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Thread: Xbox Room Zoom: A Review

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    Default Xbox Room Zoom: A Review

    Room Zoom is another little car racer for the Xbox that came out in the bargin, just like Grooverider that I already looked at. In fact, it suffers from almost all the same problems as Grooverider and makes very few improvements. It also does have the same successes though.

    The game is fun. I used to have a radio controlled car that I loved playing with. I'd have it outside and walk around the block with it and stuff... I always wanted to do races, but no one else had one that was the same speed. My neighbor had one that was about four times faster, but mine could do off road, so it was never a fair match.

    Anyway, Room Zoom gives you a fair match in RC-like cars... sorta.

    Just like Grooverider, I like the concept a lot and that is what got me to buy this. The problem though, also just like Grooverider you have to unlock nearly everything. You get more cars to start with, but just one track.

    The tracks are imaginative, but require the same memorization to beat. As you progress, you HAVE to memorize where the track is or you'll forget. And then you'll be lost.

    Perhaps the biggest problem springs from the tracks. There are multiple paths you can take in some of them, but in others you can take a special path and the game will tell you that you're off course and set you WAY back. In one course, you can go down the stairs or drive off the side to meet up with the track. Driving off the side, you'll land on the track just a short way below and probably save a couple seconds, but the game says you've gone off track and puts you back about five seconds before you fell off. On the other hand, sometimes you go to an off-track place and it is a shortcut with a special item. Which one you'll get is TOTALLY random and ruins a lot of the fun of the game.

    Control is okay, but not superb. Nothing to really talk about there. Same with sound and graphics. All acceptable, nothing great. The camera is well done, thankfully.

    The one thing that the game does suffer from is a lack of originality. With Grooverider, the strange experience of racing as a slot car and switching lanes works because it isn't a common way to race. Grooverider wins points for that. With Room Zoom, there is nothing special. Nothing at all. It's a racer with little cars. I could compare it to any other racing game from extreme games like Rush 2049 or serious games like Gran Turismo, and it doesn't hold up. It's unfortunate because take out the random shortcut thing and it could've been a lot better.

    Overall Ratings:
    Graphics - 7
    Sound - 5
    Control - 6
    Gameplay - 5
    Overall - 5

    Great track design can't make up for poor execution. Another game I want to like but just can't.
    Dan Loosen
    http://www.goatstore.com/ - http://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/
    ** Trying to finish up an overly complete Dreamcast collection... want to help? (Updated 5/3/10!) http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61333

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    I nabbed this for $5.00 at EB a while ago. It's a fun little racer, but I'd have to say that its best "feature" is its $27.00 trade-in-value at FYE.

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    Peach (Level 3) E Nice's Avatar
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    What about Domination mode and the little soccer game mode? I don't understand what you mean special item being totally random. The weapons and other car powerups seemed pretty set, last I remember. And you have to collect three keys on every track, except the first and maybe the second, to unlock cars. The unlocking tracks is kinda misleading. There are four tracks in each Championship circuit, of which there are three or four. They're pretty varied tracks. MotoGP only had 11 tracks or something. Room Zoom has at least 12.
    Murk: We will bring you Bob Barker. We will bring you the limp and beaten body of Bob Barker! - BTVS

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    Quote Originally Posted by E Nice
    What about Domination mode and the little soccer game mode?
    I actually didn't play through these modes. I decided to give it up before that point.

    I don't understand what you mean special item being totally random. The weapons and other car powerups seemed pretty set, last I remember.
    It wasn't the weapons that I felt were random -- they aren't. It is the shortcuts that the game allows you to take. I was playing in the mad scientist level, and there is at least three places where there were shortcuts that I took that took me off the road for a couple seconds and I drove on the road for a good four or five while the game flashed "Off course - Return to road or press A to move there."

    It was frustrating that you had to go off the regular path to find the keys, but if you went off in a place that didn't have the key it would reset you WAY far back.

    And you have to collect three keys on every track, except the first and maybe the second, to unlock cars. The unlocking tracks is kinda misleading. There are four tracks in each Championship circuit, of which there are three or four. They're pretty varied tracks. MotoGP only had 11 tracks or something. Room Zoom has at least 12.
    You unlock the cars with the keys, yes, but you can only play through the tracks after winning them on a circuit. I would much rather it be like Mario Kart where instead of just one circuit to start with, I had three unlocked. With just one, when I get frustrated at one track (Mad Scientist!), I can't just move onto another so it really exposes the small problems to me.

    Everything is just an opinion though
    Dan Loosen
    http://www.goatstore.com/ - http://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/
    ** Trying to finish up an overly complete Dreamcast collection... want to help? (Updated 5/3/10!) http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=61333

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