''Castrol HONDA -World Superbike Team- Superbike Racing'' (short: ''Castrol HONDA Superbike Racing'') is a licensed

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

racing game Racing games are a video game genre in which the player participates in a racing competition. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to fantastical settings. They are distributed along a spectrum between more realistic rac ...

, developed by Interactive Entertainment Ltd. The game features the

Honda RVF750 RC45 The Honda RVF750R RC45 was a fully faired racing motorcycle created for homologation purposes for the Superbike World Championship by Honda Racing Corporation. The RVF750R was the successor to the VFR750R RC30 (not to be confused with the sport t ...

and the riders

Aaron Slight Aaron Tony Slight (born 19 January 1966) is a New Zealand former professional motorcycle road racer. He competed in the Superbike World Championships from to , finishing second in the championship twice and third four times. He later competed ...

and

Colin Edwards Colin Edwards II (born February 27, 1974), nicknamed the "Texas Tornado", is an American former professional motorcycle racer who retired half-way through the 2014 season, but continues in the sport as a factory test rider. He is a two-time Wo ...

of the

1998 Superbike World Championship season The 1998 Superbike World Championship was the eleventh FIM Superbike World Championship season. The season started on 22 March at Phillip Island and finished on 4 October at Sugo after 12 rounds. The season saw the introduction of a revised qual ...

Gameplay

The player controls a motorcyclist (default names are A.Slight and C.Edwards) in races on various international race tracks. Game types are "Practice Session" (solo practice), "Trainer Session" (where the player has to follow the trainer's bike to learn the optimum racing line), "Single Race" (one race on a chosen track against contestants) and "Championship" (race the whole season). The latter two consist in three parts: "Practice Session", "Qualifying" and "Race". In each race, a field of eight bikers races simultaneously, including the human players. Game options include Difficulty (Rookie, Novice, Amateur, Semi Professional, Professional, Ace), number of laps (3, 5, 10 laps or "full race" which is 100 km). In the bike setup, gearbox (automatic or manual), final drive for each gear and gear sprocket can be modified.

Reception

The game received mixed reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

. John Lee of '' NextGen'' said of the game, "You might learn a bit about bike racing, but after you've zipped around the same track a dozen or so times, this is just plain dull." In Japan, where the game was ported and published by

Success Success is the state or condition of meeting a defined range of expectations. It may be viewed as the opposite of failure. The criteria for success depend on context, and may be relative to a particular observer or belief system. One person mig ...

as part of the ''SuperLite 1500'' series on April 27, 2000, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' gave it a score of 26 out of 40. The game was reviewed by the German multiformat console magazine "MAN!AC" and received a rating of 58%. The review considered the game a "mediocre racer with many racing tracks but simple visuals and little realism in controls". Janice Tong from

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

rated the game three stars of five stating "For anyone who is into Superbike racing, this game will be a lot more meaningful and I suppose there is always the nostalgic element of playing the role of your favourite rider"

Sequels and Spin-offs

There are three other games in the ''Castrol HONDA Superbike'' series of which each one was produced by Midas Interactive Entertainment: * '' Castrol HONDA SuperBike World Champions'' (1998 for PC) * '' Castrol HONDA World Superbike Team Superbike 2000'' (1999 for PC) * '' Castrol HONDA World Superbike Team VTR'' (2001 for PlayStation) Note: Although the PlayStation version (by '' Bubble Boy Ltd'') and the PC version (with the name suffix "2000") were released the same year, they are individual games (as the different titles suggest) and not just versions of the same game.

References

External links

* {{Castrol Honda Superbike series 1999 video games Electronic Arts games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation (console)-only games Motorcycle video games Racing video games Success (company) games Superbike World Championship THQ games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United Kingdom