User:Chris Beazell/Rumble Racing

Note: ''This page is a work in progress and thus might not be complete or even accurate. Read at your own risk.'' Rumble Racing is an arcade-styled racing game for the PlayStation 2 released by Electronic Arts in 2001. It is the sequel to NASCAR Rumble for the PlayStation, sans the NASCAR license. Unlike games like Gran Turismo 4, which attempt to faithfully recreate real-world physics, Rumble Racing uses a less realistic physics model, similar to games like Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. The game has 15 tracks, and each track has strategically placed shortcuts for the players to find which can help or hurt your lap time. Also placed around each track are ramps that players can drive up to catch some air and perform a stunt. Upon successfully landing a stunt, the game awards the player with a varying amount of Nitro, depending on the complexity of the stunt. There are 12 powerups that players may use to impede the progress of the other player or the computers, or alternatively to give themselves a boost. The game also offers a two-player mode, which can be either competitive or co-operative. As with any other arcade racer, there are many things that need to be unlocked. Rumble Racing is one of a select very few games that allows two players to play co-operatively and unlock everything in the game.

Powerups
When driving around a track, players will notice white spheres with black diamonds inside. If driven through, the player will receive one powerup which they may then use at their discretion. You can hold and use a maximum of two powerups at the same time. A timer prevents holding on to a powerup for too long. This was a balance change from Nascar Rumble, where you could only hold one powerup, but could hold it indefinitely.

There are effectively two categories of powerups available: combat powerups and assist powerups. Combat powerups often have an area of effect and thus can affect more than one opponent at the same time. Most of these powerups may also be dropped behind the player's vehicle to ward off tailgaters, though in most cases it will lose its area of effect. Also worth noting, when a powerup is launched in front of the player's vehicle, it will only affect opponents' vehicles, whereas when a powerup is dropped, it can affect anybody, co-operative players and even the player who dropped it.

Assist powerups will aid the player in some way without affecting other players. An example is the Nitro powerup, which gives a speed boost.

All powerups with a duration can be "layered". Doing so will increase the duration of the effect.

Also, most combat and assist powerups will counteract each other. For example, if a player has a Nitro active and gets hit with a Bad Gas, the player loses their nitro boost and is then slowed. It's important to note that the effects of the counteracting powerup will still take place after counteracting anything already on the player.

Combat Powerups

 * Bad Gas
 * Temporarily slows opponents down in the area of effect. When dropped, will only affect the vehicle that drives over it.


 * Oil Slick
 * Makes opponents' vehicles in the area of effect lose grip and slide around for a while. When dropped, will only affect the vehicle that drives over it.


 * Bomb
 * Sends any opponents caught in its area of effect flying. Still has the area of effect when dropped.


 * Freeze
 * Freezes the steering of any opponents caught in its area of effect. Has somewhat of a "I can't steer, I can't steer... Ok, now I'm steering too much" kind of effect.  When dropped, will only affect the vehicle that drives over it.


 * Landslide
 * Large rocks fly forwards from the player's front bumper, spinning or even flipping any opponent they come into contact with. When dropped, the rocks roll to a stop.  The rocks will stay on the track for quite a while after the powerup is used.


 * Big Hit
 * Turns the player's vehicle into a battering ram. Any vehicle they collide with will be sent flying.


 * Shockwave
 * Sends a shockwave out from the player's vehicle in all directions, sending any opponents in the immediate area flying.


 * Twister
 * A tornado touches down and follows the track, occasionally taking a shortcut. Any opponents caught in the tornado will be thrown around for a short while.  The player that launched the tornado can try to stay near it, doing so increases the time it stays out and gives the player a free speed boost.  Only received in one of the lower positions, and even then fairly rarely.

Assist Powerups

 * Nitro
 * Gives the player a boost in speed for a short period of time.


 * Super Traction
 * Increases the vehicle's grip, allowing more aggressive cornering.


 * Invincible
 * Ends all bad effects currently on the player, renders the player immune to all bad effects for its duration, and gives a slight speed boost (2 MPH).

Other Powerup

 * Joker
 * This powerup is a random powerup. It can be either good or bad.  If it's bad, it affects the player immediately; if it's good, the player receives the powerup to use at their discretion.  Does not give the Freeze.  This powerup becomes more common in the higher positions.  It also times out faster than any other powerup, making it advisable to not use if the player doesn't want to take the chance.

Powerup Counteractions

 * Nitro counteracts Bad Gas, and vice versa
 * Super Traction counteracts Oil Slick, and vice versa
 * Invincible counteracts all bad effects and prevents them for its duration
 * A useful side-effect of Invincible makes the Joker only give good powerups.

Vehicles
Vehicles in Rumble Racing have three classes: Rookie, Pro, and Elite. Rookie vehicles are the entry-level ones. They have the lowest maximum speed of all the vehicles. After beating the EA Rookie Cup in Championship mode, Pro class becomes unlocked. This raises the maximum speed of all vehicles. After beating the EA Pro Cup, the Elite class is now unlocked, raising the maximum speed of all vehicles to its highest. All vehicles have all classes available to choose from, regardless of when they are unlocked.

Some vehicles are hidden and have to be unlocked by searching each of the tracks for a hidden easter egg. Driving through this easter egg will unlock the vehicle, upon exiting the race the player will be shown the vehicle and a password that can be used to unlock that vehicle on a memory card that doesn't have it unlocked already.

On the vehicle select screen, each is rated in three categories: its acceleration, its handling, and its stunt ability. This can aid the player in finding the vehicle that suits their driving style.

Unlocked by default
To be completed

Unlocked by winning championships
To be completed

Unlocked by finding easter eggs
To be completed

Tracks
There are 15 tracks available to race on. Three are unlocked by default, the rest can be unlocked by playing Championship mode or entering passwords. Most, but not all of the tracks have shortcuts for players to find, some might help lap times more than others. Shortcuts are usually marked by breakable barriers with the Rumble Racing logo on them, though this isn't always the case.

To be completed

Gameplay Modes

 * 1 Player
 * Championship The main mode of the game. Everything can be unlocked by playing this mode.
 * Single Race Great for players who would like to practice a specific track, learn its shortcuts, etc. Has a settings screen that allows the player to adjust the number of laps, the number of vehicles in the race, and enable or disable selecting their opponents.
 * Showdown A 1-on-1 mode. Race against one computer on the chosen track for one lap.
 * Stunt Challenge Go for the biggest stunts possible and try to break the stunt records. Contrary to popular belief, all of the preset records are beatable.
 * 2 Player
 * Championship It's worth noting that you can unlock everything by playing 2 Player Championship mode. More games need to allow players to co-operatively unlock everything like this.
 * Standard Players fight against each other for the win.
 * Co-operative Players are teamed up against teams of computers.
 * Single Race This mode is configurable just like its single player counterpart, but with one extra option: adjusting the number of teams for co-operative play.
 * Standard Players fight against each other for the win.
 * Co-operative Players are teamed up against teams of computers.
 * Showdown Race 1-on-1 with another player for one lap on the chosen track.
 * Stunt Challenge Compete with another player to see who can get the highest stunt score.

Extra Unlockables
Once EA Elite Cup has been beaten, the game will show a short video. This video, titled "Grand Champion", is available to watch at any time under the Showcase section of the main menu.

While the game is technically beaten once EA Elite Cup has been beaten, players will find that one more cup is available: EA Stunt Cup. This is a championship on the three tracks used in Stunt Challenge mode. Once this cup has been beaten, an extra track called "Circus Minimus" will be unlocked. This track is mainly for fun, a lap takes anywhere between twelve and fifteen seconds at the fastest. Due to the chaos that ensues on a track as small as this one, however, lap times can be much longer.

Gameplay Mechanics
While racing, players might notice that if they draft off of another vehicle (drive directly behind it), their speed will go up, even if they're already maxed out and using Nitro. This extra speed can further aid the player in making a pass. A yellow light will light up on the player's dashboard when they're in the draft.

Whenever a player's vehicle becomes airborne, there is an opportunity to perform a stunt. Stunts can include barrel rolls, end-over-end flips, and crazy diagonal spins. The game will award what it determines to be the appropriate amount of Nitro directly to the player if the stunt is landed successfully, i.e. on the wheels and not the sides or top of the vehicle.

A more advanced technique involves using stunts to gain enough Nitro that the player will always have a Nitro boost active. This further lends itself to gaining enough Nitro boosts that a lap can be performed without doing any stunts. Both techniques are crucial for shaving seconds off of fast laps, though they aren't possible on all of the tracks.

Issues
The game is not without its problems, though. Here is a partial list of noticable problems:
 * AI cars only ever drop powerups behind themselves. They never launch powerups ahead of themselves.
 * The AI cars gleefully ignore the Freeze powerup, steering through corners just as if they weren't frozen.
 * Bad Gas and Oil Slick seem to have reduced durations when used on AI cars.
 * There are some places around each track where the AI will make no effort to dodge a powerup if you drop one there, even though there is ample room to dodge.
 * Powerup opportunities are poorly placed on some tracks, resulting in players who take the shortcuts only receiving one or two powerups per lap.
 * Air walls that jut out into the track on occasion.
 * Air ceilings that mess with the camera or cancel your stunts, and one particularly nasty one that resets you to a lower altitude.
 * Occasionally a bomb will hit a non-invincible vehicle and not affect it.
 * Breakable track obstacles sometimes have ill effects that they shouldn't have, such as a couch causing your vehicle to flip when you hit it.
 * One track has a glitch where you can put yourself through a wall. Whether this leads to a faster lap time or not is currently unknown, as the glitch is difficult to trigger.
 * Many visual effects on most of the tracks disappear after a while. This includes the fireworks at the end of a race, the green mist covering the deep pits on The Gauntlet, the fountains on Surf and Turf, and many more.  These effects typically show up the first few times the game is started and then go away at some point when loading off of a memory card.  Strangely enough, I've booted up the game without a memory card in slot 1 and it still doesn't put the effects out there.
 * Occasionally the music will double up. This is kind of a subtle effect, often when it happens we'll just be playing and I'll go "hey, the music's doubled."  Playing one of the videos in the Showcase seems to fix this.

Common Misconceptions

 * 1) The AI cheats/has infinite nitros. This is simply not true. The AI doesn't get any more nitro than players do.  It does know about most of the good stunt ramps and can usually maintain nitro for most, if not all, of a lap.  Players can do this also, with practice.  The AI is meant to be challenging.  Once you become like me, though, you begin to look for ways to make the Maniac AI harder because you routinely finish 20-30 seconds ahead of it.  I consider the AI's main weakness to be the fact that it doesn't launch powerups ahead of itself.  So usually, if you can get in front and break away to where they can't draft off of you, there's no contest.
 * 2) The preset fast times for courses are "manufactured", i.e. just entered in by EA staff, and therefore some of them cannot be beaten. Blatantly false. I have beaten every single Rumble1 fast lap and overall time.  Including the Rumble1 fast lap of 13.05 seconds on Circus Minimus.  I got a 12.88, with errors in my fast lap ;)
 * 3) The preset Stunt Challenge scores are "manufactured"/Beating Stunt Challenge Rumble1 on Wild Kingdom is impossible. Once again false. I have beaten all three stunt challenge Rumble1 scores.  Including the seemingly impossible Wild Kingdom score.  As soon as I get my capture computer put together, I plan on making a video of me beating the Wild Kingdom score.  Also, just FYI...  It's possible to get over 1 million points on Wild Kingdom.  My score was in the 900000 range and with several messed up stunts that gave me fewer points than if I had done them correctly.  The target stunt gives you 34250 points and turns you around when you land it, but it requires so strict of a timing on changing directional input that you get lower scores if you change your directional input too early or too late.

Misc. Notes
Rumble Racing is like most arcade racers in that it doesn't have a very large learning curve. Anyone can pick up a controller and start having fun. Rumble Racing makes a great party game because of this. The learning curve is somewhat layered, i.e. there are techniques buried in the game engine (intentionally or not) that experienced players can find and use to their advantage, but are by no means required in order to win.

Because of the ability to unlock everything within 2 player mode, this game also makes an excellent rental title. I don't know how many times my friends and I have rented a game with multiplayer, started it up, and found out that the only way to unlock anything is in single player, which completely defeats the purpose of renting the game for multiplayer. Games like this typically end up with one of us playing through single player to unlock things or looking around the internet for passwords or secret button sequences to unlock everything so we can properly enjoy the multiplayer mode.

In addition to the easter eggs hidden on each of the tracks that, when driven through, unlock a vehicle... there is a real easter egg. On the track So Refined, there's an RV camp on the right-hand side of the start/finish straight. One of the items in this camp is a grill, shaped like a UFO. If you hit it, it will explode, and now a UFO will fly around the track. I've seen the UFO detonate pre-placed explosives in one of the shortcuts, so it appears that there might be a slight drawback to activating it ;)

I have a set AI field that I race against for practice, composed of the cars that the AI is the best with: (substitute either of these in for a little change-up)
 * Interceptor
 * The Banger
 * Escargot
 * Silver Streak
 * Tiberius
 * Cataclysm
 * Jolly Roger
 * Blue Devil
 * Maelstrom

Last but not least: Make us a sequel, EA!

Suggested Tournament Rules
I think it's important to note that some vehicles should be banned from tournaments in this game. The vehicles I suggest to be banned are Thor, XXS-TOMCAT, and Road Trip. Thor and XXS-TOMCAT both have an unfair advantage over the rest of the vehicles, their boosters allow them to go full speed across bumpy terrain and through the air, whereas the rest of the vehicles lose significant amounts of speed in those places. Road Trip is such a crap vehicle that I doubt anyone would take it in a tournament because it's a guaranteed first-round loss, but I suggest that it be banned anyway.

Standard Tournament

 * Boot the game either without a memory card in the system or with a memory card containing a preconfigured save file.
 * Players may choose their controller preferences and must set their names in each round. (this slows things down a bit, but it's necessary)
 * Players may use any car except for Thor, XXS-TOMCAT, or Road Trip.
 * Players must use the same vehicle for each round of the tournament, no switching allowed.
 * Powerups on
 * 2-player single race settings:
 * Mode: Standard
 * Laps: 3 (Default)
 * Opponents: 8
 * Choose opponents: No
 * Decisions to make for running the tournament:
 * Format:
 * Single Race, predetermined track for each round
 * Single Race, randomly chosen (from a hat or something) track
 * Championship, championship winner advances, predetermined championship for each round
 * Championship, championship winner advances, randomly chosen championship
 * If going with Championship, the tie-breaking rules:
 * 1 on 1 race in showdown (1 lap) mode, randomly chosen track, winner advances
 * 1 on 1 Single Race (set opponents to 0), winner advances
 * Break ties by win/loss record from the championship that was tied, player with more wins advances
 * Ye Olde Single-elimination vs. Double-elimination choice

Circus Minimus Rumble-a-thon
This is more of a fun tournament than a serious one.
 * Track: Circus Minimus
 * Mode: Standard
 * Laps: 8
 * Opponents: 8
 * Choose opponents: Yes (All Elite Road Trip)
 * Players must take Elite Thor
 * Score it however you want, the race will be done in the blink of an eye. I used to have a really complex writeup of how it should be scored, but I can't find it at the moment.  It gave its own points for things.