Metropolis Street Racer

"Finaly, a new take on the racing genre"

Another month, and other great racing game ::SIGH::. Oh well, had this game not gotten pushed back (again) until January, I probably wouldn't have gotten it. And then I would have shot myself for missing such an incredible game.

Gameplay: Unique, stylish, incredible. Words often associated with this game. Instead of focusing primarily on times and placement (although still important), the game revolves around the overall performance of you driving capabilities. The most incredible thing about this game, in my opinion, is that it challenges you to change the way you think about a driving game.

The game itself is built on 25 chapters, each with 10 challenges that you have to complete to continue on in the game. There are a nice variety of challenge modes to do, with LOTS of variables so that no two challenges are ever the same. Add in over 200+ courses and the game has lots of longevity. Of course, it’s all about the driving. And WOW, MSR has one kick ass driving engine.

Your goal through out the game is to accumulate Kudos points (a.k.a style points). It is essential to gain Kudos wherever possible, because simply beating all the challenges isn't enough. You have to gain a certain amount of kudos to unlock the next chapter. There are two basic ways of getting Kudos points, through Skill or by Style. Skill points consist of fulfilling the requirements of the challenge (which you can alter to get more difficult, and thus more Kudos points). Also you get skill points by driving with technical grace, i.e. passing efficiently or setting record times. Style points are gained simply by doing power slides, which you'll have to master in order to corner in this game.

Throw in the fact that you lose points by crashing into other cars and into walls (plus you get a bonus for having no penalties!) and this game really forces you to drive with perfection. This adds a thrilling element of tension to the game, when it looks like your about to hit a wall (flushing Kudos down the toilet) only to pull away in time. It brings new meaning to the word ‘preasure’.The games multiplayer options are also nice and deep, with loads of options. Online play would have been the caper, but alas its not here.

Generally, the multiplayer game is good, but you'll find yourself playing single player more. Summed up in one word: Stupendous.
Final: 9.9

Graphics: The game has presents itself very nicely, with lots of quick menus that get you going quickly. Car models are great, and only get better as the game goes on. There are some great textures in this game, and very nice lighting effects. However all isn't happy in graphics land.

There can be bad pop-up in some levels, although its never gets in the way of the game. The largest problem can be that at times, the track in the distance can turn into a blurry mess (especially at night), and if you haven’t played on the course enough, its difficult to squeeze around corners you don't know are there. Its normal for graphics to loose quality at a distance, but this is a bit too much.

Also, the game can be far too dark during the night races, and that makes it much more difficult to see the turns. The frame rate runs normally at 30 fps, but with multiple cars on the screen it will fluxuate (especially in multiplayer), although that too doesn't get in the way.

The saving grace of the graphics for this game is the fact that the VGA box clears up the blurriness and darkness to a very acceptable level. In fact, MSR shows the biggest improvements in graphics with the VGA box that I've seen. The graphics could have been better,but they get the job done.
Final: 8.8

<bSound: Sound in this game is slightly above average at best, and really a mixed bag. Its got a neat feature that the music is set up in a radio format, so that each city you race in has 3 different radio stations that you can listen to. This is a cool idea, but most of the music is pretty bad. So you can change over to a CD system, where you can even customize your own CD with music from the game. The big flaw with this that it always plays the last song you left off on. With some very short races, you'll be stuck listening to the same song over-and-over again until you finally go into the options and change it. A randomize mode is much needed here.

With that in mind, the sound effects are particularly good, as the cars have noticeably different (and awesome) engine noises and there are some great tire sounds. However, if you change your camera view, the sounds change too. If your in the ''behind the wheel'' mode, you'll hear everything, but pull back to a behind the car mode, and you'll hear the sound effects that go on out there. This sounds like a neat idea, but in the end it just gets you withdrawn from the mood of the game if you like the out-of-car views.

MSR's sound doesn't hurt the gaming environment, but it doesn't help it much either.
Final: 7.7

Intangibles: This is simply one of the best racing games ever made. This game puts a gun to your temple and forces you to change the way you think about driving. VGA helps the graphical shortcomings. The options in this game are so numerous, there isn't room to list them in this short review.

Reviewer Tilt: +0.1

Worth buying: Most definitely. This is one of the best racing games ever made, even without eye-popping graphics. There are lots of great racing games on the DC, but every serious gamer should give this game a chance.

Final: 9.23

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/23/01, Updated 08/23/01