A fast paced arcade racer that combines the Homies attitude with the gameplay of popular racers like Mario Kart. Homie Rollerz brings players into the wild world of the Homies as they compete to win the mysterious Wizard Circuit, an underground racing series run by the mystical Homie called Wizard. With a single wish as the prize, 10 Homies take to the streets to become the champion and have their fondest wish granted.
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I bought and gave this game to my oldest son for his 15th birthday. He says it is a bast! He says that there is only one issue with it...once he starts playing it, he doesn't want to stop! You all know the saying 'Outta sight, outta mind'...well, my son says he has to hide the game every morning before leaving for school, otherwise when he gets home he will see it and pick it up to start playing it, rather than starting on his homework. Honestly folks! These are his words, not mine!
Apparently this game is based on some sort of gumball sale?? As in those candy/bubblegum machine things you put a coin in, twist the handle and out pops a toy of these "Homie Rollerz" cars... that alone should be enough to convince you this game is going to be terrible... I just wish I knew that before I played this game, and instantly started "hating on it" then got online to see what others had said about this game?
"Homie Rollerz" is a racing game, that somewhat does rip-off "Mario Kart"; but it's nothing like Mario Kart. Once the game is loaded, you get the option to race in single event's or a tournament like event, or go to the options.. I went to the options and set the difficulty to 'easy', but it's still not easy to win a race. You can see on the cover what sort of racing cars you get... a ride with a ridiculously huge person inside of it. There is a choice of a few low riders, sportish cars and one motor cycle, and apparently there is a wheelchair to unlock... it might sound like fun, but once you begin racing, it's all down hill from there.
When you go to race, you are bored by a cut scene (picture with dialog) of some old man who claims he is a wizard, telling you about the race. I don't know if it varies from racer to racer, and I don't care, but my character talked to this guy, and my guy said something about he was sick of the hood being too violent, and wishes he can do something about it, to which the Wizard says "You can, go win a race and I will grant you a wish"... I never got higher then 4th place to find out what the next track was, because it was difficult to win, and quite frankly, no fun at all, so I don't care if the guy gets his wish or not.
In the races itself, you have your accelerator, brake, a button for nitro which seemed to last half a second if i did manage to fuel it up, two shoulder buttons to get around corners with, a little simmilar to Mario, but not thought out too well, and another button to use the special item... also kind of like from Mario Kart... only in this the items are stupid. There is a basketball to cause an oil slick, which I don't even know if it ever worked or not, something to set you on fire in which if another car hits you, or maybe it's if you hit them, they spin out on fire for a second. Something else sent a rope harpooning into another car to sling shot yourself past them I guess... and a brick wall for opponents to crash into... there may be a few I am forgetting, but I want to strongly advise you that describing what I just said may sound like fun, but believe me, it is not.
Everything seems to go by so quickly, and nothing lasts. At first glance I noticed the speed of this game is almost lagging, or it goes faster then the game can keep up with. Screens seemed to jolt and before I knew it, it was like 3 frames later I was already into the wall. The engine of this game needed so much more testing done before this game should have been released... quite frankly, I am absolutely amazed that it has been released by Destineer and they are expecting people to pay money for it. What really has me stumped, they are the company that released "Indianapolis 500 legends" in 2007; which wasn't a great game, but it wasn't too bad either for a formula one racing game... then they come out with THIS game a year later? What the heck happened there? You will not see ANY similarity in these two games, and you would pimp slap them for taking such a major step backwards... and then some.
The controls are horrible; it is the standard hold the accelerator button down, and use the direction pad to steer, use the other button options when needed... but the control of it feels pretty out of control sometimes, and alternating between buttons is confusing now and then, which is not something you want in a racing game.
The graphics are about the only thing I can say are OK about this game. They may not be crystal clear, but they are decent for what can be achieved with the DS technology. And the tracks themselves are not bad... it's just the speed, controls, programming and jiggering... well, everything else about the game, is what lets this one down.
It's also one of those annoying games that you have to earn points to buy things... in this game, you earn "Street Credits" by doing so called "tricks". Then you head off to the "garage" option on the main menu to purchase things with it; engine upgrades, tires, accessories and paint jobs (which there is only 3 colors to choose for a ridicules amount of "Street Credit". I wanted to know if upgrading my engine and tires would help out in the race, I wasted my time doing a few races, not bothering about what position I finished, and just kept pushing the L & R buttons around to gain points... you'd never have guessed this, but upgrading your vehicles engine, tires and whatever else doesn't make the slightest difference to anything at all and wont help you in any way possible. Why did they even include the option to upgrade if they didn't actually program it to upgrade anything. It's just a waste of time.
When it comes to games from Destineer, they have always been lite hit and miss... they haven't made the perfect 5 star game before, and most of their decent games are activity/puzzle/mini games... not many of the arcade/racing/action games have been more much more quality then 3 of 5 stars. Even their puzzle etc. games usually get a review of "I liked 2 or 3 of the 10 games included" in one of their multiple variety puzzles and activities games. ("Casual Mania" is about the best they have come out with so far)
The music of this game is also irritating... it sounds like cheap midi music to me, nothing stands out, and it's better to just turn it off then have to listen to music that doesn't even fit into the game... it's supposed to be set in the hood, but don't go listening for hood music, or I'm sure the caucasian biker-dude from this game will cut you open and throw you at the white yuppie chick in her sports car... need I dribble on about that anymore?
I don't know if it's true, but over on the GameFaq dot com site; somewhere on the message-boards someone said something about this game being designed to appeal to the African American kids of the hood and try to teach them good morals and values... if that's true, then this game can be marked as being aimed at a racial stereo type that we should all laugh and point at Destineer for attempting such a stupid and dumb concept to even try to conceive. This game does not appeal to anyone of any race, because no matter what color, background or country you are from, this game is as dumb and poorly designed as it gets. I'd expect the craftsmanship of this game and it's programming to be that of a failed attempt of an online Flash game. One where a million comments come in begging the game makers to improve the engine of the game and make a better version of it. Unfortunately, this game is NOT a demo flash game, it's the final release and I would hate to see what this game was like in it's testing stages if this is the end result.
So, if you are looking for a great racing game on the DS... look past this one, look WAY past it. My biggest recommendation is go for "Side Swiped" if you can find it... next to Mario Kart, that's the best racing game I have played on DS so far. It leaves "Ride Racer", "Dirt 2" the "GT" series and all the others for dead. Find that game to see how a great racing game can be played on the DS. So I have now warned you, purchasing this game is a huge mistake, and I for one am glad I paid $0 for this. I would hate this game even it was given to me for free... and if anyone else comes along with a review like "I bought this for my kid, he/she loves it" then try buying them one of the decent racing games on DS and watch this game here collect dust forever. There is a damn good reason this game is virtually unheard of, and I wouldn't pay 1 cent for it.
If you need more convincing... if you do a little research on cheats for this game, you will find nothing... no game cheats, no FAQ, no walk-through, no action replay codes, no trainers, no nothing... and you may ask why? Because nothing can improve this game. When the game designer don't program cheats, and even the hackers don't create codes for it, then you know the game is not worthy of playing.
The game itself isn't horrible it can be fun ON THE EASY SETTING,(other settings the races are HARD to win) it is essentially a graphically subpar version of MARIO KART set in the somewhat racist world of the HOMIES mini figures. The controls that work are the L,R button lean and combined hop,the boost button is where the acceleration should be and vice versa. Some of the standard Homies are in the game along with their rides (INLCUDING WHEELCHAIR HOMIE). The gameplay can be fun in bursts as you attempt to unlock parts and new races and new homies(only 2 unlockable) by coming in first. The powerups are odd, a basketball?, and the game comes absolutely nowhere near reaching the greatness that is MARIO KART DS, but this title has a spot on the shelf next the figures as some of the most offensive pop culture collectibles ever. One character actually drives a Burrito, enough said.
