Metropolis Street Racer

"Great Gameplay? Affirmative. Great Visuals? Yes. Great Soundtrack? Definitely. Huge in size? Does 262 Tracks Sound Huge to You?"

MSR on first arrival looked spectacular. No other racing title compared to its magnificence. I actually remember being wowed as a kid and when I was told that it was being bought for me I got really excited. When it arrived finally I popped the disc into my DC and waited for it to load.

Initially MSR took a while to get used to. The controls were a little different from other racing game I'd played. When I did though I was power-sliding everywhere. One of the main gimmicks of MSR is the kudos system, you get points based on how ell you drive and how skillfully you complete races. Do a nice long power-slide and you'll garner yourself a nice pretty bonus. But if you hit a wall expect deductions. The problem with the system here is that the slightest touch of a wall deducts loads of points. If you're ahead of a fellow competitor and they touch your rear you are deducted point even though it was the computer that hit you. Stuff like that can make you loose vital points needed to win a race, challenge or even championship/league and brings the game down a few marks for being over critical. The game uses a night/day system depending on the real time you set into the clock. So at times you'll see Japan/Tokyo at night, England/London during the day, and the USA/San Francisco midday depending on what time you play. The thing is though that in the dark the turn are pretty hard sometimes to make out and I found myself crashing in to barriers that were quite hard to see until you were up close.

The brilliant thing about MSR is that it's huge. The main game has 25 chapters each with to challenges each and a little championship at the end. Each chapter has better car makes and race tracks become more complex with more bends and turns. Meeting certain kudos quota in certain challenges/chapters unlocks certain goodies such as new cars, or even quirky rides such as a go kart or a lawnmower. There are about 50 cars in the game (which I think is a decent number) all of different makes and kinds. But the best news is that the game has over 250 race tracks for you to play on. Now that is something of greatness. You'll never be bored because there is so much variety available for all ages, skills and difficulties. As a last note there is the inclusion of rain which allows for harder races. Skidding will come by you a lot in these conditions so expect crashing into walls and losing lots of kudos due to doing so.

The visuals are outstanding and are some of the best on the Dreamcast. The game is realistic after all and is actually set on the actual streets of the most known parts of London, Tokyo and San Francisco. So the game score kudos for authenticity. There is all the details of shops, bins, lamps, parks, road signs, and just about anything else that was around at the time that MSRs photographic pictures were taken. I even came across a Pizza Hut in London. The lighting in the game also works wonders too. Drive through a park under trees and expect shades and flickers of light and darkness across the shine of your car and watch as signs flash. There is so much to see even when you're not racing. MSR looks fabulous.

The music if pretty darn awesome as well. Numerous artists perform corny music on a made up Radio. The thing is though that the music is very good. I wouldn't buy it, but as game music goes, it's very good. Some of it is even by legend composer Richard Jacques and some tracks are sung my T.J Davis (from Sonic R fame) which are just as good as ever. There are tons of songs to listen to and even a chance to make your own personal CD to listen to in the game whilst driving which I thought was a nice touch. Most tracks are great to listen to and they vary from Dance to Rap, County to RnB, Soul to Rock. Once artist reminded me of Barry White which and the song he sang was pretty funny at the time. Apart from the ace music you have all the typical sound effects that you have in games, from engine revs to horns beeping all of which sound authentic. I actually though some of the artists present in MSR were better that some of the current pop trash that was out at that time and now that I think about it I think that the artists here are better than some of the rubbish that hits the charts nowadays.

The game does have replay value. It has 262 tracks available to play and a VS mode. You can also play against any car up to six of your choice in the quick race mode. This mode is great for practicing and is still pretty fun on its own. Yes they should have added a four player feature but the game is so impressive you won't seem to care too much.

So I think MSR is a superb title and obviously a lot of other people did too because without this little number there would be no Project Gotham Racing. MSR pushed racing games farther than any other racing game at the time and bought the genre in to new and great directions and introduced the world to the cool kudos point systems, even if it were a little flawed. It gave gamers something gargantuan. Its gameplay was meaty and surprisingly its visuals and soundtrack are just as good. MSR is great in every area and I think that any racing enthusiast will love this title. If you don't then what the hell is wrong with you. I'm not a racing fan in any shape or form, but I really liked MSR. It allowed me to enjoy at least one racing game and that to me says a lot about the quality of this title. Plus I have to say again that it is HUGE.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/20/09

Game Release: MSR: Metropolis Street Racer (EU, 03/11/00)