In this review, we gather the booster in the GameCube game Tube Slider. We find out how well this racing game plays.
This game was released in 2003.
There is no real story to this game that we could tell. You just race down tubes.
The main mode in this game is compete mode. Through this, you can pick the main mode in this game which is Grand Prix. There is a normal mode and a maximum mode, but chances are, you’ll only really get to see the normal mode.
After that, you can select one of the eight different racers in the game. Each one has their strengths and weaknesses as they all have slightly different stats.
From there, you can pick between three Grand Prix challenges. The events are “Kogasha” (easy with three “sessions), Asogi (challenging with 5 “sessions”), and Nayuta (hardest of the three with 7 “sessions”). After that, you take on the championship.
There are 8 racers in all, however, you only score championship points with the top 4 positions. You need to finish within the top 4 to advance to the next race. Get the most points and earn a gold medallion.
As for the races themselves, you start off the countdown with a choice between two different racing booster styles: Booster or Turbo. Simply highlight the one you want. You can also get a boost at the start by timing your acceleration with the end of the countdown.
Booster allows you to power up your meter quickly. After it fills up, you’ll get a booster. You can carry a maximum of three boosts before you cap out. Alternatively, nitro simply features a single bottle. It fills up more slowly and you need a minimal amount before you can use it. However, it has the distinct advantage of allowing you to use as much or as little as you want. Just be warned that all of your meter is susceptible to draining unlike the booster style.
As you race, you’ll constantly gain booster as you race. In the easier races, you’ll be best suited if you never cap out your booster. Time spent racing with a capped out booster is, generally speaking, wasted chance to go faster. In harder races, it’s a different story. This is because it’s unlikely you’ll be able to easily cap out your booster while retaining a nice solid lead. By then, opponents are much more difficult to keep up with (in some cases, difficult to catch on top of it all).
In addition to this, there are items you can collect on the track. There are three you can collect: green, blue, and red.
Green gives you the equivalent of a normal boost in speed without the use of your booster. Can’t argue with free extra speed, can you?
Blue, meanwhile, replenishes a chunk of your boost meter. Not a bad thing by any means.
Finally, there are red item pickups. These tend to be located in more difficult to reach locations. However, if you do manage to collect these, you’ll get an extra powerful speed boost. These are generally very critical to collect if you want to be successful in some of the harder races.
As the game suggests, you are generally racing through tubes. You can easily be o the ceiling, walls, and floor (if there really are such things in this environment). This generally changes the style of racing quite a bit. You can try and race the tracks like a normal racer. Alternatively, you can try and find ways of taking advantage of this style of track. I personally haven’t found much of a winning formula for the harder races, so it really is something you need to figure out what is best for you. One thing to keep in mind is that, although there are no walls on these tracks, there is always the risk of spinning out in these courses that can easily slow you down to a crawl. So, maintaining speed as much as possible is essential.
A final feature is the ability to leech boost from your opponents. As you race, you might be able to catch up to your opponent and slowly tail them. When that happens, your machine will automatically lock on to the opponent ahead of you and try and leech boost from that opponent. It’s easy to break this lock, so make sure you get a solid lock to get a good drain from your opponents. Be warned that your opponent can easily do the same thing to you.
For me, the positive of this game is the race track designs. I thought they were nicely varied considering the design constraint of everything being a tube.
Unfortunately, this is where the praise generally ends. The first thing I immediately noticed is just how quickly the difficulty ramps up in this game. Completing the easiest Grand Prix is certainly enough to allow you to get a good feel for the racing style. However, when you make it to the second one, it can be quite difficult to try and clinch those number 1 positions at the end of the race. In fact, I had to take a second and third place towards the end just because the races were so intense. This allowed me to win, but only by a little bit. When I tried the final Grand Prix, yeah, I just lost every time and ran out of Retry chances.
This leads me to my second complaint about this game: there is a very small amount of content in this game. I literally spent an afternoon playing this and got enough of the game in question. That part was quite painful for me as well because I like being able to get immersed in the experience for at least two or three days. What is available is so small that it really hurts the quality of the experience.
In addition to this, the features are quite small. Outside of choosing from two different booster styles at the start of the race, there is really no customization available in this game. So many games out there do offer some form of customization. In this one, customization is just not available here. As a result, this game winds up coming off as an exceedingly simple game. By this point in time, such a distinct lack of options really puts this one at a disadvantage.
Generally speaking, this game does have quite a few negatives. The seeming lack of content, the high difficulty curve, and lack of almost any kind of customization available in this one. While the tracks are decently designed and the leeching system is, at least, interesting, there’s not a lot going for this game. The novelty of racing in tube courses is interesting, but this does wear off after a while. Generally speaking, there are a lot of better options out there for racing games. This just seemingly offers the barest of minimal gaming. As a result, I don’t really find myself recommending this one.
Graphically, this game is actually quite decent. I thought the environments were well realized and this game does offer a fair bit of eye candy throughout. The designs of the vehicles, while being quite odd at times, do have quite a bit of detail in them. In addition to this, the effects are pretty decent. So, arguably, the graphics are the strongest aspects of the game.
The audio is, well, a bit lacking, however. The music is OK, though I don’t find it to be particularly memorable. Meanwhile, the sound effects are decent, though nothing too amazing. Sadly, there is no voice acting that I am aware of in this game. I would rate this one barely passable, but offering a failing grade on this front is a bit on the mean side. So, it’s passable, but barely.
Overall, this game does offering an interesting premise of racing through tube tracks. When you get into this one, the track designs are, in fact, quite interesting. However, most of the rest of the game falls apart shortly after you dive into it. The difficulty curve is quite steep and the content is seemingly lacking (you can easily play through this in a day). Also, the lack of customization’s and the fact that this is a very bare bones game doesn’t help things either. The graphics are solid, but the audio is barely passable. In the end, as much as I like futuristic racing games, this one is a pretty mediocre experience on in my opinion.
Overall
Furthest point in game: Two gold medallions and failed the first race in the hardest Grand Prix.
General gameplay: 16/25
Replay value: 6/10
Graphics: 7/10
Audio: 3/5
Overall rating: 64%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
