Midnight Club: Street Racing

"The Next Generation of Racing Games"

In the past, all racing games were just a few cars going around some laps a lot. That grew boring for many gamers quickly, and therefore they put their copies of Nascar Thunder aside, picking up something more like Final Fantasy or Metal Gear Solid. Very rarely does something new like this appear in the gaming world and still live up to a good game, but Rockstar has done it now with the release of Midnight Club: Street Racing. Unlike these other games, Midnight Club consists of a starting point and several checkpoints which you must hit before going to the finish. All in the busy streets of New York and London. The beauty of this game comes in how the cities themselves are vast in size and routes, and the game takes perfect advantage of that while keeping the races linear.

Graphics: 8/10 They're not bad, and they don't even compare to games like Gran Turismo 3. However, this isn't the shining aspect in this game, therefore it doesn't create much an impact.

Sound: 8/10 Another overlooked category, not much is necessary from the sound department. There are car motors... whoopee.

Controls/Playability: 10/10 The controls are basically that of an average racing game, but it doesn't pose a flaw in the major scheme of things. It isn't one the best games in terms of the physics engine, either, but with the unlimited choices in how to go about a race, and the shortcut possibilities, it never gets old.

Concept: 10/10 There is a cruise mode where you find racers to challenge in order to get new cars, and this plays out the storyline. Usually there are two or three racers at a time that you can challenge, so you can challenge one racer, get his/hers better car, and challenge another opponent with the car you just won. The point is that unlike a normal racing game, you actually play out the in-between as well as the individual races. You can take this cruise time to either test your car on the highway to see how fast it'll go, find shortcuts for a seemingly impossible race, challenge new opponents, try to run over everyone, make bumper cars out of main street traffic - whatever it is, as long as you're in your car, you can do anything.

Overall: 9/10 This game isn't perfect, but it offers the new twist that racing gamers have been yearning for without making the game suck.

Buy/Rent: This game is a perfect owner, since the single player mode plays out better and longer than some RPGs or action/adventure games, and unlike Nascar, it'll last more than an hour or two. It's even on the Greatest Hits now! So, you can get a Grade A Racing title for 20 bucks. There's no reason for any racing fan to not own this game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/28/03, Updated 07/28/03