Metropolis Street Racer

"We all did it when we were little kids!"

Of course your wondering what ''it'' means. Well, ''it'' means designing race tracks- regardless of where you grow up, you took your existing landscape and created courses out of them. Whether it was a simple telephone pole to telephone pole sprint, or a telephone pole to stop sign around old man Jenkins fence back to the telephone pole, you had become an aspiring track designer.
Now imagine that your landscape was the picturesque cities of San Fran, London or Tokyo; and instead of racing by foot, skateboard, or your banana seated huffy; you raced around in 40 exotic sports cars.
Take all of this in, and you'll understand the concept of Metropolis Street Racer.

Sound- An entirely original soundtrack with some decent , almost catchy tunes. You can change radio stations(thought this was the coolest thing on the original Out Run arcade unit) You can even create a cd of your favorites for playback. Sound effects are excellent, the sound of the cars engine are distinct, the only car that I can verify on accuracy is the Eclipse, as for the rest I'll have to take BC's word for it. 10

Graphics- I wish one of the options in the game would be the ability to pull to the side of the road , get out of the car and walk around. Have you ever said that about a game based on driving.... The painstaking process that must have occurred to capture the images and apply them to accurately 3d modeled architecture had to be a more daunting task than your most stressful nightmares(you know, the ones where you cant find your pants). The graphics in this game are so clean I can only best describe them as Shenmue on wheels. I feel as though I've been to Tokyo, London, and San Fran even though I've never actually been there. The time of day factor has incredible impact on your surroundings. Whenever I opened up a new circuit, I would have to check it out at 6am, 10 am, 9pm, and 2am, just to see the differences. Car models are spot on, although the driver looks like Johnny Cab from Total Recall. I wish this went up to eleven. 10

Gameplay- The bulk of the complaints about this game in most reviews have been because of the high difficulty level. I did not feel that this game was unfair. If you were attempting to blow through this game to make a deadline for a review, I could see where it could get frustrating, but if you are taking your time and enjoying it, than this game has a finely balanced learning curve. I won't go into details about the kudos system and how it works, there are FAQS for that. But I will say that this only one of 2 games that I actually walked away from being a better video game driver (F355 is the other one) 10

Value- You’ll get your moneys worth, period. 10

Final- I need to give credit where it is due. Bizarre Creations is quickly becoming one of my favorite development houses. This is only the second release (the first was Fur Fighters) of theirs that I have experienced, but both have been among the most creative and polished games I have laid hands on. Both were delayed quite often, and after you play them you'll understand why. They are flawless pieces of art. If I can give one word of advice to these developers as they continue to make a name for themselves, it is this- Take on squares philosophy about release dates, ex. when people ask when they can expect a release to a particular title, just say ''when it's done'', Thus avoiding any negative remarks from the public when all your attempting to do is deliver an A+ product. Which is what MSR turned out to be. 10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/23/01, Updated 06/23/01