MotorHeat Review (Xbox Live Indie)

You're actually rewarded for almost getting into crashes. Neat, huh?

It's been a while since we've seen a racing game return to the arcade basics, with plenty of opportunities to show off how skillful (or in some cases, lucky) you can really be.  MotorHeat is such a game, an Xbox Live Indie Marketplace offering from the folks at Milkstone.  It's not bad, especially considering its high-quality presentation and non-stop racing nature, but there should've been more to this ride overall.

In the game, you take control of a souped-up sports car and hit the open road.  The goal is to keep your ride going as long as possible.  There is no brake button here, so you're continuously moving forward.  However, there are checkpoints you have to reach before time expires.  To do this, you need to earn boost by coming close to passerby vehicles without actually hitting them.  Your ranking (and boost refill) depends on how close you come to a collision.  The closer you get, the more you earn.  However, if you slam into them, you lose precious seconds and, if you're not careful, the game.

And...that's pretty much all there is here.  The gameplay itself is really exciting, although all you're pretty much doing is veering your car left and right and avoiding a crash.  This is how the "old-school" games did it, though, so we don't mind.  You can earn awards over the course of your ride, and post your best times to an online leaderboard through Xbox Live.

However, that sums up this package in a nutshell.  There's no multiplayer component of any kind (not even a split-screen variant), no extra vehicles to unlock (although you can change the colors of your default ride), no new tracks to uncover (just the one) and no other virtual goods.  Without these extra components, the ride can only last so long for so many.

Fortunately, the presentation is up to snuff, better than most Xbox Live Indie games.  The visuals remind us a lot of Criterion's original Burnout, especially once you get into a crash and watch your car flip around as a result.  The game moves at a fluid 60 frames per second, and the track and car animation are very well done.  The background music isn't too shabby either, with plenty of rock tunes to accelerate it to.

For three bucks, Milkstone has produced a solid racing game with MotorHeat.  It won't change the way you play other racing games, but it's a fun arcade-style romp that'll test your reflexes, even if it's only for several minutes at a time.  Sometimes, you need a title like that to unwind with.