HawgWyld's Full Review: Metropolis Street Racer for Dreamcast
This is one of the best games I've ever played. It's not just a great racing game, it's a darn fine game and certainly one for Dreamcast owners to run out and purchase.
Every now and again, I'll see a great game that makes me really want to own the game console for which the game was designed. Back in the days when the Atari 2600 was riding high, Space Invaders, Asteroids and Missile Command caused me to want to grab that system. When I saw Donkey Kong on the ColecoVision, I wanted that system, too. The same holds true of the Zelda games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, anything in the Sonic the Hedgehog series on the Genesis, a flawless port of Galaga for the Atari 7800, Road Rash for the Playstation and etc. In the case of the Dreamcast, Metropolis Street Racer is the game that makes me glad to own the system.
Why? I love racing games, but there has been a problem with those in the past. They were either too simplistic (i.e., Pole Postion II for the Atari 7800) or featured horrible frame rates (i.e., Supercross 3D for the Atari Jaguar -- that one made me mad enough to sell the system). Even my beloved Road Rash: Jailbreak for the Playstation has a horrible frame rate when things get too busy on the screen.
Now, Metropolis Street Racer is both complex and boasts a beefy frame rate. The 128-bit power of the Dreamcast is really unleashed in this game. Regardless of how many competing cars are on the screen, the animation stays smooth and I can control my little sports car with ease. The game is fast and furious, too, and a lagging framerate would just kill it.
And, all of that is achieved without sacrificing the detailed graphics in the game. Cars look very detailed and even feature drivers behind the steering wheels. If you're racing against, say, an MG or Fiat, the car looks pretty darn authentic (or, good enough for me, at least).
So, the graphics are pretty and the animation is smooth. How about gameplay? I'm proud to report that this jewel of a game excels in that category. Part of that has to do with the control -- you can drive your care effectively without much instruction as the input on the control pad is kept simple so the player can make decisions quickly and easily without fighting through a bunch of weird button combinations. Basically, all the player has to know is that the right trigger is the accelerator, the left is the break, the analog stick steers and the "A" button is the hand brake.
The only real problem I have with this game has to due with the Dreamcast controller. The player has to use those triggers quite a bit, and that leads to massive hand cramps after a time (I played this for five hours straight after I bought it, and thought my hands would be permanently formed in a couple of ugly claws). In other words, frequent rests during this game are necessary.
The points system used in this game is nothing short of brilliant. Players have to earn a certain number of "Kudos" to advance. Those are gained through "clean laps" (i.e., hitting very few cars or curbs and such) and showing off in the game with difficult moves (such as pulling the hand break and making an insane turn). The Kudos system puts this game a bit ahead of the pack. It's not enough to simply win races or complete courses in a given amount of time -- showing some skill during races and showing off earns a lot of points.
The game puts players in a certain number of courses in various cities throughout the world. The game calls for players to do everything from completing courses in a given amount of time to racing other cars to avoid hitting slower vehicles in traffic. There's a lot of variety, then. Sadly, the player has to listen to "radio stations" during each event, and those stink at times. On one of the San Francisco courses, for example, there's a country radio station that's just horrible. Oh, I wish I could turn it off because it drives me nuts. Fortunately, the game is good enough to cause me to overlook the country channel and all of its truly awful country tunes.
Naturally, the goal in the race is to get faster and better cars as stages are completed. The player can have up to three cars in his "garage," and the main goal at the first of the game is to "win" some roadsters (a Fiat, MG and Mazda, to be precise). Once those cars are won, the street racing begins. In all, 14 car manufacturers are represented, and the cars each have different speed and handling characteristics and are suited for different courses.
There are a heck of a lot of courses, too. In all, there are over 200 in the cities of San Francisco, London and Tokyo. That makes for plenty of variety, and its hard to get bored with this game.
Because the goal of the races is not just to burn through them and win, that makes it very challenging. I've learned that it's a pretty easy matter to ram other cars and gain position, but such a practice will cost me points in the end. It's much more difficult to win by not "checking" other drivers, and it's even harder when I'm pushed to force my car through power slides and other insane moves to earn some extra Kudos. While the Kudos makes the game very difficult, it never becomes downright frustrating because the player always has the idea that he can win a race if he gives it just one more try. Indeed, I've lost a lot of sleep to this game.
So, if you're in the market for a good racing game and you own a Dreamcast, this one is a fantastic choice. I have no idea about the multiplayer feature on this one as I always play it by myself. Fortunately, getting good enough at this game to beat it takes a lot of time (I've still not worked all the way through it, in fact). The other drivers are skilled and it's a real challenge to just keep my car on the road and out of obstacles. However, the game is fun enough to keep me coming back for another round.
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