SBK X: Superbike World Championship – Review

Deep Silver’s entry into the simulation bike racing genre has arrived with SBK X. With SBK X you have two different styles of play to choose from.If you are a simulation fan and enjoy simulation racing titles than this mode is definitely for you. If you are more of a casual fan and you don’t want to have to worry about everything then there is also Arcade mode for you to enjoy. I really appreciated this choice as not everyone has the patience for a simulation racing title and now everyone can enjoy the game regardless of their preference. Each selection is identical in terms of the modes that you can select from whether it be a quick race, quick championship, or time attack. The only difference is that in arcade you can select “story mode” and in simulation you have “career”. SBK X is one of those titles where it is as deep as you want it to be. If you want a deep racing experience where you can control everything from the way your rider sits on his bike to how many laps in a race you want to do, you can do that. If you are someone who simply wants to pop SBK X in to your console and immediately start racing than you can do that as well.

The story mode of SBK X has you racing throughout many different seasons and through different circuits before you eventually end up at the Superbike FIM World Championship. The career mode on the simulation setting is where a lot depth is. You get to pick what team you sign with and what your number will be. After that you are brought to the main hub for your career where you can view all of your current stats, all your notes of things to be aware of, showcasing the prizes you have won, editing your rider and then “go to weekend” where you will head to the garage. This is where you can get advice, meet with your technicians, get your bike repaired and much more. You can tune your bike and everything you change can have a big impact on the track. Over the weekend you have two days of racing that will be split into five different areas. You have your time to practice and then you have to try and qualify. After that you have more time to practice, time to warm up and then the actual race itself. During the practice segments you can test out any tweaks you might have made to the bike and get familiar with the track itself. The qualifying portion will determine what position you start in for the actual race. The warm up portion is 20 minutes of free racing to make sure everything is how you want it and then you have the actual race. The race will generally be three laps unless you changed it in the settings.

Before you embark on your new career you will want to make sure that the settings are to your liking. One of the options that I really liked is that you can chose the length of your race. You can choose anywhere from racing 5% of the race all the way to 100% of the race. This means in a 22 lap race you could start actually racing on lap 21 or on lap 1. You can determine the weather condition which will determine how the track behaves as well as your starting position, whether you want a rolling start, whether your tires will show wear, whether you want bike damage turned on and more. In Simulation you can even select the simulation level you want which should help for beginners and experienced drivers alike. Along the way you will unlock different gear for your team, different pictures that you can look at in the gallery and more. You will also build up your reputation and respect level so that more people will take notice of your races and you will get better offers because of it.

If racing against real world opponents is more your speed than you can jump on the multiplayer and test your skills on the online racetrack. Just like other games that feature multiplayer you have a quick search function here if you want to immediately jump into a race. There is also Quick Race, Championship and Time Attack and then, of course, the leaderboards. If you decide that you want to create your own session you will be given a myriad of options such as picking the game style, the class, how many players can participate, whether collisions are on or off and more. Just like I said with the single player portion of this title, it can be as deep as you want it to be.

SBK X is a fantastic racing title from Deep Silver. As a person who is more of a casual fan of the simulation genre I appreciate the breadth of options that I was presented with so that I could tailor my experience to fit my skill level. When you offer two distinctly different control styles like that you run the risk of biting off more than you can chew and the game could potentially suffer from it. Fortunately, this is not the case with SBK X as they hit just the right balance between making it a game that can be easy enough to play for amateurs or a title that can be absolutely punishing for experienced racers. If you are a racing fan at all I would recommend that you give this title a chance. Chances are that you will find something that you like and you will be glad you did.