Sound

Real Lame

Racing games tend not to have particularly stellar sound effects - after all, how much is there to hear? The roar of your engine and occasional road noises, like the juicy THUMP when you hit a deer, are about it. Unfortunately for Re-Volt, the cars don't have an engine roar; it's more of a high-pitched, annoying whine, similar to your little sister. This is understandable; it's what RC cars sound like. However, when you couple that with the fact that there isn't a whole lot of ambient sound, what you're going to hear is a fairly monotonous droning of that little engine.

Adding in the sound effects doesn't really help much; the special weapons simply generate the "ZAP!" "POW!" and "BLAMMO!" sound effects that you'd expect to hear from a campy early 70's video game. Don't get us wrong - there is in-game sound. I just discovered that, actually, while writing this. I went back, checked, and indeed, it existed! So I turned it on, and was promptly reminded why I turned it off in the first place.

Real Music

Unfortunately, Re-Volt didn't take a cue from Need For Speed: High Stakes and include an in-game option to play your own music CD. This being the case, we recommend finding and external music source (or if you're the silent type, simply turning off the game's sound). What follows is a list of CDs that got the most play while we were testing Re-Volt:

• Blink 182 - Enema of the State
• Alanis Morisette - Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
• Tool - AEnima
• Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
• Sneaker Pimps - Becoming X
• NOFX - So Long, And Thanks For All The Shoes
• Texas - White on Blonde

MEGA-NOODLES

Boom.