The Flux Challenge

August 17, 2004 | | format - Other (ar.) | viewed - 76x
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(62 votes) | category - -

The Flux Challenge

>Game Play

Flux Challenge is played in First Person style, with a forward looking point of view directed straight on to the MagILev tunnel, As you progress along a tunnel warning indicators flash up on screen informing you of the next bend, dip, hill or junction and allow you a few brief seconds to prepare for a hard 'G' force manoeuvre.

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Starting with the simple introduction tunnel called 'Serpent' you will soon find yourself winning the lead on the first few tunnels, until you get to the more challenging ones such as the aptly named 'Vertigo', 'Cliff', 'Knot' and the devilishly challenging 'Zigzag' and 'Twister' the tunnels are made available to you with each progression and require greater skill, faster reflexes and concentrated strategies. The later tunnels are not for the faint hearted as they hold a stomach churning roller coaster range of turns/dips and require split second timing, it's safe to say that when you complete the upper tunnels you really can call yourself a Champion.

The tunnel progression also includes more frequent obstacles and bonuses e.g. Green 'Speed bars' that provide you with a few seconds crucial turbo boost or the red 'Slug Bars' that frustratingly slow you down or the 'Construction Bars' that slow you down by just like a brick wall.

One of the key aspects of Flux Challenge is becoming familiar with the many 'short-cuts' that are available, miss a turn and it could cost you the race, maybe even the championship.

On starting Flux Challenge the player is presented with a login screen where you can enter your name and will record details of your winnings.

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Options

Having entered you personal details in the login screen, you are presented with a number of options to choose from:

Practise - Sample each tunnel and hone your race stratedgy, essential if your serious about becoming a Flux Challenge Champion
Time trial - Once you've decided on a stratedgy, put it to the test and check your reflexes
Career - When your ready to try a tunnel, put your winnings on the line along with your reputation
Records - Fancy showing off your best times for each tunnel
Help - Detailed history about the Flux Challenge and tips on playing (essential reading)
Credits - Marvel at the creators of Flux Challenge

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Having selected your game mode you then progress on to select the track you wish to race, at the beginning only the first four tunnels are available. However on completion of the first four more tunnels are unlocked with a total of 24 tracks available in the full game.

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Next up is your ship selection, again only the first ship (Mosquito) is available at first, until enough funds have been won to upgrade to a more powerful ship. A total of six ships are available in the full game.

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Choose your ship, enter the race tunnle and put your head between your legs and kiss your @rse good bye, Cuz the race is on.

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Graphics

The graphics of Flux Challenge are amazing and seem to have achieved the impossible by improving on the visual extravaganza that was Anthelion (the same game engine is used). The ships are highly stylised and the animation of the tunnels provides for a white knuckle ride as you dive around corners and plummet down gut wrenching dips. A nice touch is the range of options that are present in the settings dialogue screen as an option to play with the on-screen d-pad or 'Large Screen' mode is available (see the screen shots above) as well as the options to turn the engine trails on/off and the detail level of the ship can be switched on/off to allow Flux Challenge to be played on the less high performance devices. A credit to the programmers is that with all options switched on for an Ipaq 3970 (which is a few years old now) No performance degradation was detectable.

Controls

The ship can be controlled via either the stylus on screen, the stylus on the on screen D-pad or by using the hardware D-pad. There's no need to be concerned about wearing out your hardware button (as on most race games) as the acceleration is automatic, you can however press a button (on screen or hardware) to active the occasional 'turbo boost', once enough fuel has been collected.

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The main in game controls consist of the basic up, down, right, left. With such a variety of input methods it's incredible that the controls are so responsive, on my ageing Ipaq 3970 no lag or over sensitivity what so ever was experienced, with every move being accurately reflected on screen.

Sound

Flux Challenge game play is accompanied by some terrific musical scores, which add a funky aural pleasure between races with sound tracks varying according to the screen the player is currently on. These sound tracks give Flux Challenge a very strong arcade feel, reminiscent of such greats as Ridge Racer (especially the strumming of the electronic guitar on winning or failing a tunnel).

The actual racing consists of sound effects that are quite satisfying and echo the on screen events particularly well with bangs and screeches that almost leave bruises as your ship bounces of the tunnel walls, or the satisfying scream of the engine hurtling you along at max speed, this all helps to provide a sense of actually participating in the game rather than just observing, as most game sound tracks tend to do.

Settings

The range of in game options for Flux Challenge is quite comprehensive and is broken down in to three sections:

Audio

Music volume
Sound volume
In-game music
Additional sounds

Graphics

Cockpit view
Large screen
Dithered textures
High poly models
Engine trails

Controls

Inverse up/down controls
redefine the hardware keys

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The range of controls reflect that Flux Challenge should work on a wide variety of devices even those older devices that may have been crippled by damaged hardware buttons.

Replay Value

This reviewer believes that with 6 ships to pilot around 24 hair raising tunnels on either a Practice, Time trial, or Career modes the longevity of Flux Challenge quite clearly speaks for itself. Even if champion status is won the temptation to better your previous times remains a constant. After all if you won a race while piloting the 'Mosquito' around the 'Serpent' tunnel, the question of what time could you achieve on the same track if you piloted the 'beast' that is the Tornado GTX, begs to answered.

Installation

Installation is by the normal ActiveSync method from your Pocket PC to your desktop or laptop PC, and only takes approximately four megabytes of storage. If you choose to install to a storage card (SD or CF) the performance continues to run extremely smoothly.