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SBK 09 Superbike World Championship

A realistic motorcycle racing game for PC

6.5

244 Votes

  • Category Racing games
  • Program license Trial version
  • Version 1.0
  • Size 517.35 MB
  • Works under: Windows XP
  • Program available in English
  • Program by Milestone S.r.l.

A 2009 motorbike simulation game that will have you leaning in your seat

For those of you unfamiliar, Super Bikes are extremely fast bikes whose racers will take corners basically lying on their sides, helmets inches from the pavement. The World Championship is the competition where they race in real life and SBK 09 has all the real world bikes and bikers from the real world race circuit. Since there's a year in the name, you can tell that this is one game in a long series of similar titles. As with others in this type of sports series, there are small updates and tweaks but nothing ground breaking. The real draw, for fans, is updated driver and bike lists that they're able to play. Unfortunately Milestone's SBK 09 takes a bit of a step backwards from the 2008 version of the game and doesn't really give fans of the series a reason to buy.

Game Play

Superbike World Championships is a racing game and nothing else. Unfortunately there's only a selection of bikes and riders and nothing else that's optional when you take your bike out on the track. The physics and control are one bright spot in this title, however, each of the bikes drive like bikes where weight is finesse is important. Lose your balance or lean too far over and you're looking for a crash. All in all this is the way a racing bike game should feel to play. The controls to manipulate your bike, though, are convoluted not for an entry level player. Buttons to tap, breaks to apply and lines to correct make this game a challenge to corner a bike. While making the corners should be challenging, it shouldn't be frustrating and the odd control scheme created for SBK 09 is confusing enough to make players throw the remote.

Presentation

originally coming out on the PS3, SBK 09 had access to some powerful hardware, but failed to capitalize on it fully. The bikes and riders are nicely done, but the terrain and tracks aren't as detailed as they could have been. Nothing graphically has been updated from SBK 08, but there has been three new tracks added for a little extra variety. There isn't a story at all, and the game modes are pretty standard: play through a season of races, free play etc. To top all of that off, the different screens have a long load time so you'll find yourself waiting around a lot even while navigating menus trying to set up your race.

Pros

  • Bike and rider models are adequate
  • Nice variety of bikes and riders, all based on real bikes and riders

Cons

  • Frustrating controls and game play
  • Terrible loading screen times
  • Basically not very fun
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