Test Drive 2001
| Test Drive 2001 | |
|---|---|
|
Cover art | |
| Developer(s) | Xantera |
| Publisher(s) | Infogrames |
| Series | Test Drive |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Color |
| Release date(s) |
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| Genre(s) | Racing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer (max 2) |
Test Drive 2001 is a sequel to the Game Boy Color version of Test Drive 6.
Gameplay
Gameplay is very similar to Test Drive 6. Menu design was updated, which took away the Test Drive 5-esque menus and revamped them with a more futuristic and industrial design. New car and track lists are welcomed by more colorful design and slightly improved albeit similar graphics.
The game includes four modes:
Single Race: Allows players to race any of their cars they purchased on any unlocked track. Each race has four opponents.
Tournament: Unlocks new tracks and cars; winning races here earns points that can be used to upgrade cars. The player must finish first in all three races to unlock another three tracks and a new tournament. Like Single Race, there are four opponents which stay consistent from race to race.
Cop Chase: Players can choose from any of four police vehicles and any of their unlocked track. Gameplay here is drastically different from other modes, and more complicated. Unlike other single player modes, there are only three opponents. The player has two minutes to give as many citations to the drivers as possible. The total is multiplied by five hundred and that is the amount of in-game currency given to the player.
Two Player: Two players can play together so long as the two systems are connected together.
In-game currency won in these modes can be spent on new cars.
Tracks
There are 48 tracks in 12 locations. The locations are less specifically than console versions of previous Test Drive games and thus less resemble their real life counterparts. However, they appear to be much closer than its predecessor's tracks. They are also more realistic and colorful than the particularly bland colors used in Test Drive 6. Locations include Washington, D.C., Hollywood, Las Vegas, Germany, China, Sydney, and some others.
Vehicles
There are thirteen licensed vehicles in the game. Most of these were adopted from Test Drive 5 and Test Drive 6.
One of the thirteen cars are available from the start, the Lotus Elise. Ten of these can be bought with in-game currency. These include the 1985 Ford Mustang LX 5.0, Dodge Charger Daytona, 1998 Ford Mustang GT, Plymouth Barracuda, Jaguar XKR, Panoz Roadster, Lotus Esprit, Saleen S351, Dodge Viper, and the Ford GT40. Two additional cars can be won, the Shelby Cobra and Jaguar XJ220.
All of the cars have a default color that cannot be changed. For example, the Charger is always red-orange, the Elise is always yellow, and so forth. Despite these colors showing up on the car selection menu, some of the cars' colors look drastically different during actual gameplay. An example would be the '98 Mustang, which appears to be a lime green color in the menus, but sports a dark green color while racing. Another would be the 'Cuda, which is a similar lime color in the menus but appears with a grey-like blue color in the game. Others, like the XKR and Elise, appear much closer in color to their menu counterparts.
Cars can, however, be upgraded with "power ups" that change top speed, acceleration and traction. Nitrous oxide can also be added to any vehicle. These modifications are available only after winning a race (and cannot be purchased any other way) with a number of points available based on the player's rank (first place gives five points to use, second gets two, and last gets none).
Receptions
Craig Harris of IGN rated the game 6.0 (okay) for being an improvement of a mediocre product.[1]