Full Review

1 August 2006 - The racing genre’s always been packed to the very brim of the metaphorical cup. There’s pure breed racers such as GTR, Forza Motorsport and the endless stream of official F1 variants, a huge variety of twists on the normal routine like Destruction Derby, FlatOut and Mario Kart and, most recently, a new kind of "design your own car" title birthed by the likes of the Pimp Your Ride.

Juiced fits into the last category, but it’s had a difficult birth. It started life at Acclaim, but then got shelved when the long standing gaming company went bust. THQ picked it up though, did some serious modding and the rest, as they say, is history.

Despite its lukewarm reception by the critics, we’re treated to yet another port for our PSPs. Oh joyous days.

We hate to be the bearer of bad news – although we’re always more than happy to steer fellow gaming consumers away from a load of old tripe – but Juiced Eliminator is strictly under par action.

For starters, instead of bringing to the fore a brand new tweaked to the nines member of the Juiced family, what we have here is basically the same action with a few added neon lights and gaudy paint jobs.

Get under the hood and the boring – we’re talking Sven Goran Eriksson levels of boredom here – driving model still exists. You expect arcade type racers to give you free reign to fling your blinged up ride around wide corners with barely a care in the world, but the stringent track design and lack of leeway you’re given at each bend means you’re forced to plod along in low gear.

Things certainly aren’t helped by the lack of decent analogue control of the PSP too. Let’s admit it, the analogue nub is a shocking piece of design.

VERDICT
When you consider this racer is all about the bling, the options to turn your ride into a 17-year-old’s wet dream are ridiculously tiny. A huge miss considering the obvious target market they’re aiming for.

If you’re one of the few that enjoyed the original Juiced, then you’ll no doubt extract a lot of fun from this. For the rest of us though, we’re better off getting our handheld racing fix elsewhere.