Reviewed
10.31.1999
Publisher
Genki
(Japan)
Crave
(USA)
Developer
Genki
Format
GD
Origin
Import/Domestic
Available
Jun
21, 1999 (Japan)
Sep
9, 1999 (USA)
Exclusive
Yes
Difficulty
Hard
Dimensions
3D
View
1st/3rd
Person
Genre
Racer
Players
1-2
Options
Backup
15
Network
(Japan)
Racing
Wheel
Rumble
VGA
Requires
n/a
Importable
95% |
INTRO:
> The only City Racing game available for a while, this game is a winner
only because it is sitting solo for its genre (although Flag
to Flag, Monaco Grand Prix,
Hydro Thunder,
and Hardcore Heat are all racers too,
their experiences differ from this one), sort of like Blue Stinger...
> Genki showed some promise with their port of Virtua
Fighter 3tb, releasing a rather pleasing game in a very short amount
of time, so I had high hopes to see what their racing game would be like.
You
have your pick of various Japanese cars, and although they don't come equipped
with the names of their real life counterparts, you should be able
to pick out what car is what, and rename it accordingly. All the racing
takes place on the same stretch of highway (Tokyo's Shuto Expressway),
and it all happens at night. You don't race for a finish line, you race
to get ahead of your opponent and stay there until his challenge bar (think
of a fighting games' life bar) runs out... or yours does.
GRAPHICS:
> Night time driving has never looked better. You have excellently modeled
cars in 60 frames per second environments, with nice lighting. Some corners
were cut here and there. The sky looks incredibly bad in replay mode. The
bottoms of the cars aren't detailed at all (you'll get to see them
a lot, trust me...). When racing, and you get four cars on the screen,
you encounter some horrendous slowdown. It's very annoying, and has even
led to a few lost races for me. Overall though, it's very pretty,
especially when taken into consideration that it's a first gen title. It
should only get better from here.
CONTROL:
> Ugh. Maybe it's just me, but the more I tweaked my car with more expensive
options, the less I was able to control it. I thought that stuff was supposed
to help, not hinder. There have been times where I made it around
a fairly sharp turn at 130 mph with no problem at all, only to get hung
up on an easy bend a couple seconds later. Once you win some money, you
can upgrade your cars engine, chassis, transmission, suspension, tires,
and even muffler. You upgrade enough and you can mess
with
gear ratios and the like to really tweak out your performance. But
with each little change, there is a learning curve to hurdle over. Not
the greatest when it comes to control, but I've played much
worse....
SOUND:
> Must every Racer come with an Electronica/Techno/Metal soundtrack?
Am I the only one who listens to Ani DeFranco, James, and Tori Amos when
cruising at over 100 mph? The BGM is pretty good here, but I've yet to
experience what I thought I'd hear coming out of such a powerful sound
chip. The engine noises sound kind of generic to me. I admit I haven't
been in too many import sports cars, but the ones I have been in sounded
a lot "meatier" than what I heard here, and they didn't have $40,000 worth
of engine, transmission, and muffler upgrades...... The tire screeching
sounds authentic though. Unfortunately, I have experienced a lot of that,
so I'm almost an expert when it comes to that
sound.
Another thing I found lacking was when you went into tunnels, the car noise
didn't get that nice claustrophobic amplification that every racer worth
a nickel has. I'd say overall, everything is average when it comes
to sound....
FUN:
> Reading back over what I've already written, it would seem that I don't
care for this game much. However, for some reason I still really enjoy
playing it. I can't explain it. I like running around the same
track over and over (and over and over) again. There are plenty of
cars to mess with ( I heard GT2 is supposed to have around 200 cars...
wow you should be able to get to know about a quarter of them before GT3
is released...), and the different drivers have their own little individual
quirks to keep the competition fresh and diversified. Besides, lining it
up so you beat a Diva or Devil when your car is far inferior to theirs
is always good for a chuckle.
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