Having been totally enthralled with Acclaim's first R/C offering RE-VOLT on the Sega Dreamcast, my hopes and expectations were at their highest for RC Revenge to appear on Playstation 2. Unfortunately, these expectations were smashed as it appears RC Revenge was rushed to market. The premise of the game is quite simple, RC Revenge Pro attempts to allow players the thrilling experience of high speed racing remote control cars and boats through movie-themed worlds.

Gamers can race against each other in multi-player mode around villages, across desert islands, through lagoons and over valleys. Drivers can eliminate rivals by assaulting them with such weapons as water balloons, oil slicks and lightning bolts. New vehicles are earned by completing challenge cup races which occur in diverse environments including Jungle, Horror, Science Fiction, Monster, Cartoon Worlds and a PS2 exclusive Pirate World. The races take place on water-specific and hybrid tracks so that boats can now race against cars and vice versa. Controlling of the vehicles is a bit of a mixed bag. Most are extremely sensitive with the analog stick causing quite a bit of frustration until you are able to master each vehicle. The use of the standard handbrake makes things a little easier as you have the ability to power-slide or perform super tight turns.

Visually RC Revenge Pro is not something you would expect to see on the superior Playstation 2. When I first booted it up I thought I was looking at a first generation Dreamcast title. While there a few nice visual touches like reflecting puddles and moving characters in the background, the overall presentation is sorely lacking. Initially appearing on the PSOne, it would appear the game has simply been ported over with a few visual upgrades. Textures are bland and framerates are inaccurate throughout the game. The camera angle also tends to be problematic at times. The angle is too close to the car which in some courses causes difficulty to see what is coming up ahead. In the sound department things are pretty straight forward and tend to be on the kiddy side of things. The soundtrack is comparable to Infogrames' Wacky Racers on the Dreamcast.

RC Pro Revenge boasts 4 modes of play including: Championship Mode, Single Race, Time Trial and Multiplayer. There are 6 main movie theme parks which each containing a varied number of tracks which include mirrored tracks, reversed tracks and mirrored reversed tracks. Perhaps the coolest feature in RC Pro Revenge is the ability to create and save your own tracks through its comprehensive track editor. We had quite a bit of fun devising some crazy outlays and then actually putting them to good use. Here is where any valued replay value is found.

In the end, RC Revenge Pro is another title that can be classified under the "what could have been" category. The premise and course ideas are fantastic, they just were never explored to their fullest. The king of the RC hill still belongs to Acclaim's excellent Dreamcast racer RE-VOLT. RC Pro Revenge would best suit the younger gamers out there but for the seasoned veteran a rental will suffice.