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| Metropolis Street Racer,
Dreamcast |
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| Games,
Richard Young,
20 January 1999 |
Rating: F5
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Dreamcast owners were recently hit by the news that developer Codemasters were to cancel their planned DC version of hit racer Colin McCrae’s Rally 2, in order to "concentrate on other projects" (PS2 no doubt). My reaction? PAH! Especially when the gorgeous, the wonderful, the one and only Metropolis Street Racer is at last available. Yes gang, the driving game that seemingly the whole world has been talking about for the last year has been tweaked and tuned to perfection.
The biggest talking point of the game has been the graphics. With an attention to detail that borders on the insane, 2 square miles of each of the 3 "Metropolises" (London, Tokyo, San Francisco) have been recreated right down to every shop front, lamp-post and phone box. This is fascinating enough if you live in, or have visited any of these cities, but even if you haven’t, the courses are so well designed and fun to drive round anyway. Pin sharp, super-realistic and running at a constant 30 fps with no pop-up, MSR’s visuals are a credit to developers Bizarre Creations, and to the power of the Dreamcast architecture.
But this is not just a pretty face, for the gameplay is instinctive and rewarding, with many challenges to keep keen gamers occupied for months. The cars themselves, which are all existing models from many real-life manufacturers, are also graphically superb and all boast balanced handling, whether your pulling handbrake turns around Trafalgar Square or speeding through the undulating streets of San Francisco. It is these kind of zappy manoeuvres that are the key to the most prominent feature of MSR, namely the Kudos system. Unlike other racers, where the aim is simply to come first no matter what, MSR rewards the driver with kudos relating to how many flashy moves you pull off during a race. Earn the set amount of kudos for each of the "chapters" (sort of like missions that include time attacks and head-to-head races), to gain access to more tracks and more vehicles. But beware! Bad driving, such as scraping your car, cutting up your opponents, will count against you, losing you those precious kudos.
Ultimately, delving into this game is a serious business, and will suck away your spare time. The only tiny criticism is purely personal is the amount of cheesy corporate sponsorship that drills away at you from the London in-car entertainment system (each city has its own radio station that you listen to as you drive around). Even the "Swatch Timing" logo that pops up EVERY time you pass a checkpoint gets annoying. Despite this, you must own this game. No question. Even the tiny niggles are not enough to warrant anything less than a huge, fat F5.
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