Game Vortex writes: "Anyone that thinks $20 won't buy you much hasn't done a side-by-side with SCORE International Baja 1000 and Baja: Edge of Control. After we got some time recently with both games, it's clear that what was sacrificed to make SCORE International Baja 1000 a "budget" title at $40 simply isn't worth the trade-off in quality. This isn't clear immediately in the front office; the opening credits and video will have you pumped, with some jamming hard rock blasting and incredible views of the famous Baja landscape. Spills and thrills galore. The actual design of the game is pretty sharp, in terms of interface. This carries over to small touches during races, such as dirt flying back from vehicles in front of you and obscuring your vision, or the extreme slo-mo segments after you crash that show some nice rag doll physics at work."
The basic boost system – forget the clutch; here you can simply boost until the engine overheats, let it cool and repeat – is a minor saving grace should you use it to correct the random oversteer/understeer rather than speed along the straights. But if you've invested enough minutes to work that out for yourself you'll have spent far too long in Baja 1000's shallow career at a time when masterpieces are being released by the dozen. Many racers have threatened to drive GamesRadar round the bend. This one succeeded.
You'll love:
* Emulates better games
* Tons of boost!
* Easy achievements
You'll hate:
* Laughable handling models
* Barren track design
* Shamelessly imitates
GC writes: "Racing… a national past-time that has bridged continents and generations. I've been fan of racing for many years and have seen everything from everything from motocross to NASCAR to boat racing, albeit from the comforts of my living room. My favorite type of racing however takes us through the southwestern United States and across the Baja Peninsula. I'm of course talking about the rugged off-road sport known as Baja.
When anyone talks about Baja racing, one company is sure to be mentioned. SCORE International has been organizing and running its flagship event, the Baja 1000, since the 70s. SCORE is such a driving force in the Baja community that they have teamed up with Activision and Left Field Productions to put their own spin on Baja racing in video games."
PSX Extreme writes: "The off-road racing genre has really come into the limelight in this new generation, as the two MotorStorm titles have proven to be wonderfully entertaining and technically solid, and other competing games like Baja: Edge of Control and Pure have also tossed their hats into the ring. Now, coming out of Left Field (forgive the obvious pun) is SCORE International: Baja 1000, which attempts to stand up to the big boys this holiday season with a fun, accessible racing mechanic. Instead, it flips and wrecks itself long before even the first lap is complete, and there's no reason whatsoever to compare this mediocre mess to the likes of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. Unfortunately, Baja 1000 does very little right and a whole lot wrong, but fortunately, we finally get to talk about a game you don't have to buy. There are so many must-have titles on stores shelves in the latter part of 2008, it's almost comforting to know you can ignore a new game that fails on a number of a different levels."
