In Pocket Racers you and a gaggle of your friends, who are at a swank party living life to the fullest, find yourselves in the most bizarre situation ever (!?) after a demon turns all of you into cars and forces you to race for your very souls. It's hard to understand why a demon would do this (no fun activities in hell?) but for now we'll play along and tell you the particulars of this racing adventure and whether or not it works in the grand scheme of things.

You start Pocket Racers by choosing a vehicle that suits your needs. There are sleek speedy models and heavyweights to choose from so there's probably something that will feel right to you. Next you'll take on a set of courses and race just as you would in a Mario Kart title or countless other arcade style racing games. As players race these courses, which are supposed to be larger than life environments because you have been shrunk down to pint sized matchbox style cars, you'll battle for first place and -- if you're lucky -- collect some soul gems. Fail at the particular course your in and you might lose one of your friends' souls, so winning is pretty important. And that's pretty much the game in a nutshell, but does it really work and is it a satisfying racing experience? The short answer is no, but the long answer follows..

Pocket Racers is yet another PSP action racing game that probably looked good on paper but just doesn't work in the actual application of the idea. The concept of saving your friends' souls by racing is an interesting one - even if it feels slightly tacked on - but the racing is so mediocre and plagued with problems that you'll be willing to let them all go straight to Hades before you'll play this game to the end. Pocket Racers isn't the first bad racing game on the PSP and it certainly won't be the last, but it's ultimately not worth your time despite even the lure of a low price point.

The game features the whole "little" car in a life sized world complete with giant party supplies scattered all over the place (bottles, cans, etc.) in locales like the kitchen or the living room. Again, not an original concept, but the tracks, the locations, the debris everywhere, etc. isn't really laid out in a way to make these situations any fun.

Being an action racer there are also a fair share of power-ups that you can collect and use against other racers, but the big problem is that the targeting system isn't very effective. You'll spend more time zapping bottles than you will actually being able to hit the AI controlled challengers.

The other problem with the power-up system is that you can only have one at a time and when you pass over a new one it replaces what you already have. This is a major no-no because you should be able to keep what you have until you decide to use it. The game forces your hand in that regard, perhaps making you use an item at an inopportune time to avoid wasting it altogether..

The other problem with Pocket Racers is that its overall presentation is on par with a web-based racing game. The music, sounds, graphics and overall look and feel of the game are weak. It is a real shame because the concept of racing for one's soul could have been made very appealing with some thoughtfulness to the world, the layout of tracks and a more efficient use of power-ups.