Metropolis Street Racer

"Perhaps THE Best Racing Game for DreamCast!!!"

I only recently acquired a DreamCast console, and - given my specialty in racing games - picked up several racing games shortly thereafter. Metropolis Street Racer is BY FAR the best of these games, and I find it very difficult to imagine a better racing game for this console.

First, Metropolis Street Racer is definitely NOT for the casual racing gamer; those who view racing as continually standing on the accelerator until the race ends will fail miserably in this game. While speed is needed to clear the many tasks in MSR, the game focuses much more heavily upon racing skill and racing style, with Kudos (points) awarded or detracted based upon the player's performance.

Yet this is not the only innovation. Metropolis Street Racer includes numerous street circuits in Tokyo, London, and San Francisco - in some events, circuits at two or all three of these cities are the norm. In the Street Racing mode of the game (the main mode of the game), real-world time is used - based upon the console's internal clock and location settings - to determine lighting conditions... which means that to truly perform well, players often need to SCHEDULE when they play the game in relation to the time differentials between the player's time zone and the time zones of the cities in reality to ensure optimal visibility in daylight conditions. However, the game also includes numerous weather conditions, ranging from clear skies to intense rain to thick fog.

Within Street Racing mode, there are numerous types of events. In Hot Lap, a player must either beat a posted average lap time or score at least one lap time better than the posted time. Timed Runs force the player to complete a given number of laps within a specific amount of time. One-on-one pits the player against a solo CPU-controlled competitor in a race. There are also Street Races, in which the player competes against up to five other cars. Challenges vary, but can include passing a specific number of cars within a certain period of time, or attaining a minimum number of Kudos. In all events, the player can choose to ''gamble'' upon the upcoming performances by adjusting the goals of the events according to the player's racing skill, racing style, and confidence.

Having visited both San Francisco and London, I find these locales in the game to be extremely realistic. I have yet to visit Tokyo, but from the films and pictures I have seen, I find the game's rendition to be quite convincing. Of these locales, each presents rather different challenges beyond simply racing. Circuits in London often narrow considerably, and there are often traffic circles, streetlamps, and other such obstacles in the middle of the circuits. Tokyo also often alternates between wide and extremely narrow sections of raceway, but is very often filled with medians which are often extremely difficult to spot even during perfectly-clear daylight conditions. San Francisco circuits often make use of the city's steep inclines, which can send cars airborne and thus make cornering impossible.

One of the less-crucial but still interesting aspects of the game is the music. This ranges from jazz to rock to pop to country. What makes the music so special is its presentation in the form of radio broadcasts, as if the player is listening to the radio while racing. Each city has its own sets of radio stations, each selected at random by the CPU upon entering a race and localized for each city; this also means that the radio announcers in Tokyo speak in Japanese. However, the music itself is not truly localized in Tokyo, as there is NO Japanese-language music in Metropolis Street Racer (only songs in English, plus a few instrumentals), which is a severe defect in the planning and creation of the game.

Overall, Metropolis Street Racer is a highly unique, highly challenging game. Players who actually complete the game will have greatly improved their racing skills along the way, which will pay great dividends in other games in this genre.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/02, Updated 10/14/02