"Fast and fun, but tough to control"

While it's true that good racing games are plentiful on Dreamcast, racing games like Re-Volt aren't. Combining elements of Toy Commander, Mario Kart and Wipeout, this remote-control car racer lets you pick up an assortment of weapons and powerups on the track to get an edge on enemy vehicles. Though the premise has been used plenty of times before on other systems, in this case it's not half bad. Though there are handling and balance issues, it does provide fantastic graphics, a groovy techno soundtrack, a multiplayer mode for up to 4 at a time and an excellent track editor.

The most notable quality of Re-Volt has to be how good-looking it is. Fascinating colors and realistic textures combine with perfect transparencies and a blazing framerate to make this one of the more spectacular looking games to be found anywhere. And when we say blazing framerate, we're not kidding around - the game absolutely smokes, it's positively frenzied. Constant 60 frames per second visuals provide little opportunity to appreciate the full-scale buildings and other environment pieces as you careen past them. Other nice touches are abundant - cars leave tiny rubber skid marks at corners they've squealed through and bottle rockets have a smoky sparkle as they whizz from your vehicle, to name a couple. Sure, some tunnels look a wee bit blocky and there are other minor things that could perhaps have been slightly retouched, but nothing that affects the overall eye-candy situation - it's gorgeous.

It also sounds great. The soundtrack really keeps things moving with a pumping bass techno theme that's neither lame nor intrusive. Though it would have been nice to have another dozen song tracks or so, very few racing games can escape this criticism. Sound effects for everything are excellent - especially the whirring sound of the RC cars as they accelerate. Weapon sounds are also quite good - explosions are very deep, water balloons sound quite squishy and there's an electrical attack that has a nice crackle to it.

Unfortunately, there is a dip in quality when it comes to gameplay, which really affects the overall rating. Handling is exceedingly twitchy, such that the D-pad is the only practical choice. If the analog pad is tapped just a little bit too far, players can be sent into a spinout nightmare even when moving only somewhat quickly on a flat, dry surface. This also happens while using the D-pad, though a bit less often. Car control in Re-Volt just doesn't have the smooth, gradual and progressive characteristics of a good racer. Another issue is balance. Generally, race-and-shoot games have to tow the line between pure chance and player skill, since there are randomized powerups to be found on the track which can severely affect the outcome. Due to the insane frequency and potency of these powerups in Re-Volt, the game winds up being roughly 25% skill and 75% chance. There is some fun to be had when racing on a wide track (to make the twitchy handling less of a problem) and getting an opposing car in your sights for a bottle-rocket blast. The problem is that you won't have long to savor this success before another car takes you out in a similar fashion, and round and round we go again. In the end, it's not very frustrating to lose since it's clear that there was not much you could've done to alter the situation, but it's also a rather flat experience to win a race, knowing that your victory could be largely attributed to luck.

Though gameplay issues keep this from being a title that'll see constant use, it has a few extras that can keep one's interest for quite some time. There's multiplayer support for up to 4 at a time with minimal drop in framerate, for starters. More significantly, Acclaim has included a Track Editor which allows you to build your own racetrack, and which is an enormous amount of fun in a Lego sort of way. You can even set up tracks with very few powerups to even out the balance issue, though you don't get anything for winning races on homemade courses.

In sum, Re-Volt is a great-looking, fast paced combat racer with some handling and balance problems that may be difficult to overlook. There are plenty of good times to be had, though - whirring down the road at the speed this game delivers is an incredible rush, and the track editor is several hours of entertainment by itself. Acclaim's effort is clearly a solid one, and well worth putting through its paces.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/29/01, Updated 05/29/01