Big Bumpin' Review (ign.com)
- ign.com -
November 17, 2006 - Note: This is one in a series of three promotional games being put out by Burger King and Microsoft. They are only available from November 19 through December 24 and can be bought for $3.99 USD with the purchase of a value meal. As such, they won't be reviewed as major releases but will be taken in the context of what they are, extreme budget titles.
Big Bumpin' was the lowest on our list of Burger King games to play. It didn't look as ridiculous as Sneak King and it didn't have Brooke Burke on the cover like Pocketbike Racer, so it already had two strikes against it. Then we got around to popping it into the old Xbox 360 and found that this is easily the best of the bunch. For a cheap promotional game, it looks great. Even better, the five different Fuzion Frenzy style mini-games are pretty darn fun, especially when you take them online.
Each of the mini-games in Big Bumpin' drops you into a bumper car and puts you into a competition with three other contestants. The quickest match is the classic destruction derby called last man standing which takes place in arenas you'd expect to see in Battle Bots; complete with rotating saw blades and triggered trap doors. These matches don't last long and with the loading it often seems like you'll spend more time setting up the game than playing it.
The second type of match goes by the name of own the puck. This is a game of keep away where players have to tap the puck to take possession of it. When they do, it changes to their color and they'll begin accumulating points until another person hits it and steals it. With all of the bumpers and four players all vying for first place, the game can get quite hectic and fun. The next type of game is the exact opposite of this. In this hot potato style game named shockball, one player is "it" and has to get rid of the bomb by bumping into another player. A constantly draining timer lets you know when the bomb will go off causing massive damage. The game keeps going and new bombs are thrown out as long as more than one person remains alive. Both of these modes are fun in small doses.
The worst game is power surge. This game requires you to grab hold of some power by running over a beam of light and then returning it to the base. On the way back, the other players will try to stop you and each time they hit you, they'll drain some of your power, thereby lowering your score for when you finally do deliver the package. Perhaps it is the level design, but the games don't get crazy enough in this mode to be a whole lot of fun.
The last, and best, game is hockey. The four players are split into two teams and tasked with hitting the puck into the net. Simple and sweet. To spice things up a bit, there are power-ups that appear randomly around the arenas on each game type. These are fairly typical in nature and include speed boosts, shields and a weapon for draining another player's power amongst others.
November 17, 2006 - Note: This is one in a series of three promotional games being put out by Burger King and Microsoft. They are only available from November 19 through December 24 and can be bought for $3.99 USD with the purchase of a value meal. As such, they won't be reviewed as major releases but will be taken in the context of what they are, extreme budget titles.
Big Bumpin' was the lowest on our list of Burger King games to play. It didn't look as ridiculous as Sneak King and it didn't have Brooke Burke on the cover like Pocketbike Racer, so it already had two strikes against it. Then we got around to popping it into the old Xbox 360 and found that this is easily the best of the bunch. For a cheap promotional game, it looks great. Even better, the five different Fuzion Frenzy style mini-games are pretty darn fun, especially when you take them online.
Each of the mini-games in Big Bumpin' drops you into a bumper car and puts you into a competition with three other contestants. The quickest match is the classic destruction derby called last man standing which takes place in arenas you'd expect to see in Battle Bots; complete with rotating saw blades and triggered trap doors. These matches don't last long and with the loading it often seems like you'll spend more time setting up the game than playing it.
The second type of match goes by the name of own the puck. This is a game of keep away where players have to tap the puck to take possession of it. When they do, it changes to their color and they'll begin accumulating points until another person hits it and steals it. With all of the bumpers and four players all vying for first place, the game can get quite hectic and fun. The next type of game is the exact opposite of this. In this hot potato style game named shockball, one player is "it" and has to get rid of the bomb by bumping into another player. A constantly draining timer lets you know when the bomb will go off causing massive damage. The game keeps going and new bombs are thrown out as long as more than one person remains alive. Both of these modes are fun in small doses.
The worst game is power surge. This game requires you to grab hold of some power by running over a beam of light and then returning it to the base. On the way back, the other players will try to stop you and each time they hit you, they'll drain some of your power, thereby lowering your score for when you finally do deliver the package. Perhaps it is the level design, but the games don't get crazy enough in this mode to be a whole lot of fun.
The last, and best, game is hockey. The four players are split into two teams and tasked with hitting the puck into the net. Simple and sweet. To spice things up a bit, there are power-ups that appear randomly around the arenas on each game type. These are fairly typical in nature and include speed boosts, shields and a weapon for draining another player's power amongst others.
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There are five different themed arenas, though not every game can be played in each one so there are actually only ten different competitions in total. When compared to other games of this nature, that is a pretty small number and it ends up hurting the game in the long run. While the games are fairly fun, they will probably only last you until Fuzion Frenzy 2 ships at the longest.
Big Bumpin' is playable with four players either offline or through Xbox Live. If you don't have four people, bots are used to round out the game in both cases. This is where all of the fun comes in. Although the AI is fairly good in the bots (we've seen them camp spawn points in power surge and make intelligent plays in hockey), playing with a group of friends makes all of the mini-games a hundred times more fun. Unfortunately, you can't create your own custom tournaments and there are only a few options for tweaking the preset game modes. The online game suffers from a small amount of lag, but it is still entirely playable. It even has a post-game lobby which puts it one up over some recent big name releases like F.E.A.R., even if it is only in this one category.
Big Bumpin' rounds out its features with several forgettable ones. There is a tournament mode where you can play through a series of games to unlock extra bumper cars and achievements, but only in solo mode. There also is a pretty terrible character creation tool so you can make your own bumper car driver that will most assuredly look nothing like you.
When a budget game that was made just to promote a fast food chain looks this good, you have to start wondering what some of the other developers out there are doing. No, this isn't a graphical powerhouse, but it certainly looks way better than you'd expect a game that can be had for $3.99 USD to look. Little lighting and texture effects have been used here to create a game that makes up for the lack of things happening on-screen with lots of flash.
Like Sneak King, the sound in Big Bumpin' is a sore spot. Although the carnival music that plays during the menus is decent, the in-game music, sound effects, and announcer all could use some work. Turn down the music or turn up your custom soundtrack when you put this one in.
Big Bumpin' looks good and plays well enough for what it is. Like Sneak King and Pocketbike Racer, this isn't a game that is deep or feature rich enough to make it long lasting title. It doesn't have the creep factor or hilarity of Sneak King but it certainly is more fun to play when you grab a few friends and get a good multiplayer session going. Big Bumpin' isn't a must own title, but it is a good cheap substitute for some of the weak sauce multiplayer modes we've seen on Xbox Live Arcade lately.
Big Bumpin' is playable with four players either offline or through Xbox Live. If you don't have four people, bots are used to round out the game in both cases. This is where all of the fun comes in. Although the AI is fairly good in the bots (we've seen them camp spawn points in power surge and make intelligent plays in hockey), playing with a group of friends makes all of the mini-games a hundred times more fun. Unfortunately, you can't create your own custom tournaments and there are only a few options for tweaking the preset game modes. The online game suffers from a small amount of lag, but it is still entirely playable. It even has a post-game lobby which puts it one up over some recent big name releases like F.E.A.R., even if it is only in this one category.
Big Bumpin' rounds out its features with several forgettable ones. There is a tournament mode where you can play through a series of games to unlock extra bumper cars and achievements, but only in solo mode. There also is a pretty terrible character creation tool so you can make your own bumper car driver that will most assuredly look nothing like you.
When a budget game that was made just to promote a fast food chain looks this good, you have to start wondering what some of the other developers out there are doing. No, this isn't a graphical powerhouse, but it certainly looks way better than you'd expect a game that can be had for $3.99 USD to look. Little lighting and texture effects have been used here to create a game that makes up for the lack of things happening on-screen with lots of flash.
Like Sneak King, the sound in Big Bumpin' is a sore spot. Although the carnival music that plays during the menus is decent, the in-game music, sound effects, and announcer all could use some work. Turn down the music or turn up your custom soundtrack when you put this one in.
Big Bumpin' looks good and plays well enough for what it is. Like Sneak King and Pocketbike Racer, this isn't a game that is deep or feature rich enough to make it long lasting title. It doesn't have the creep factor or hilarity of Sneak King but it certainly is more fun to play when you grab a few friends and get a good multiplayer session going. Big Bumpin' isn't a must own title, but it is a good cheap substitute for some of the weak sauce multiplayer modes we've seen on Xbox Live Arcade lately.
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