XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association

"Nearly Perfect"

Acclaim did not invent the futuristic sub-genre, but they did give it a much-needed boost of speed. Before the Extreme G series, there was pretty much just F-Zero and Wipeout. Extreme G made futuristic racing as fast as it should be. The fourth installment, XGRA, is even faster.

Story-8
I know what you're thinking- ''A racing game with a story? And a good story at that?'' It's not what I expected either, but don't get your hopes up for a thought-provoking Shadow Man-esque thriller. Instead, XGRA gets story points for sheer presentation. Each level is opened by two sports announcers who sound like they really enjoy talking about a sport that does not exist. And that's more than you can say about most real sports announcers. They inject a good amount of humor and some cool facts into their opening dialogue. But when the race starts, they shut up. Instead of announcers interrupting your gameplay with their own little musings, you get to hear your manager yell at you or encourage you depending on how you perform. You also hear the threats of enemy racers as you bump them and shoot at them. The voices are done well, and this dialogue makes you feel more immersed in the game.

Graphics-10
It is simply amazing how the beautiful graphics hold up under 700mph. No, it's not as beautiful as Splinter Cell or Dues Ex: Invisible War, but I'd like to see those games look pretty while the characters moved at 700mph. (actually, I wouldn't, because I'd probably just see a lot of vomit) The point is, you've never seen anything this pretty move this fast. (Note: Don't get mad at me for saying this is the fastest game ever when you find out that it starts out slower than most futuristic racing games. The game becomes progressively faster, besides, most people couldn't handle this game's top speeds when they first play it anyway)
The effects from the weapons and the energy trails left from the bikes glow nicely and show off Acclaim's love of glowy eye-candy. Weather effects (yes, weather effects) are gorgeous. Sandstorms and rain look fantastic.
The bikes are designed with a whole new look that makes them look like mini-fighter jets or spaceships.

Sound-8
Most futuristic racing games see sound as a throwaway. They generally put in generic techno or dance music and make all the car engines sound about the same. XGRA gives you the choice to choose rock, dance, or a mix of both for your music. The Rock (the rock music in this game and the wrestler/bad actor)is horrible, but the Dance is surprisingly good. It's not I-have-to-buy-the-soundtrack-for-this good, but it's good, and that's a real first for futuristic racers.
The weapons sound nice, nothing that stands out, but nice. The real sound feature that stands out, however, is heard when you drive onto a part of the race track that is in outer space. There's only a few of these sections, but they provide an incredible experience. When you race into outer space in XGRA, all sound disappears, except for the music, which goes slightly up in volume. There's no sound in space, and Acclaim makes sure you know it.

Gameplay-9
It's a futuristic racer, so of course you race sleek-looking vehicles over cool tracks. But this is an Acclaim game, so of course there's something extra. Your main goal is to finish ahead of everyone else, but you are offered sub-goals in each level that get harder depending on which team you choose. Remember when you first played Goldeneye (you better have!). Before you played it, you heard it was a first person shooter, so you figured it would be just like Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem, or Wolfenstien. Then you played it and were amazed to see mission objectives. You were amazed to find a FPS with purpose! Don't deny it, you were amazed. XGRA is kinda' like that. You were expecting another F-Zero, Wipeout, or Extreme G, but with this baby you have... wait for it... MISSION OBJECTIVES! You now have a purpose rather than just racing around trying to be first and shoot at people. These objective range from destroying billboards or killing other racers to beating a best time or reaching a top speed. Cool!
There are more differences from the old XG's. Gone are the strips that fill up your health and ammo. Instead you collect green icons along the track that give you powerups. You can go faster by hitting speed strips on the track (a la Wipeout).
Also, this game is far easier than the impossibly hard XG3 and the not quite as hard first two. It is incredibly forgiving, which opens it up to newbies and makes for a lot less frustration.
You can no longer super-customize your bike. Instead you can adjust just grip, handling, and steering to your liking. Also gone are the extra XG-only modes. Instead, you just have the standard Championship, Arcade (with four-player multiplayer goodness), and Time Trial modes. This hurts replay value somewhat, even though there is a small unlockable art gallery to replace the missing modes. (This is the only negative thing I have to say about this game. So there!) New modes within Championship make up for this. race types like extreme weather and warmonger are extremely cool.

Controls-10
The controls are really dumbed-down now. There are only steering, fire, gas, brake, and weapon select. This makes changing weapons on the fly much easier than in the previous games. The controls work very smoothly, even at this game's blistering speeds, and are incredibly responsive.

Conclusion
While XG-fanboys (and girls) may find the easier difficulty and missing features disappointing, the new cool stuff (MISSIONS!!!) more than make up for it, making this one of the best racing games ever, and certainly the best futuristic racer(Yes, even better than F-Zero X). And for those of you who want to know which system to get it on... go with the X-Box version, of course. The others suffer slowdown and can't quite manage the pure beauty of this game.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/29/04