Sbk-07 Superbike World Championship
Karren Bangura
Veteran developer Milestone also has a legacy to live up to, having produced Superbike games for Electronic Arts from 1998-2001. And having produced the road-based Super-Bikes last year as a dry-run, it now has a five-year franchise for the World Superbike championship, with versions due for the PS2, PSP, PC, and Xbox 360.
The good news from the early preview code is that everything seems to be on track. Circuits already playable include classic bike venues Silverstone and Assen, with changes in gradient particular noticeable at hilly circuits like Brands Hatch. Each venue already includes detail such as control towers, buildings and pit trucks, and although it might not push the PS2 to the absolute limit, the level of detail doesn't interfere with the smoothness of the tracks, or the number of bikes on the grid.
The riders themselves are nicely animated, as they crouch for speed on straights and place a knee on the tarmac as a guide around corners. You can choose to race as any rider, including reigning champion Troy Bayliss, or current title hopeful James Toseland, each with their distinctive helmet design. And all the teams should be totally up-to-date by the time the game launches in a couple of months.
Bikes are also accurately modelled, with individual sponsor logos on the fairings and exhausts, and a choice of third-person or on-bike views. There's a noticeable difference in handling between the four-cylinder Japanese machines and the Italian V-twin Ducatis, with the former perhaps easier to ride for beginners, and the latter coming with more low-down torque to pull out of corners and a distinctive throaty exhaust note. Although Ducati has dominated the championship for many years, it's easy to see why they are under threat in the past couple of seasons, as the four-cylinder bikes seem a little easier to ride from the start.
Game modes on offer include Quick Race, Time Attack, a full Race Weekend, a season-long Championship, a separate Challenges mode, and two-player split-screen multiplayer. The wise decision has been to focus totally on the race series, and this pays off with a game that seems more serious and dedicated in its approach to motorcycle racing.
Both the Race Weekend and Season modes give you the full World Superbike experience, with practice sessions, qualifying, and the top-16 Superpole shootout to decide the final grid positions for the two Superbike races which make up an event. Some of the teams and riders will be unlockable for good performances, as you learn your race craft.
And depending on the difficulty level you select, you may need to spend some time practising. It's possible to jump in with an Arcade set-up giving you full traction control, no bike damage, and even rider help to slow you down and start turning. Alternatively, you can go for the full Simulation mode, or choose a Custom setting to allow you to mix and match the elements you want, such as false starts and real rules, but to turn off rider and bike health if you find yourself breaking man and machine without finishing a lap. It's certainly worth experimenting a little to find the right balance between realism and wrecking when you could be spending up to 40 or 50 minutes per race if you turn the length up to 100 per cent.
The good news is that the tweaking will be worth it for the effect it will have on your riding. Adopting a custom set of rules without much in the way of rider aids allows you to feel the accuracy of the handling, which will be familiar to anyone who has played Super-Bikes. Front and rear brakes work independently, allowing you to lock the rear wheel to turn in an emergency, with the resulting squeal warning you just before the rear end comes round and propels your rider into the air. Combine that with control over the riding position and you can easily amuse yourself performing wheelies and stoppies around the track, as well as spinning the rear tyre and sliding out of corners on full throttle.
To make fast and safe progress on the more accurate settings will take a little time, as the bikes can be a little unforgiving. It's also worth turning up the brake pressure as the standard settings slow you with the speed of the Titanic, rather than a lightweight racing motorcycle, and sometimes the turning circle can seem a bit ponderous. But persevere for a couple of races, and you'll soon learn the braking points and speeds you'll need. Some interesting touches include the realistic way a bike will flop onto its side if you learn too far without maintaining acceleration, and although it adds to the difficulty, it also adds to the satisfaction of getting it right. And you can always turn it off if it proves too much to master at the beginning.
The only major niggle, and one that will hopefully be changed before release, is the control system. Although you can choose between four different set-ups, none really allows a comfortable way to control the front and rear brakes, plus the throttle, without your right hand adopted a claw shape which becomes pretty uncomfortable over the course of a race. Allowing both brakes to be mapped onto the two right shoulder buttons would cure this instantly, and allow a lot more control and comfort.
Anyway, it may have been six long years since Milestone last produced a bike racing game, but World Superbikes is already shaping up to be a real title challenger to the MotoGP series on the PS2. Both games focus closely on their respective race series, and both provide a healthy challenge, but because World Superbikes is based more on real world bike physics, it makes a lot more logical sense, and becomes instinctive a long time before its MotoGP rival. And with the attention to realism and detail, on the Xbox 360 it could become the two-wheeled Pro Evo Soccer to MotoGP '07s FIFA.
The world of two-wheeled motor sports is dominated by two disciplines--the glamorous Moto GP category on one side, and the more down-to-earth Superbike World Championship on the other. Compared to the custom-built vehicles of the former, superbikes are modified versions of those that are sold all over the world. As a result, Superbikes attracts plenty of interest from bike modders and manufacturers alike, with the famous phrase "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" referring to just how important race outcomes can be. However, this interest hasn't led to any SBK video games since EA published an official tie-in back in 2001. It's fitting, then, that the same developer is responsible for bringing the license back to the gaming world for the 2007 season--and the game not only does the sport justice, but it's also a refreshing alternative to the numerous Moto GP games on the market.
The key goal for Milestone has been to accommodate both casual race fans and simulation enthusiasts in SBK'07. When you first start playing the game you'll find it to be a highly accessible arcade racer which can easily be picked up from the first race. However, switch to the simulation mode and it develops into an incredibly realistic reproduction of the sport. Basic skills such as braking and steering become a lot more difficult, while even on the straights you'll be wrestling with the power of the bike just to keep it under control. You can alternate between the two styles or tweak individual settings to reach a compromise. For example, you can turn on braking assistance, or turn off motorbike damage if you're finding it too difficult. As the game can be played in its entirety in any way you wish, it offers a customisable level of depth from the start.
SBK'07 offers all of the game modes that we've come to expect from the genre. The main focus is on the championship mode, which presents 11 official tracks on which to practice, qualify, and race. You're given the choice to skip the prerace stages if you like, and if you're playing on the arcade mode you'll find that it's not necessary to be at the front of the starting grid. You can choose a bike and a rider from 15 teams at the start of the game, although some riders need to be unlocked by winning races. The length of races can be altered to the length of your choice, while the difficulty level has three settings, rookie, amateur, and professional. Again, arcade players shouldn't have much problem winning races at the medium level, and even the professional-level opponents don't present too much of a challenge once you've learnt the tracks. Aside from the championship mode, you can choose to play individual time trials and races, as well as the full weekend of qualifying and racing for any of the venues. The challenge mode is perhaps the most difficult part of the game, as you're disqualified for having even one wheel stray from the track when you're racing. Nonetheless, the acceleration, skidding, time trial, and chase games let you hone your driving skills and win some bonuses in the process.
On the multiplayer side, two players can jump in and play any race from the game in either the quick race or time trial modes. Most options can be tweaked in this mode, including bikes, rider, and opponent artificial intelligence, but we'd have liked to be able to change the difficulty level for individual players to make it fairer. For example, if a real fan of the game is playing a rookie friend, it would have been fun to put the former player on the simulation mode and the latter on arcade. With many recent PS2 racers featuring an online mode, it's a shame that it's missing from SBK '07. It's also a letdown that no PlayStation Portable linkup mode has been included. The PSP game may contain fewer tracks and racers than its big brother, but it would still have been cool to transfer your career to the PSP to take on the move.
While the choice between racing and simulation styles is a big draw for SBK'07, the main reason that it succeeds comes down to a fantastic racing model. The excellent animation means that you really feel as if you're playing as the human being rather than the bike, and the game really conveys the struggle between man and machine in a convincing, compelling way. This is especially true at the simulation level, where merely accelerating too quickly is enough to send the front wheel up in the air. While the Moto GP games have also successfully captured this, the simulation mode in SBK will give dedicated players a very accurate feeling of controlling some of the fastest bikes in the world as well as tweaking them extensively should you so desire. Even with these issues taken away in the arcade mode, the game still challenges you to learn the basics of braking, accelerating, and cornering in order to win. The collisions also look bone-crunchingly realistic, giving you a dilemma over whether to cause spectacular pileups at the beginning of the race or try to escape unscathed.
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