthose in this review? Because this game is the same as Superbike2000, been there, done that. The choice is simple my friends: If younever purchased Superbike 2000 and you're a fan of motorbikeracing, Superbike 2001 is a game you don't want to miss. If,however, you did buy Superbike 2000 earlier this year, there's been very littleadded to Superbike 2001 for you to shell out more of your hard-earned moolah.Rating: 70%Written By: Nicky DimesGame Over Online - http://www.game-over.com. EA Sports' titles are often some of the toughest assignments areviewer can get.
While more often than not their yearly editionsare relatively worthwhile, too frequently some of their series getlittle more than a simple facelift. Superbike 2001 is one suchfranchise, which makes this review that much more difficult. Yousee, Superbike 2000 was one of the best racing games of the year.Wait a second, did I just say of the year? I certainly did, becauseSuperbike 2000 was released and reviewed in March of 2000.
Inother words, Superbike 2001 has made its way to storesapproximately 7 months later. What should this tell you?Superbike 2001 is little more than a facelift.That's not to say that the Superbike series isn't a great franchise.Heck, Superbike 2000 received our Gamers' Choice Award earlierthis year. But I'm not here to judge the Superbike series fromscratch, my job is too evaluate it as a new product, an upgradefrom previous years.
In that respect, this is little more than a patch ifyou purchased Superbike 2000. I could really only recommendthis game is if you never acquired a copy of Superbike 2000. If that's thecase, than Superbike 2001 should be on your shopping list. Ifyou fall into that category, I suggest you read our as published in March of this year. For those of youwho already own 'last year's' edition, let's get this show underwayand see what new additions have been brought to the raceway.Fresh to Superbike 2001 are new bikes for this season. They includeHonda's VTR1000SP and the Suzuki Bimota SB8R. Also added tothe package this year are new tracks that include Imola, Valenciaand Oscherslebe in Germany.
Let's see, what else is here. There'sa new training mode, which basically guides beginners throughthe basic elements of a race. You can race every circuitin the training mode and it's an excellent way of learning each ofthe circuits without having to race against opponents. Yep, thatshould juuuuust about do it in terms of new additions.Making a return appearance are the three other modes of play:Quick Start, Single Race and Championship. The Championshipcircuit now consists of 15 events with the addition of the threeaforementioned circuits, and is clearly the meat of the game.Superbike 2001 continues to blend both an arcade style racingexperience with a realistic racing simulation.
The bikes react anddrive like they should as the bike physics and course layout arerelatively accurate. The only real downside to the entire racingexperience is the lack of damage modelling.
You can certainlycrash your bike, so convincingly in fact that you can almost hearthe bones-a-breakin' and smell the rubber and skin-a-burnin', butyou won't see the damage on the bike. If you crash too manytimes, you're out of the race, not that your bike is worse for thewear, but just because.Graphically, Superbike 2001 is just as gorgeous, if not more so,than Superbike 2000. Of course, coming from EA Sports, that'scertainly not unexpected.
This year, they've added effects alongthe lines of smoking tires, flying bike debris and improved weathereffects. The bike models, and riders themselves, have all beenrealistically motion-captured and the circuits continue to lookincredible. The distant environments still lack the detail foundwithin the circuit itself, but overall the atmosphere is fantastic.Once again, the audio is slightly disappointing due to the lack ofcommentary. In fact, the commentary hasn't been changed at allsince Superbike 2000.
The bike and ambient sound effects remainthe same as well, but that's not such a bad thing.Superbike 2001 does support multiplayer via LAN, Internet and ofcourse a split-screen two player mode. EA Sports has decided notto set-up a lounge, like they have for NHL 2001 and Madden NFL2001, so don't expect a match-making service to find drivers foryou, you'll have to search for riders on your own.That's basically Superbike 2001 in a nutshell.
Quick review yousay? Well, quick review for a quick release, so quick in fact that EASports hasn't even set-up a website for Superbike 2001. I guessthey didn't think it'd be out this quickly either. If you're interestedin some of the more intricate details of the Superbike series, suchas handling, suspension settings, gear ratios and othercustomizable options, I suggest you read our, it covers all of those areas. It'll also list the different bikesin the game and the circuits as well. Why didn't I mention any ofthose in this review? Because this game is the same as Superbike2000, been there, done that.
The choice is simple my friends: If younever purchased Superbike 2000 and you're a fan of motorbikeracing, Superbike 2001 is a game you don't want to miss. If,however, you did buy Superbike 2000 earlier this year, there's been very littleadded to Superbike 2001 for you to shell out more of your hard-earned moolah.Rating 70% WebGame Over Online.