Video Game Review: ATV Racer ‘Nail’d’ Appeals to Adrenalin Junkies

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CHICAGO – The so-so year for racing games closes with the semi-successful “Nail’d,” an ATV-racing affair with an impressive need for speed that still comes off a bit too repetitive and frustrating to fully recommend. Speed junkies will find some addictive fun here but aggravation plays nearly as significant a role in the final product as adrenalin.

HollywoodChicago.com Video Game Rating: 3.0/5.0
Video Game Rating: 3.0/5.0

“Nail’d” is an ATV racing game with a career mode that’s broken up into several races and one grand “Cup” built very loosely around real places. You’ll find ruins in Greece and dirt in Arizona. That’s about the end of it. Most of the tracks are filled with shortcuts, jumps, and a wide variety of terrain. While there are some ways to build boost, including wheelies and landing perfect jumps, “Nail’d” is not a trick game. Don’t expect to be hanging off the handlebars even if you sometimes wish you could. The “points” portion of the game — as some events are based on landing, boosting, and the few tricks you can do to earn points — is easily the title’s most unrefined and incomplete element, as if they considered a more trick-based title and one point and left parts of it in the game.

Nail'd
Nail’d
Photo credit: SouthPeak Games

The depth of the game is pretty impressive with 14 tracks and (with new copies) another 4 tracks and a new cup for tournament mode. You can also play online with up to 14 players and the game supports creating your own leagues with friends.

Nail'd
Nail’d
Photo credit: SouthPeak Games

“Nail’d” is not a refined racing game. It’s all about speed — flying at MPH that break three digits through woods, streams, and across in-construction bridges. The game is built around a boost functionality that’s required to win the later races. In other words, the fastest player wins the game. Sure, there’s some refinement required to mastering the jumps, turns, and freefalls on the ludicrously-designed courses, but “Nail’d” is a game built for players with a true need for speed.

The developers focus on adrenalin has a few setbacks. The tracks often twist and turn with such ridiculous momentum that hitting trees and careening off the course seem inevitable. The game too often, especially in the later levels, seems to play to memorization skills more than hand-eye coordination. Going off-course simply because you’re going too fast for an upcoming turn and knowing you merely have to memorize the track to complete it kind of kills the adrenalin rush.



Perhaps even more damagingly, you can crash a dozen times and still win the race. That’s fine but the complete lack of believable consistency can be off-putting. It’s weird to barely nick the top of a tree and get the slo-mo crash screen in the same way you would if you hit dead-on at 200 MPH or simply fell off a cliff. It can also be hard to predict what’s going to happen with each crash. If you go a little off-track, you can sometimes be instantly reset while other times you’ll be flying through the air for a few full seconds (a lifetime in a speed-race) before you respawn. And in all cases, to bounce back on the track and rubber-band into first place turns the game into more of an arcade experience than a racing one.

It also feels like there could have been a bit more depth to the controls. You literally do not have to let up on the accelerator to win “Nail’d.” Braking is for suckers. Boosting, hitting the gas, and dodging obstacles is really all there is to “Nail’d.”

And yet, sometimes that’s all you need. I would be lying if I said there weren’t moments when the right combination — enhanced by strong, fluid graphics throughout — didn’t satisfy my need for speed. “Nail’d” is an entertaining game that feels like it could have been stronger with just a few tweaks — a bit more realism, some more variety to the gameplay, etc. It’s more ultimately disposable than it should have been. But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun.

“Nail’d” was developed by Techland and released by SouthPeak Games. It was released on November 30th, 2010. The version reviewed was for the PS3 but the title is also available for the Xbox 360. It is rated E10+ (Everyone 10 and Older).

HollywoodChicago.com content director Brian Tallerico

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

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