Ford Bold Moves Racing Review

Ford hasn’t been a company too well known for Bold Moves since the early 1900’s. I think it’s fair to say that in the past decade, the boldest move from Ford would be their decision to attempt a cover-up of their Ford Explorer tire fiasco that resulted in the flipping of their trucks. Another bold move (or stupid move) would be their insistence to stick with SUVs when gas prices hike past $3 a gallon. American icons like Ford, General Motors and Chrysler have all fallen behind their Japanese counter-parts in terms of market growth.

Whether its an effort to improve their image with consumers, appeal to Ford vehicle enthusiasts or just to make a few bucks, Ford Bold Moves Street Racing is about as lacking in its gameplay appeal as the company’s stock. While I have been a fan of Ford Racing 2 on PlayStation 2 in the past, giving it high remarks for a budget title, Empire Interactive is actually taking things backwards, and three years have passed since then.

Ford Bold Moves Street Racing is your standard racing title. You have a limited array of game modes and are even more constrained by your selection of vehicles. The gimmick here is that you are a part of a team. Mimicking NASCAR 06: Total Team Control from 2005, you will be given limited control of different racing cars on your team. While you control one car, you can order another to allow you to draft them, have them block for you and switch control between each. It’s not a bad idea, if not unoriginal, but I feel that it is better suited for a game like NASCAR where there are 40 race cars on the track.

As far as the single-player is concerned, there’s not too much here. You can Solo Race or you can Team Race. Solo Race has single racing events and it also has a Championship. Team Racing is where you’ll spend most of your time with its Single Race, Team Championships and Challenges. The Challenges are probably the funnest part of the game, having you complete a specific goal such as passing X cars or finishing in a set amount of time. These must be unlocked from playing the Team Championship races.

About the best thing I can say for the game is it is the best looking budget racing title I have seen. Maybe that’s because you run around the same track a dozen times over, but there is a good amount of variety and detail in building models. The cars themselves have progressive car damage that you can see as you race. Unfortunately, with such few tracks to choose from (the box includes reverse tracks in their list of total tracks), I can’t give the game full credit. Worse yet, there is no music at all. Get used to boring engine sounds or turn on the radio.

With no online multi-player and only two player split-screen, Ford Bold Moves Street Racing gives gamers little reason to keep playing. Even the PlayStation Portable version allows for up to human players racing at once. The game is not very long when compared to the likes of Burnout Revenge and Need for Speed: Most Wanted, nor is there much reason to finish a game that has you playing the same tracks over again.

There’s no reason to buy Ford Bold Moves for the PlayStation 2. If Ford thinks that this game is going to help their shrinking market share, they better start playing the games they allow their name to be on the cover of. This game wrecks straight into a wall (or maybe it rolls over on a defective tire?). I would suggest to the developers of this game that they put more effort next time into adding new tracks, some sound to keep you at least remotely interested and genuinely new racing ideas.