What is Rumble Racing?
Rumble Racing is a fast-paced arcade style racing game with tons of cars ranging from muscle cars and hot rods to a jet-fueled car and an RV. It's the sequel to Nascar Rumble for PS1, however, it's more like a complete re-make. It eliminates everything about Nascar Rumble that was annoying and improves on the rest.
Being more of a remake than a sequel, Rumble Racing has a number of changes, the more noticable of which are listed here.
- New/Changed tracks
Rumble Racing features four tracks taken and improved from Nascar Rumble. All other tracks are new.
Nascar Rumble track Rumble Racing track Rip Tide Sun Burn Silver Falls Passing Through Kirk Rock Outer Limits Circus Minimus Circus Minimus
Changes/Additions to each NR track carried over:
Rip Tide - Not much different. Some trees removed, a couple shortcuts made easier to get into, one shortcut added. New/moved powerup opportunities as well.
Silver Falls - Start location changed. Rocks added to beach area. Waterfall shortcut is now lined up with the shortcut before it, so no more turning right to go under the waterfall. Fewer trees in the middle of the track.
Kirk Rock - new shortcut, after the corkscrew. Go to the left wall and turn hard right. Links into what was previously the second shortcut. Kirk Rock welcome sign at the top of the switchbacks.
Circus Minimus - longer, two ramps added. No more sub-10 second lap times. The Tornado seems to be absent from this track, which is good.
Rjyh101 (at) aol (dot) com has informed me that indeed there are Tornado powerups on Circus Minimus. It's still better than Nascar Rumble, where the computers got them and fired them off every 2 seconds.
- Powerup changes
Powerup system - You can now hold two powerups, and they will time out and disappear if you don't use them within 30 seconds of picking them up. You can also choose which direction to launch some powerups. Press rear view and the powerup button to drop the powerup behind you, press the powerup button by itself to launch it ahead of you. You can also choose which powerup you use, just push the appropriate powerup button. The powerups option on the main menu is limited to Active or Off, so no more "Tornado every 0.1 seconds" Mayhem powerup mode.
Snowball - No longer travels around the track until it hits something. Also, you can no longer slow down to avoid getting hit by it, however, you could throw off other players' aim by doing so. No longer removes your ability to reset your car.
Storm - Removed for some unknown reason. Surely it could have been balanced for RR similar to how the Snowball and Tornado were...
Tornado - Computers can no longer use them, and humans can only get them in the lower four positions (that's 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th). You can no longer slow down to avoid being affected by it.
Shockwave - Much larger range.
Joker - Good powerups no longer activate immediately, you can choose when you want the powerup. Bad powerups still activate immediately, though.
- Air Mobility changes
Let's face it - You couldn't do squat while you were in the air in Nascar Rumble. With the addition of a stunt system, you can turn that air time into valuable Nitro boost. Simply hold the stunt button and press a direction to flip in that direction. Remember to release the stunt button when you're done, or you'll be unable to steer. The better the stunt, the more Nitro you get. Not all stunts are possible in all locations.
- Announcer change
The announcer in Nascar Rumble was... lacking. While his faux southern accent fits in with the Nascar aspect of that game, it gets annoying quickly. Rumble Racing fixes this. Jess Harnell still does the voices, but they are much better.
- Official license
Gone is the Nascar license. No Nascar affiliation whatsoever now. Not that it needed it.
- Cars
Some look-alikes of cars from Nascar Rumble are in Rumble Racing. Here's the list:
NR car RR car(s) Road Captain Tiberius, Silver Streak Jet Car Thor (More on Thor in section 10.2.1.) RV Road Trip EA Sports Car Gamecus, Sporticus
In addition, the field is now 8 cars long instead of 6. The easter egg cars (akin to the ones unlocked by the wrenches in NR) are unlockable without having first won the championship that that track is in, unlike NR.
- Other notes
Lap times are down a great deal. This means the action is much faster-paced than in NR. This, of course, does not count Circus Minimus, which was made longer in this game.
- To sum it up
- If you found Nascar Rumble to be a bit too aggrivating, chances are you'll like Rumble Racing. Many things have been toned down.
- If you didn't play Nascar Rumble because of the Nascar license, well, shame on you. The drivers and their cars were the only things Nascar about Nascar Rumble.
- If you liked Nascar Rumble, chances are you'll like Rumble Racing as well.
- All in all, its gameplay is much more balanced than Nascar Rumble's was.
All of these changes make for much more challenging and fun gameplay, while at the same time, not forfeiting its signature "pick up the controller and jump into the action" controls. The controls are as easy to learn as ever.