MotorStorm for the Playstation 3 has been a "great graphics, great racing, great multiplayer, shame about the career mode" series. They present lushly rendered tracks with multiple overlapping courses for different kinds of vehicles. The motorcyles and ATVs take the high roads. The trucks and muscle cars take the low roads. When the low roads and high roads cross, chaos ensues. Chaos driven by hearty physics and a gratifying driving model. Unfortunately, the MotorStorm games had little in the way of a career mode, or car customization, or any of the hooks that keep you moving through the latest great racing games.

So how well does all this fit onto the PSP?

After the jump, read the review of MotorStorm: Arctic Edge for the PSP.

Arctic Edge comes from the folks who did the Pursuit Force games, which were shooting/driving games characterized by brainless shooting and brainless driving. You could say they were brainless. Very Bruckheimer, but way way smaller. At least this developer's attempt at MotorStorm is a bit brainier. The tracks are true to the MotorStorm conceit - multiple routes for various types of cars - but the PSP simply isn't up to the task of doing MotorStorm's lush details. You'll eventually figure out where you need to go, but only by trying the tracks a few times and squinting into the busy shuffle of distant pixels.

The driving model is disappointing, even though the types of vehicles handle differently. It's loose and imprecise using an analog nub to direct your car, or motorcycle, or snowcat. That's what it feels like more than driving. Directing. You, go over there. I suspect this is largely a limitation of the PSP. You'd think driving games would be a no-brainer on this system, but good ones are few and far between. Burnout worked. Wipeout worked. The SSX snowboarding game worked. But the closer you get to trying to approximate real racing, the farther you get from what the PSP can do.

The bigger problem is that there's simply not much incentive to drive these loosey-goosey criss-crossing races. Once you progress up a few tiers, you're going to be in that quagmire of replaying races until you luck into third place. Because unless that happens, you get bupkis for your time. When you win, you accumulate points that unlock new races and upgraded vehicles. There's lot of customization in terms of coloring bits and pieces of your vehicles, but without more emphasis on graphics, that's not going to carry the game. You have to be interested in unlocking a new truck with acceleration a smidge better than the old truck. Which won't matter since you'll be mostly lucking into successful finishes.

The snow environments is clever enough, with occasionally forays into mud to break up the icy white. And it's pretty nifty to drive a snowcat, imagining that you're Danny fleeing the Overlook Hotel, or maybe McCready and Childs making good their escape from an Antarctic research station. Because you have to do what you have to do to stay engaged with Arctic Edge. The actual game isn't going to be much help.