Metropolis Street Racer Review

Overall Rating

Stunning Graphichs,
Ingenious Gameplay,
The best console Racing game ever made
200+courses

A small amount of slowdown when things get a bit crowded but very slight

It has taken its time but it is finally here a title on the Dreamcast which is actually worth spending £40 on.

Metropolis Street Racer depicts with immense detail three world famous cities. San Fransisco,Tokyo and London all immaculately detailed to look identical to the real thing its an achievement that has never before been seen in a video game.

The three cities are then divided up to provide an interesting mix of courses that you go through in order to gain kudos, which is the currency or points system that you collect while racing, but you dont just enter a race and finish first to earn kudos, oh no you must impress by that you must perform handbreak turns and skids without hitting the edges or other cars.

All of the game is ammassed in 25 chapters each containing 10 races and they are not just races against other competitors, there are timetrials, challenges, one on one
and championships each with the objective of earning Kudos.
The better you do the more you earn and the more you earn the more courses become available to you, and also more cars which while not quite as many as Gran Turismo has to offer there is still a lot to keep anyone happy.

Describing the above is just the beggining once you have got to grips with the game you might feel obliged to, say lower the time limit you have to complete the course,or increse the average speed around the course,or your finishing position hence giving you more Kudos. This is where MSR comes into its own by challenging yourself and when that moment comes of finally beating your personal best in Trafalguar Square the feeling of euphoria is immense.Also the game runs on actual time so for example, if you play the game at 2pm here in London and in the game you are racing in San Fransisco you will be racing at the actual time in San Fransisco.

Well faults then ,well there is some but only if you are being very picky, there is some tiny bits of slowdown when competing against other cars and by tiny I mean only experienced gameres will notice it. You cant fine tune your car which is slightly annoying if you used to spend hours fine tuning your car in Gran Turismo. Another slight niggle is the lighting in San Fransisco it always seem to be slightly overcast which is mistifying considering the Dreamcast is very capable of producing the lighting effects as seen in Ridge Racer 5 and Gran Turismo 3 on PS2, but enough of the negatives the game to put it simply is one of the greatest games ever made and breeds new life into an overcrowded genre , it surpasses every racing title that have come before it, Yes even Gran Turismo is well and truly beaten.

This game signals the arrival of next generation video games in emphatic style so instead of waiting for PS2 buy a Dreamcast with this game I promise you wont be dissapointed.

Francesco E Marioni