Chevrolet Camaro Wild Ride 3D Review (3DS eShop)

Hey Enjoy Gaming! 1997 called and guess what? It wants its game back!

That’s right — Chevrolet Camaro Wild Ride 3D has finally landed on the 3DS eShop, and not only does it look like a game that was ported directly from the PlayStation, but also it’s pretty terrible to play, too. In fact, it’s downright offensive to even think about comparing this game to late nineties’ classics such as Gran Turismo and Top Gear Rally; those games were, after all, pretty superb for their time. What’s more, they hold up far better today than Chevrolet Camaro Wild Ride 3D — an impressive feat given that they were released over 15 years ago.

Lazy and uninspired efforts are an unfortunate occurrence on the 3DS eShop, and we've certainly come across our fair share of them in the past. However, Chevrolet Camaro Wild Ride 3D is among the worst. It would be unreasonable to expect that a mere 3DS eShop title could match the AAA quality of something like the Forza Motorsport series, but there are certain minimum standards you’d expect any developer to meet. In this instance, Chevrolet Camaro Wild Ride 3D holds the not-so-impressive accolade of being a title that’s just about functional and not a lot else.

In case you hadn’t already guessed, this is a racing game in which you supposedly race the titular vehicle around a series of tracks. We say supposedly because the model you use in-game is apparently a high-performance muscle car — you just wouldn’t think it is because it looks so ugly and moves so slowly.

Upon reaching the horrendous title screen you’re greeted with three different modes. The first is the career mode, which you can play through in order to unlock vehicles and tracks. There’s a free race mode, which allows you to use any vehicles or tracks you’ve unlocked in career mode, while time trial is pretty much what’d you expect. Sadly, none of these will ever hold your attention for more than a couple of minutes.

Despite covering all of the bases — except for local and online multiplayer — there’s practically no fun to be found in any part of Chevrolet Camaro Wild Ride 3D. This is essentially due to a number of fundamental flaws, the first of which is poor controls. It’s bad enough in any racing game when almost every turn you take can send your vehicle into a swerve. However, when the AI players in this game are also seen frequently careening off into a wall, you just know that something is wrong. It’s actually worth pointing out that the walls they so often crash into are actually invisible, and jut out a bit from the physical barrier you can actually see. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that it makes overtaking an opponent much harder than it should be. The second issue is the game’s speed; despite the on-screen speedometer claiming that you’re travelling at speeds as high as 160 KM/H, it feels more like you’re going at about a quarter of that.

Track design is also poor. The long and winding routes never serve up anything that requires a modicum of skill, although this is likely due to the fact that the game plays so badly to begin with. In some instances, it’s possible to just hold down the acceleration button and let the walls guide you around the track.

To make matters worse, the visuals are absolutely atrocious. Poor draw distances, basic textures and low poly vehicles all combine to make a very unattractive package. Chevrolet Camaro Wild Ride 3D’s graphical misgivings could be forgiven if the gameplay was up to scratch or if the visuals were limited in order to improve performance, but this simply isn't the case here. In fact, your incredibly slow car appears even slower thanks to an often dire framerate. It truly is baffling that Chevrolet would authorise a game in which its vehicles are portrayed as slow, ugly and terrible when it comes to basic handling.