Home Page / gc / T / Tube Slider / Review Listing / Review

NEC makes its way back into the software market with a strange offering for the Nintendo Gamecube. Reminiscent of F-Zero and bringing back memories of the arcade game S.T.U.N. Runner, NEC’s Tube Slider is a futuristic racer in its purest form. Is this the game that will put NEC back on the map? Well probably not, but it is a step in the right direction.

Tube Slider makes no attempts at trying to be anything but what it is, that being an arcade futuristic racer. It’s you, a tube and 7 other racers in a mad dash to the finish line. At first glance the game appears really simple. Being in a tube you can race on the walls and the ceiling with no problems, but finding the quickest way around the track can be just as hard as any street racer. Inclines will slow you down. So will losing the war with gravity and going airborne. You’re given a couple different weapons at your disposal to help you get around the tracks from the standard “turbo” and “boosters” to a unique lock-on system that lets you drain power from the person ahead of you. This unique feature along with the focus on keeping your speed and keeping smooth motion around the track really help the replay value of the game. It takes a long time to master the techniques in this game, and master them indeed if you want to win against a damn challenging AI. You can find yourself going from first to last in a matter of seconds and finding it near impossible to catch back up. So it’s important to protect your position and not make mistakes.

This isn’t a game for everyone, and it’s not quite as polished and complete as the F-zero’s and Wipeout’s of the world. There are only 7 real tracks to speak of and the Grand Prix mode gets incredibly tough after the first few races. You’ll have to put some work into the game to get everything it has to offer, but when you hit that zone you’ll be loving every minute of it. There’s nothing like cruising at light speed through a tube and nailing every corner as you make that final pass to win the race. Sadly, I have a feeling that most people who play this game will probably give up before they ever become that good at it. It’s really an arcade game through and through and feels like it would be at home sitting in an arcade with a nice steering wheel set-up.

Graphically Tube Slider is pretty sharp. The tubes and environments do their jobs well and really give you a strong sense of speed. All the different assortments of racers, while somewhat generic compared with the competition all look crisp and clean. A big bonus is everything moves at a solid 60fps to give a very smooth look to the game. Lack of progressive mode knocks down the quality a bit but the game still looked pretty good on my TV. The sound on the other hand is your basic techno mixes that you’d expect with a game like this.

There’s a 4-player mode so you can race against your friends, which sounds good in theory. It may be hard to get your friends to spend the time to master the game to keep you with you, but it’s a nice addition and looks sharp with no loss in frame rate that I could see. (Editors Note: Matt is notorious for mastering games then giving you the innocent “Oh come and play! It’s easy! It’ll be fun!” line as he proceeds to own you at games like this) Besides the multiplayer modes and the Grand Prix modes you’ve got a basic training mode that will teach you the basics of turbos, using your side boosters, and using the L and R buttons to get around sharp corners quickly. It’s a good starting spot for new players, because you’ll be getting nowhere with out mastering these techniques.

At first glance there doesn’t seem to be much to Tube Slider. You’d probably be right. Compared with other games that have a plethora of options there just isn’t a lot to this game. Fans of the genre just waiting for F-Zero to come out might find a lot to like in the game. Without a lot of modes and a small selection of tracks it comes down to whether this game is worth your 40 bucks. Well is it? It’s not that simple really. I got a lot of enjoyment out of the game, but I stuck with it for a while and I can’t say I wasn’t frustrated as all hell until I really got the knack of it. Your enjoyment level will increase exponentially when you get a handle on the courses. Futuristic racing fans would do themselves good by giving this game a rent. I’m anticipating what else NEC has in store for us in the future.