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By Keith B (5th Sep 2007)

NHRA: Countdown to the Championship is an interesting video game in that its makers seem so dedicated to replicating every small aspect of drag racing that they overlook making it entertaining or even moderately appealing to anybody who’s not a major fan of the NHRA. Driving, the only exhilarating part of Drag Racing, albeit highly exciting, isn’t focused upon enough in NHRA: Countdown to the Championship. Too many intangible pre-race processes such as Tuning, Staging, and Burnout, clutter what should be a gripping buildup to an intense competition. Instead of trying to convey the complexity of drag-racing in NHRA: Countdown to the Championship, the makers should have concentrated on conveying the adrenaline that goes into the race.

That being said, I have given my identity away as someone who does not rigorously follow professional drag-racing. For those who are, however, NHRA: Countdown to the Championship may impress with its attention to detail. For example, the Tuning stage that occurs before the race begins allows the gamer to alter the specs of nearly every part of their vehicle. All of this tuning is needed, too, because as one learns in NHRA: Countdown to the Championship, little things like air temperature can affect the outcome of a race, and the car needs to be tuned accordingly. After the Tuning stage, the Burnout stage begins, during which the gamer spins his wheels to gain better traction on the roadway. Following that, the gamer lines his car up and readies himself for the race.

As if the mere existence of these pre-race technicalities isn’t enough of an annoyance, the complexity and difficulty of completing them correctly certainly is. For a race that takes around five seconds, the buildup is way too long. I can understand and appreciate that in real-life the preparation for the race is as important as the race itself, but for a video game this facet is unnecessary. But what makes it even more irritating is that the pre-race preparations in NHRA: Countdown to the Championship need to be completed perfectly in order to move on to the race. Start here, stop her, inch forward here, stop, inch forward, stop: it grated on me after awhile. When a drab process like this one takes so much focus in a video game it is not a good thing.

When race time arrives, the gamer is very much relieved. So they wait for the green light, and….their engine explodes into a ball of fire. Yes, the Race stage will take some getting used to, at first, at least. The gamer has to be careful not to cross the white starting line, nor gun their engine to fast, nor accelerate too slow. In Top Fuel cars it is easiest to crash and burn. In other cars, Pro Stock, Funny Car, or Motorcycle, the engines seem a little less volatile and run fairly simply.

Speaking of crashing and burning, I want to mention my favorite part of NHRA: Countdown to the Championship: the wipeouts. It is usually more fun to get disqualified by starting too early, parking your race car in the other driver’s lane, and then watch a spectacular collision than to actually race against the other guy. The crash physics are probably awful, but the effect is humorous. In motorcycles, the bikes and the riders go flying in a wild mess of shrapnel and engine parts. After such crashes the victim driver (who usually lands quite a ways away from the site of the accident) will show small signs of fury by raising his arms up in protest. It can be pretty funny.

A gamer can choose to begin a drag racing career in NHRA: Countdown to the Championship with any of the vehicles offered: Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, and even Motorcycles. Career mode is decent, but dulls after awhile. The more races the gamer wins, the more sponsorships they receive which in turn results in a long, successful career. On the flip side, if the gamer doesn’t do well he won’t receive enough sponsorships to cover the price of maintaining a car.

Graphically, the game is about average for a PS2 game. It seems as though the makers were just as attentive to graphic detail as they needed to be, but nothing more than that. Edges are still jagged in some areas, and vehicles don’t have as much shine as they would in real life. As far as sound goes, there doesn’t seem to have been much room in the budget for a whole lot of quality. The music playlist is fair enough, but the announcers are corny and get on your nerves.

Friend play is probably the most entertaining part of NHRA: Countdown to the Championship, but why someone would grab a friend and say “let’s play NHRA: Countdown to the Championship” is beyond me. It is mildly entertaining to line up against a friend and see who can navigate the intensely complicated pre-race procedures the fastest, and who can control their engine the best when accelerating at the green light. It certainly beats playing against the CPU.

I must say, I was impressed that NHRA: Countdown to the Championship has a Create-A-Driver mode. I will also confess that I am a huge fan of Create-An-Anything on any video game, like Create-A-Player or Create-A-Team. It’s something that appeals to my more creative side, and if I can place myself into the game, it makes the gaming experience all the more fun and realistic.

In a wrap, NHRA: Countdown to the Championship is a pretty good game if you are a drag-racing aficionado, and a mediocre game for everyone else that decides to play it. Its attention to detail and the way it captures every minute aspect of the sport of drag racing (or at least seems to), make it nicely appealing to fans of the sport. If you are just an average video game player who stumbles across this game, you may be disappointed with the lack of adrenaline and excitement it produces.