Club Drive is crap ... so why do I like it?

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 4:13 am

I mean the game has so much going against it. The graphics look like an early alpha work in progress ... ugly, jagged, bland, etc ... The sfx had me lunging to mute the engine sound, and the farting sfx for the music track on the house level aren't much better. The control may drive you to throw the controller through the tv as your vehicle bounces, flips, and sometimes gets stuck in the scenery! The race has you going up against, um, nobody! The courses are limited in number ...

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. If not, check out this hilarious review ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vayZOlyx1y8

So ... why in the name of the Tramiel's have I been playing this game every night for the past week?!? And ... why am I enjoying it!?!

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 2:05 am

Terrible game that happens to have some charm to it. The multiplayer (tag mode specifically) is a blast if you have a friend around.

T2KFreeker · Post by **T2KFreeker** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 2:12 am

Ah, the third in the Hard Drivin series! I live this game very much.

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 3:59 am

I guess (in spite of itself) I like the style of the game. It's a laid back, relaxing, no pressure romp through some very primitive polygon enviornments that reminds me of my early days testing the next gen waters w/3DO & Jag. I like the collection mode (reminds me of Cybermorph in a way) I like going off the beaten path during the race, finding extra stuff. Even the music grew on me, and it's even varied w/several tracks! (the opening tune and credits song are very catchy) I like posting & trying to beat my best times, I admire the ambition on the SanFrancisco track, etc ... I dunno, the game is terrible on multiple levels, but I'm still having a lot of fun with it.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 4:10 am

Trev, there area few hidden areas too. Sort of easter egg-like areas, like the Atari HQ building. That's a good one, track it down if you haven't yet.

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Sun Mar 11, 2012 4:13 am

So far I've found a castle & an area around a lake that had a dinosaur and a rocket ship. Not a whole lot to do around them, but I still get a kick outta finding something extra.

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Mon Mar 12, 2012 11:05 pm

Finally figured out how to drive into the fireplace! I had tweaked the options to slow (in order to have some ever so slight measure of control

) but once I bumped it out to fast, I had not trouble finding the secrets of the fireplace.

Decided to play two player w/my wife last night. Here are some of the more funnier moments ...

- After booting the game up, my wife gets this confused look on her face ... "It looks like they didn't finish it."

- As the graphics are failing to impress, I decide to show her one of the better looking tracks ... (chuckling) "This is one of the better looking tracks?"

- When my car kept randomly turning around at the end of the SF level, we started arguing about whether or not I was going backwards. I tried to convince her I was heading towards the goal ... "You must be going the wrong way, why else would the game keep trying to turn your car around?

- Playing Jerome's pad and showing her the orange shoebox cat ("his tail is sticking straight out"

) crashing into the toilet to make it flush (which is the only way I realized it was a toilet, the graphics don't help) and finishing the race in under 30 seconds (cue the confused look again, "That's it?")

- In the SF parking garage, my car got completely stuck upright between the upper & lower levels. Had I been playing alone, I would have had to reset the Jag. Thankfully my wife crashed into my car, knocking it loose from the invisible hold.

My wife's conclusion "If they had finished it, it could've been like Beetle Adventure Racing" I asked her is she wanted to play some more ... "No, it's giving me a headache. Can we play Raiden instead?

Martin III · Post by **Martin III** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 11:53 pm

Trev wrote:My wife's conclusion "If they had finished it, it could've been like Beetle Adventure Racing" I asked her is she wanted to play some more ... "No, it's giving me a headache. Can we play Raiden instead?

No wonder you love that woman.

Thanks for the post, Trev. Even without having played Club Drive myself, I got a good chuckle out of it.

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:26 am

My wonderful wife will lovingly try out all sorts of video games w/me ... the good, the bad, and (in Club Drive's case) the ugly.

Glad you enjoyed the post. The game is certainly good for some chuckles. A few more highlights from subsequent playing ...

The western track has some funny graphics going on ... for one, why are there snow capped hills in an area that should be hot & flat?

Also, I was racing along when what should I find (in the middle of the track no less) than a grassy hill cemetery.

Oh, and the bonus world's race can be beaten in less than 10 seconds.

Club Drive is a crazy game that serves as good insight into Atari's descent into lunacy.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:32 am

Trev, I just read your post from the other day--I am rightfully jealous!

By the way, if she opts to give it another go, try the two-player Tag mode.

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 12:37 am

Austin wrote:Trev, I just read your post from the other day--I am rightfully jealous!

By the way, if she opts to give it another go, try the two-player Tag mode.

I'm hopeful.

sneth · Post by **sneth** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 3:55 pm

yeah, when you put it up against anything at the time it falls flat, but Jaguar people still have a fondness for it.

I don't understand how you can have a phenomenal racing game like Super Burnout, and then the rest of the racers on the system are shit.

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 4:18 pm

I'm a big fan of Super Burnout.

Power Drive Rally is a good game. Atari Karts is ... ok.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 7:25 pm

Yeah, Atari Karts isn't "bad" and I've grown to like it. It's not even close to worth the amount of money it goes for though!

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 4:53 am

Austin wrote:Yeah, Atari Karts isn't "bad" and I've grown to like it. It's not even close to worth the amount of money it goes for though!

Over $100 for a loose copy judging by recent closed auctions on Ebay!

My copy of Club Drive (in box) cost only $7 ... $4 of which was s&h costs

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 7:07 am

Yep, it's ridiculously expensive.

It is a shame that asides from Super Burnout, the Jag doesn't really have any good, *cheap* racing games. Checkered Flag had a lot of potential, but was botched due to a terrible framerate and awful controls. Supercross 3D is just a nightmare to simply look at. World Tour Racing requires the stupid-expensive CD add-on, and still isn't phenomenal on its own. Blah.

Funny thing is, for the price it takes to buy Atari Karts or a Jag CD, one could buy a 3DO with a stack of games, including the Need For Speed, Crash 'n Burn, and Road Rash...

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 3:57 pm

Austin wrote: Funny thing is, for the price it takes to buy Atari Karts or a Jag CD, one could buy a 3DO with a stack of games, including the Need For Speed, Crash 'n Burn, and Road Rash...

A much better deal indeed ... but I'd think twice before posting that comment at Atari Age.

prabmire · Post by **prabmire** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 4:33 pm

Trev wrote:
Austin wrote: Funny thing is, for the price it takes to buy Atari Karts or a Jag CD, one could buy a 3DO with a stack of games, including the Need For Speed, Crash 'n Burn, and Road Rash...
A much better deal indeed ... but I'd think twice before posting that comment at Atari Age.

I just find it funny that on a 3do forum we have a dedicated jaguar section lol, needless to say allot of us 3do fanboys (and girls) do have a jag aswell!

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 4:02 pm

So finally got around to trying tag mode w/my wife. It was ... a partial success. The old west track, being more wide open and easier to navigate, proved to be the best. We had fun chasing eachother, and it actually ended up being quite close (my wife won w/ 3 mins to my 2 min 50 sec) Some laughter was even heard, and I'm convinced it was from having fun and not from mocking the game.

Jerome's pad wasn't much of a hit (my wife spent most of the level w/her car stuck behind the toilet

) Oddly enough, she also expressed that she missed not seeing the orange shoebox cat ...

Velocity park was too confusing, prompting my wife to once again utter "Why didn't they finish it?"

And SanFrancisco wasn't much better.

The good news ... no headaches this time!

Not that there was no pain at all ... my wife did say her hand hurt from gripping the controller so hard.

The best gauge of partial success ... when I asked her the next night if she wanted to play, she answered .... "Ok ... for a little bit."

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:59 pm

LOL, nice!

goldenband · Post by **goldenband** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 5:03 pm

This game bears an uncanny resemblance to Toy Commander for the Dreamcast! Or vice versa, whichever you prefer. I did a double-take when I watched the Youtube video linked above -- there are a bunch of gameplay elements that are also in TC. Even the music is sort of similar.

Of course Toy Commander is a billion times more polished, and is a great game IMHO. But watching him try to get on the ramp reminded me of my initial experiences with TC; the opening levels of that game are pretty frustrating.

It'd be perfect if the two games shared developers, but looks like they didn't. I remembered that TC's development team was French, and it ees a vair-ee Fronch game at that.

Trev · Post by **Trev** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 6:12 pm

Interesting. I haven't played Toy Commander since the DC launch, so I've very little memory of it. Now I'm curious to boot it up and see. Any games that are similar to Club Drive interest me.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 8:12 pm

Seriously, if you enjoy it. isnt that what matters?

Martin III · Post by **Martin III** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 9:37 pm

goldenband wrote:This game bears an uncanny resemblance to Toy Commander for the Dreamcast! Or vice versa, whichever you prefer. I did a double-take when I watched the Youtube video linked above -- there are a bunch of gameplay elements that are also in TC. Even the music is sort of similar.

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one who saw a strong similarity there. I've never played Club Drive, but the first time I saw a YouTube video of it, all I could think was, "Wow, it's Toy Commander's predecessor." Even the visual styles are not dissimilar.

sneth · Post by **sneth** » Thu Aug 23, 2012 3:04 pm

Trev wrote:Interesting. I haven't played Toy Commander since the DC launch, so I've very little memory of it. Now I'm curious to boot it up and see. Any games that are similar to Club Drive interest me.

Toy Commander was one of my favorite games on the system. It's one of those games that makes you wonder why it took so long to make it. The difference with Toy commander is it's all sorts of toys and not just cars. I played the demo so much, i had to get the full game.