Auto Modellista

Experience the True Essence of Racing

JP release: 3rd July 2003
NA release: 30th September 2003
EU release: N/A
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

I remember seeing some of the striking screenshots of the cel-shaded Auto Modellista and being impressed, but the game just vanished from my sights as it ended up not releasing in Europe on GameCube – only on PS2. It’s a racing game with a ton of arcade flair in terms of presentation, with colourful environments, nice looking cars and even all the menus and opening to each race.

But, sadly, it’s the racing that lets the game down. It feel like a strange mix of a game that isn’t sure it wants to be an arcade racer or a more serious one, which leaves you with a racing game that just has bad controls that will make you spin out constantly. Even if you do manage to get to grips with it, it’s still not fun, either. It’s a shame as there’s a decent number of tracks and cars, as well as further details like tuning.

It’s also surprising how much the “wind” effect impacts the speed of the game. Without it, it just feels immensely slow. It’s a great example as to how racing games don’t necessarily have to be fast, but rather have a good sense of speed. With better controls, this could have been a really fun and stylish racer, but instead it’s just something nice to look at.

Fine

It’s really frustrating to try to tackle a corner and see a vehicle’s ass-end come out even when you’re doing everything right. And let’s say that you really do want to try some drift-style driving; well, that isn’t done right, either. Try to drift in a turn and you’ll wind up spinning nine times out of ten. And on the rare occasion that you do a perfect counter-steer and slide right you’ll lose all power to the wheels and come to an almost complete halt.
Tyrone Rodriguez, IGN

Remake or remaster?

While I don’t think anything needs to be done with this game, we need more racing games with striking visual styles.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Auto Modellista.