New game attracts media attention for TT
Fans of the Isle of Man TT have had their first taste of the long-awaited TT Superbikes Real Road Racing Championship PlayStation 2 game.
The follow up to the hugely successful TT Superbikes game, which offers a wider choice of bikes, riders, teams and circuits, was released on Friday.
Once again, the TT’s Mountain circuit is featured, along with many of the stars of the races, ensuring the game will help raise the profile of the TT around the world.
The release of TT Superbikes Real Road Racing Championship has already attracted media attention with many game reviews expected in the coming weeks.
Among the first to play the game was TT fan and Isle of Man Newspapers’ journalist John Gregory.
A dedicated player of the first game, John tried out TT Superbikes Real Road Racing Championship for the Manx Independent’s What, Where, When entertainment supplement last week.
He obviously enjoyed the game, giving it a fantastic 9 out of 10.
John has kindly agreed to let us reproduce his review here, so, if you haven’t bought it already, you can find out what to expect when you get it.
“THE long-awaited sequel to the TT Superbikes game is finally here and its fast, furious and fantastic!
Once again fans have had to endure a few delays for this Jester Interactive Publishing release, but now it is available the company are having the last laugh as they have come up with another winner.
While there are a few new features in TT Superbikes RRR the first thing I noticed was that there is nothing radically different here in terms of graphics and, for the most part, gameplay – but why tinker with a proven formula?
The game, which is released today (Friday), is much more evolution than revolution. Even the music is the same as on the original.
However, TT RRR focuses on the most important thing – the playability, and once again it scores very highly indeed.
The less patient fans may grimace at all the various features you have to unlock. This was a nightmare for some gamers on the original until the cheat codes became available while the dedicated put in the hours to unlock the TT course and races.
In this game you need to play the race school feature and the season feature to unlock the weekend and class sections.
And with another five tracks to learn (in addition to the TT course and Billown circuit) this is not exactly a walk about in the park.
But it’s all about the challenge and I was soon addicted to learning the Aberdare, Oliver’s Mount, North West 200, Macau Grand Prix and Ulster Grand Prix tracks.
They are all created in detail and it’s fantastic to tackle circuits I have seen often on DVDs. There’s also different weather conditions in this game – expect to get very wet!
Of course the better you do the more of the game you open up and there are photos, videos, bikes, leathers and helmets to unlock.
It’s great to see such a wide range of riders featured including the likes of John McGuinness, Guy Martin, Conor Cummins, Cameron Donald, Michael Rutter, Paul Hunt, Steve Plater, Nigel Beattie and many more.
The late Robert Dunlop and Martin Finnegan are also included.
The riders are featured on their bikes from last season so Rutter is on the MSS Discovery Kawasaki, McGuinness on the HM Plant Superbike (but the Padgett’s Honda Supersport bike) etc.
There are 125s, 250s, 600s, Superstock, Superbike and sidecars all featured and all are good fun to play.
The beauty of TT RRR is that practice really does make perfect. Some tracks and corners seem oppressively difficult at first but after a few laps you gradually begin to tame the course.
What sets the game apart is its detail on the seven real road racing tracks. In fact anyone who doesn’t know much about road racing will be amazed that these tracks actually exist!
The names of the various places on the course come up at the bottom of the screen and its an effective tool to learning the track. The original game certainly helped improve my knowledge of the Mountain Course and in this release it’s good to tackle the famous corners and straights on the other tracks, even if it is only in a virtual world!
As a fan of motorcycle racing in general, both short circuits and the roads, I feel this is an excellent advert for the sport and particularly for road racing.
While there is often controversy about the TT and other road events, this game focuses on the most important thing – the racing – and helps to hammer home the reason why people are so passionate about them in the first place.
Long may the ‘real life’ events continue to thrill and this game will do nicely for us ‘armchair racers’ to pass the time between races and the long winter months.”
To read more of John’s reviews and more articles from What, Where, When visit the Isle of Man Newspapers’ website.
You can order you game now from the iomtt.com shop.