t this past year’s Tokyo Game Show, gamers hoped to see Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo Mobile, which was announced for the portable system at the debut of the PSP at E3 2004. While that game has still to be shown in playable form, a trailer for Polyphony’s next PlayStation 2 title, Tourist Trophy, appeared. Instead of a new portable car racing game (or oft joked about Gran Turismo For Boys) Polyphony is trading their automobiles for motorcycles. And while gamers may have to wait a bit for another dose of Gran Turismo, Tourist Trophy could be a good franchise to hold speedsters over.
Now, for those of you freaking out that we won’t be seeing Gran Turismo Portable or the online component for Gran Turismo 4 for awhile, fear not. Kazunori Yamauchi is overseeing Tourist Trophy, but Takamasa Shichisawa is the Creative Director on the project. Not saying those other games are coming soon, but Kazunori still has his main focus on other projects.
The first thing we noticed from the demo was that Tourist Trophy has a definitive Gran Turismo 4 feel to it. From the menus, sound effects, and music, it’s straight out of Gran Turismo 4. This is most likely due to the fact that Shichisawa was the Landscape Design Director, Movie Director, and also handled the non-licensed musical tracks in Gran Turismo 4. Tourist Trophy has 35 tracks, and 90% of those also appeared in Gran Turismo 4. Don’t expect direct ports of these tracks, though. The courses have been adapted to handle motorcycles, or more directly, motorcycles should be able to survive better on these with their enhancements.
Tracks featured in the demo include Autumn Ring Mini, Midfield Raceway, Grand Valley East, Tsukuba Circuit, Suzuka Circuit, Fuji Speedway 2005, and Mazda Raceway Leguna Seca. Since the game will not feature any motocross bikes, none of the rally tracks from Gran Turismo 4 will be appearing in the game. But fans of the Nürburgring can rest easy. Sony said that the track will make it over. It should be interesting to see how fast times are on that lengthy track with motorcycles.
Tourist Trophy will have an upwards of 85 motorcycles from over 12 manufacturers. Manufacturers we noticed include Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki, BMW, Kawasaki, Triumph, and more. Harley Davidson motorcycles are not featured in the game, but their sportier bikes, Buell’s, will be. Also Polyphony Digital is in talks with Jay Leno, who is a huge motorcycle fan, and is planning on featuring one or more of his swankier motorcycles.
The demo we previewed was quite limited. Modes included one-on-one, race (only 4 bikes at a time will be on a track), time trial, and two player. The split screen two-player mode wasn’t working in our build. It also hasn’t been determined whether or not the game will run split-screen or horizontal for two-player. In a sense, this build seemed like an in-store demo you could preview, or dare I say, some sort of "Prologue" demo Sony could offer to gamers. At any rate, we focused our efforts on one-on-one and race.
Starting out, you’ll notice that Polyphony has focused on the human element of motorcycle racing, since the riders are obviously on the outside of the vehicle. You’ll be able to customize the gear your rider will wear, as well as what kind of transmission and tires your bike is equipped with. One of the facets that Tourist Trophy will focus on is riding form. If you want your rider to go inside (slower in the turns, faster in straight aways) our out (faster in turns, slower in straight aways), you’ll be able to change that. Also, Polyphony is planning on having a complete driver editor, so if there’s a favorite motorcycle racer’s style you’d like to mimic in the game, you’ll be able to recreate his riding form.
As you can tell by watching our videos, it took us quite a bit of time to get used to how to ride the motorcycles, and if our actual rider was a real person he would most likely need to be peeled off of the tarmac and be fed mashed potatoes through a straw. Trust me, it got ugly quick. The physics have been completely rehauled for Tourist Trophy, and while tracks look very similar to Gran Turismo 4, the second you go into the first turn, you’ll feel that riding a bike is nothing like a car. Every bike we tried felt different, and pulled differently when we turned right or left, accelerated, and braked.
Also, while I personally choose cockpit or first person view for racers like Gran Turismo, I opted to take a tight third person view or the handle-bar cockpit view to witness my racing. At least with the pulled out handle bar view you can see your motorcycles axis, and how your rider is shifting his hands, legs, and weight to adjust to turns. Plus, the full blown first person viewpoint made us nauseous when turning right and left.
Control utilizes both analog sticks, the left stick for steering, and the right stick for acceleration and breaking. L2 puts your rider into a tuck position that allows for more aerodynamic shape to get more speed in the straights. Also, if you’re heading too fast into a turn, you can tap R2 for the rear break to avoid taking a brutal spill. You can execute wheelies by pulling back on the left analog stick, but I don’t recommend it until you’re more advanced because you’ll most likely toss your rider. On the topic of wiping out, your rider will not get injured, and vehicles will not take damage. Rag doll animations in this preview build still didn’t look all that realistic. And after rolling your bike the rider magically appears back on ready to tear up the track. Fortunately, Polyphony still has quite a bit of time to polish the game.
License challenges will be in the game, but are still being ironed out. We’re guessing there will be some timed events as usual, but Sony said they’re kicking around such tests as slalom races and breaking challenges around corners to help train newer riders. Photo mode will be brought over from Gran Turismo 4, but in Tourist Trophy you won’t be able to drop your rider and bike into any situation and create your shot, and you’ll only be able to take photos while in replay mode. While Tourist Trophy will take advantage of progressive scan and widescreen, it hasn’t been determined if the game will support 1080i as Gran Turismo 4 did. Keep your fingers crossed, HDTV owners.
Tourist Trophy is an interesting switch for Polyphony Digital. When making Gran Turismo 4 we knew that Polyphony was also testing bikes on the tracks, and now we know the true reason why. Don’t expect 500 bikes or a ton of different tracks and riders. This is the company’s first attempt in this genre, and so far, it looks like they’re going in the right direction. With an amazing sense of speed, realistic rider mechanics, and stunning graphics, Tourist Trophy could give THQ and Namco’s MotoGP racers a run for their money.
Tourist Trophy is slated for a January release in Japan and a North American release sometime in March or April. We’ll have much more on Tourist Trophy in the coming months.