Valentino Rossi: The Game is a motorcycle racing simulator with sports car driving elements interwoven in. The developers call it the most complete Road Racing World Championship Grand Prix (MotoGP) title they’ve produced yet. The majority of the game follows a traditional season where you compete against other computer-controlled riders. The objective is to become the best rider there is and rise in the leaderboards. While this forms the basis for the title, the fact that the legendary Valentino Rossi’s name is attached to it means there’s more to the game. After succeeding in some matches, you can play some of the past championships which were the stages for Valentino Rossi’s many victories. You can also compete in flat track races on a private course, drift competitions at Misano and rally challenges at Monza. All of this is needed to master the game as the more you play the better you get.
Now, you might be wondering why I said ‘the more you play the better you get.’ That’s implied, right? Well, unlike other racing games where you have to rely on your skills from the start, your statistics improve the more you race. With each victory—or even defeat—you level up just that much more and improve your balance and other attributes. This gives you better control over your motorcycle and can drastically change how you manipulate your ride. I don’t think I’ve played a game before that does this. Usually when you think of a racing game like Forza Motorsport 6, you just level up in order to unlock more vehicles. While Valentino Rossi: The Game features various unlockables such as dozens of different suits and helmets, the fact that it also features role-playing mechanics is unique. I could feel that I was getting better and better. Corners became easier and managing my ideal racing line was also smoother. Don’t get frustrated if you keep on losing initially because it takes some time to get used to the feel of the game. Motorcycle racing is quite different than turning a steering wheel even in the digital realm.
There are a lot of tracks to race on which feature sharp turns and tricky sections. I have to say that the variety is astonishing and each one of them feels unique and different. You’ll need to race on them multiple times to get the hang of all the challenges the tarmac poses. There are also tracks designed for sports cars which aren’t that great to be honest. They feel generic and uninspired or maybe it’s just how the vehicle handles that doesn’t offer that great of an experience. The motorcycle racing is definitely the star of the show here and I’m glad the game features tracks that really highlight it.
I’m going to sound like a broken record here but the frame rate of Valentino Rossi: The Game must be addressed. The experience appears to be locked at around thirty frames per second and stutters whenever you’re cornering. First of all, the title looks like it’s from the Xbox 360 generation in terms of lighting and textures. The courses are small and they lack significant enhancements like a dynamic background or other effects. Why Valentino Rossi: The Game only manages to attain thirty frames per second on Xbox One baffles me greatly. When you design a game that focuses on simulation racing—whether it be motorcycles or sports cars—a sixty frames per second visual presentation is a requirement. Not only does it improve the visuals in terms of smoothness, it also cuts input lag in half. The controls feel very responsive and adjusting your vehicle becomes sharper and tighter. It’s a noticeable improvement.
Every single other title out there like Forza Motorsport 6 and Dirt Rally adopts this approach. They feature locked sixty frame rates. The fact that Valentino Rossi: The Game isn’t is a huge detriment to the experience. The controls feel clunky and floaty. While the feeling improves as you level up through countless hours of gameplay, the initial sensation you get while riding is off-putting and jarring. My initial impressions were so shocking that I wanted to give up right there and then. However, I soldiered on and began to enjoy the title after unlocking some upgrades and getting used to the controls. This is one title which would’ve heavily benefited from a higher frame rate. It’s a shame that the developers didn’t prioritize that on consoles.
Summary
Overall, Valentino Rossi: The Game is a good experience which is let down by its technical aspects. There’s no reason a simulation title should run at thirty frames per second and have stuttering and other issues during gameplay. I’m not sure if these problems are found in other versions but they definitely impact the experience on Xbox One. Hopefully Milestone will go back to the drawing board with their engine or at least upgrade their existing one to take advantage of the higher frame rates the consoles are capable of. I love the content in the title but can’t excuse its technical limitations.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.