Metropolis Street Racer for Dreamcast Review

The Gameplay

Race your high-performance machine to the realistically scaled streets of Tokyo, London, and San Francisco. You have to earn Kudos which are based on your skill, style, and precision on the circuits. Some of the things that earn you Kudos are winning races, beating top times and reaching the goals in skill challenges. You can also earn Kudos racing clean laps (don’t hit anything) and driving with coolness (drifting, barely missing cars).

Lastly, you can gamble on a race. On the challenges, you are given a base goal and you can raise (bad) or lower (good) your goal if you think you can do better. Given the amount of Kudos you can earn, there are ways to lose them also. If you crash or scrape walls or if you change cars in your Garage you'll lose Kudos. Also, and this is rare for a racing game to do this, you will lose Kudos if you use other cars to gain a position.

There are 25 chapters of 250 stages that you have to complete in Metropolis Street Racer. Each stage and chapter has a minimum amount of Kudos you need to unlock them. If you are short on Kudos, then you have to go back and race a previous challenge to do better. Needless to say, this isn’t an afternoon game. Not only will you compete in one-on-one races and other circuit challenges, you’ll have chances to beat the clock and pass a minimum number of cars.

As you complete challenges and races, you’ll unlock more challenges and better cars. There’s no tuning in this game, so you have to be careful which car you’ll be using because you’ll lose Kudos. Sounds aggravating, doesn’t it?

The Graphics

Pure beauty. Nighttime Tokyo shines with all it’s lights and neon flashing around. Foggy London is treacherous and the speedy streets of San Francisco look awesome. When it was released, Metropolis Street Racer claimed that you could know your way around San Francisco just from playing this game. I’ve always wondered how true that was.

The cars are sleek and modeled great. There are basic manufacturers listed, like Audi, Mercedes, Mazda, and other recognizable companies. While it doesn’t have the list that Gran Turismo or the new Project Gotham’s have, there are plenty of things to do to keep you from thinking of that.

The Control

The control is great. Small cars feel lighter and faster than the heavier coupes. Turning with the analog stick is better, but I still use the digital control.

One thing that is nearly perfect is when you’re racing at higher speeds. You tend to drift, but you drift naturally. I consider myself a racing game fanatic and rarely find this type of realism in a racing, because I most games you’ll slide as oppose to drift and that makes a difference in high performance machines.

Thompson’s Two Cents

A nice racing game with challenges to test your reflexes and perseverance. No wonder this series has spawned 2 sequels, with the most recent showing up on the Xbox 360. If you like a racing game that gives you many hours of enjoyment from the sheer amount of racing you have to do, then Metropolis Street Racer is a game you need to own.