Game Review: Revellutions Dust Rider

The Revellutions Dust Rider is an RC all terrain buggy and has independent suspension all round interchangeable wheels, two gear ratio settings and a handy controller that can be set for right or left handed use.

This little car doesn`t look much when you remove it from its large box and to be honest I was a little concerned about the build quality, it looked a little flimsy so I took it round to my two 6 year old nephews house to let them test it too destruction, and despite all their imaginative efforts, the dust rider remained intact, we jumped it over ramps through mud and water and it just kept on going and it’s a nippy thing as well, apparently touching on 20 mph.

Now this is a great RC car and the easy to use controls work brilliantly with a trigger for forward backwards and brake (great for skidding) and a simple steering wheel, my two testers loved this car and spent ages jumping it and chasing the dog round the park with it.

The downside of this is of course the amount of batteries it uses, 6 AA`s just for the controller, and it doesn`t last for long we noticed a decline in performance after 30 minutes of use, the upside is the car itself has a rechargeable battery so it’s not all bad news, I think it would have been a good idea to have a rechargeable pack for the handset as well as this is used more than the car.

Now you’re probably wondering what an RC car has to do with gaming.

Well the answer is this The revellutions Dust Rider controller can also be used for on line gaming , that is you can play the revell PC game which is a very simple on line racing game with virtual versions of the Revellutions range , which is a nice idea unfortunately it didn`t work that well when we tried it.

You have to remove the little usb dongle from the base of the controller and connect it to your PC then download the game from Revells site and away you go in theory, actually in practice we had no end of trouble trying to get it to work and when it did the experience was vastly underwhelming.

Revell are planning to launch a more updated version of this car soon so hopefully all the bugs will be sorted.

Summary

The revellutions Dust Rider is a tough RC all-terrain vehicle and loads of fun to play with yet the excessive amount of batteries required to run it can turn out expensive, unless you buy some rechargeable ones, the on-line racing game is a complete waste of time and needs some serious upgrading as even a couple of six year olds didn`t rate it.

As an all-terrain RC car the revellutions Dust Rider is very cool , it looks good and is very fast it’s just that one of the unique selling points of this car is the ability to play on-line, and this does let the thing down , that and the battery life, if those things were fixed then this would be a winner.

2.4 GHz gun transmitter suitable for right and left-handed users

Lithium polymer battery with plug-free hard case

Mechanical gear shifting

Transmitter includes wireless USB connection for 3D online game (only 1:14 models)

Ultra-stable chassis construction made of hi-tech polymer

Digital proportional controller system

Price: £51.00

Manufacturer: Revell www.revellutions.de/en

www.theleet.co.uk