Pimp My Ride

Pimp My Ride
The game is a ricer.
Protagonist(s): Xzibit Genre(s): Racing Simulation Platform(s): PlayStation 2 Xbox 360 PlayStation Portable Nintendo Wii Release: PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 NA: November 21, 2006 (PS2) NA: December 6, 2006 (X360) AU: March 14, 2007 EU: March 16, 2007 PlayStation Portable NA: April 3, 2007 AU: April 26, 2007 EU: December 7, 2007 Nintendo Wii NA: February 19, 2008 AU: March 2008 EU: September 12, 2008 Developer(s): Eutechnyx Publisher(s): Activision Country: United Kingdom Series: Pimp My Ride Successor: Pimp My Ride: Street Racing

Pimp My Ride is a racing video game based on the eponymous television show of the same name. It was developed by Eutechnyx and published by Activision for PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo Wii. The game was released in 2006.

Why It Doesn't Pimp

1. The gameplay is very boring and repetitive, making it feel like a poor man's Need for Speed: Underground.
2. The car designs are very generic and there are no licensed vehicles from brands such as Dodge, Toyota, Porsche, Chevrolet, etc.
3. Poorly animated cutscenes with bad lip-syncing.
4. Laughable and cringeworthy dialogue such as Xzibit's "Whoa, that Tornado! That looks like it's been hit by a tornado!"
5. Pixelated, blurry graphics that look awful for a game released in 2006. The cars look more like RC cars, the levels looked washed up with a bad color palette, and the character models look more like plastic figurines. It even suffers from an awful framerate, especially on the PS2 version. In fact, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, a game released a year earlier, looks better.
6. Terrible car handling that is on par with Eutechnyx's later game, Ride to Hell: Retribution. It attempts to be arcady, but it feels like you're trying to drive a bumper car on ice.
7. One of the ways you can earn cash for the budget for pimping a customer's vehicle is to crash into others, which is contradictory to the premise of the show because in it, West Coast Customs (Galpin Auto Sports from Season 5 onwards) takes beat up cars, and enhances them into ones worthy of being on the streets.
8. The only other ways you can earn cash are via dull minigames, all of which are completed by pressing buttons.
9. Customization options are limited due to them being catered towards the customer's preferences. This also means it's impossible to pick a wrong part to purchase.
10. To install the parts, you press buttons in an order like a minigame. While you can skip this process, you'll be paying full price for the part if you skip it.
11. As long as you keep buying the most expensive parts, you'll win.
12. Many of the characters are outright obnoxious and unlikable, especially Marcia (the first customer).
13. The PSP version has worser visuals, less content and an even more unstable framerate. It also replaces 3 customers named Leon, Alix and Aiyana with Kass, Conway and Heather, the last one having shops that have a very long distance.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Decent hip hop soundtrack, including Styles of Beyond's Bleach and Suni Clay's in a Hood Near You, the latter previously appearing in Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
2. The PSP version has a route planner where you can map out where you want to go instead of having to use the manual DFMS.

Reception

Pimp My Ride received negative reviews, and has a Metacritic score of 38/100 on Xbox 360, 36/100 on PlayStation 2, and 26/100 on Wii.

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