Extreme-G 3

"A little faster than Kinetica, but not as fun..."

F-Zero for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was one of the first games that I ran across that allowed you to race in a futuristic setting using some impressive vehicles. Through the years, I’ve seen racing games come and go, with several of the outstanding ones being the Wipeout Series and even a couple of the Jet Moto games. Then when the Play Station 2 came along, I found a game that featured some interesting possibilities in the form of Kinetica, but was more of a cross of things that I had already played before. Now, with Extreme G-3, I’ve got a game that is visually appealing, handles excellently, and sounds awesome, but a game that has been done before with more player to game interaction!

There isn’t a story to the game that I could discern right off the bat, but this game isn’t about stories or players, but rather the sheer speed that is featured in the game. For the most part, you’ll be struggling to keep your eyes adjusted to the sense of speed that this title has to offer, while trying to forget that this is a lack of a battle system or interaction with the stages. Where as Kinetica had it’s ups with the battling, weapons and tricks, Extreme G-3 is set more of standard racing that it is anything else, and it’s hard to get into a game that features little or nothing new. Speed is key here folks, and can assure you that you are moving faster than your eyes will allow at all times.

The game play is nothing that you haven’t played before, in which you take control of one of several different racers on several futuristic tracks at different difficulties. However, what you’ll find is that speed is your friend and that you have several different weapons that you can pick up and buy between and during the races. Through most of the tracks, its simply a matter of getting to know your environment and get through the game without crashing into too many walls while keeping ahead of the rest of the pack. Although this may seem like little more than a few minutes of play, you may need to study and practice the game controls in order to get the desired effect that you’re looking for!

Control is always a feature that you need in a racing game, and although the title allows you to use either the analog or the directional pad in the races, it’s a matter of choice. What you’ll find is that this title, regardless of the ‘speed’ that you’re running at controls just like every other racing game out there with a couple of interesting features thrown in. Mostly, you’ll need to get used to the way that the weapons work and the blisters on your thumbs will probably be extensive after trying to traverse a curve at nearly four hundred miles per hour! Aside from that, there really isn’t much here that you can’t work with so that both beginners and veterans will have some fun trying to get used to the game!

Visually, this game has plenty going for it with the tracks being something out of The Running Man in some respects. Although it seems like some of the tracks have been inspired by other future racing games, the detail that you find in the tracks is pretty good all the way around. Detail right done to the way that the tires move on the bikes is done in a good fashion, showing off the power of the Play Station 2 with the amount of speed effects at every turn. Stages are all set with a different theme {as it should be} and it will keep you wanting to see the next stage while you race to see if it could get any better.

The audio department is another portion of the game that really keeps the theme and overall pace of the game at the fullest. With a good stereo setup, you can have some decent sounding races with most of the effects coming with passing vehicles and even some of the more ambient sound throughout. There is nothing like playing through the game and hearing the cars coming up on your left or right and either zooming by you or vice versa! The music on the other hand is used and abused, with your usual assortment of techno beats thumping through the speakers and trying to create a world of speed and precision, doing a pretty decent job in that respect.

Extreme G-3 does a good job on trying to keep with the futuristic theme of racing into the next generation, but seems to fall to the wayside of having been done before. As a game that really had no press and being one of those games that could be a sleeper hit for racing game fans, this is one of those titles that has to be enjoyed by a true connoisseur of racing games. Beautiful visuals and excellent sound gives way to repeating game play and blistering control, making for a game that isn’t perfect, but good enough for a rental. If you like games such as Wipeout, then you’ll enjoy this title, but if you’re looking for real to life racing you might as well stick to Gran Turismo 3 and leave this one on the rental shelf!

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/20/02, Updated 02/20/02