The is defiantly a lack of arcade type games on the PSP and PS3 so going into reviewing the Minis Monochrome Racing, I had some high hopes for this top down racer.

Certainly the core idea for the game is solid enough; you race through a black and white landscape. At first your vehicle is fully coloured, but as you race the colour starts to drain, forcing you to not only race but also to traverse special colour spots to recharge, when your colour completely drains you're out of the race.

With eighty levels and ten cars to fully customise, this should have been a real winner. However, although the premise is strong, the actual implementation leaves a lot to be desired. I guess the worst thing about the game is the controls, whose responsiveness is very poor, meaning you’re going to lose a lot more games than you’re going to win.

If by chance, and by chance I mean pretty much every time, you have the misfortune to fall behind in the race and find yourself disappearing off the screen, then you’re dead again. In fact you spend so much time dead that you can play a new race about every thirty seconds, none of which would have ended with anyone getting to the finish line.

It seems that the developers concentrated on the central idea too hard, to the detriment of the game play. Racers should be easy to pick up, fast and fun, unfortunately Monochrome Racing is none of these.

3

Charles Packer