awoolcott's Full Review: Metropolis Street Racer for Dreamcast
It's been said time and time again that it's nigh impossible to innovate in the genre of racing games anymore, if you plan on taking a realistic approach. There's only so much you can do before you've removed the "realistic" tag from your game, defeating the purpose. However, a few years back, the Dreamcast held court for one such game. Developed by Bizarre Creations, Metropolis Street Racer was announced early in the DC's lifecycle, and was delayed time after time, releasing towards the end of the DC's short existence. As the prequel to Project Gotham Racing on Xbox, MSR first introduced many of PGR's basic elements - and then some. While it's arguable that PGR is a "better" game than it's predecessor, it can be said that Metropolis Street Racer is definitely the most unique racing game for the ill-fated console.
Metropolis Street Racer is squarely built around the unique "Kudos" system that is the necessary points system that's required to advance in the huge single player game. While there's a few basic single and multiplayer modes, the MSR circuit playmode is the only one that seems planned, while the other two are tacked on. Of course, neither are worth all that much unless you play through the circuits, so you have to do it anyway. What are Kudos? Basically, Kudos are points for your performance - look good, don't make mistakes on the track, and pull off crazy powerslides along the way. Bang too many walls or hit other cars, and your points go the other way.
You'll get to earn Kudos in 3 different world cities - London, Tokyo, and San Francisco. Each track is based on a real-world location, so if you happen to live in these cities you'll notice many of the locales. While this is nothing really stunning, what is stunning is the real-time clock that MSR uses. When you boot up the game, it checks your Dreamcast system clock, and asks if this is the correct time. From there, you choose your time zone, and you can race. Why is this important? Because the time of day is now set to real time, and you race as if you were there at this particular moment. Thus, if you're racing a London track late in the night in America, it's early morning in London, like it really would be. It's cool though it does mean that you don't get a variety of weather and time of day on a consistent basis; but that can be worked around by fooling with the system clock.
While in the circuit mode, you have many different kinds of challenges for Kudos. From basic hot laps, where you have to beat a designated track record, to full-on championship modes, with numerous other challenges in-between, MSR throws all sorts of gameplay types to keep things fresh. You can play each multiple times, and you probably will have to in order to advance through the whopping 25 circuit chapters (each with 10 races, so there's 250 different races), to improve your Kudos score. Bear in mind though, if you decide to redo a challenge and get a worse score than before, the Kudos you earned prior evaporate faster than the Cubs in August, and you have to earn them back.
While the Kudos are definitely unique, it's not all executed right. The entire thing can tend to get incredibly annoying after a while, when some races become less about auto racing and more about powersliding, or taking corners slow to avoid making an error and getting Kudos taken away. Sometimes it's hard to even call it a racing game when it's more like a powersliding simulation, just to earn those Kudos (and to see "Wey Hey!" on the screen, whatever the hell that means). Compared to Project Gotham (which managed to include an awesome Kudos system), the process is flawed. And frustrating too, as the risk of retrying for more Kudos is screwed up by a slow advancement pace, causing times of getting stuck in a rut for a long time because of it.
However, when placed in the right hands (i.e. A sicko like me), the game can turn from frustrating to incredibly addictive. The more you get a handle on the car you're driving, the more confidence you get, and the riskier you get when going after Kudos. Before you know it, you won't even blink to go after more Kudos in a tough stage, as you just know you can top it somehow, even if you throw in a Joker to do it (Jokers double your Kudos - but you only get one once in a while).
Kudos aside, MSR is unique in other ways too. You don't "earn" cars (including many major names, though many are European models that we Americans don't see often) in a traditional way - instead, you have to unlock them in the circuit tracks - then do a challenge in another part of the game to actually unlock use of them. The challenge isn't particularly hard - there's no Kudos to worry about, so you can drive like a bat out of hell, as you just need to beat a single time on a specific track. Beat it, and you gain access to a car. Even then, you are limited to 3 cars in your garage at a time, so you have to choose your car wisely before a race.
Given that there's 25 chapters in the game, MSR's difficulty pace is actually quite even. As you progress, the game very slowly gets tougher, almost transparently, as your skills improve. While the challenges get much harder (less and less hot laps or timed runs and more head-on racing), the pace is good enough that a patient gamer can advance pretty far without getting too annoyed. By the last 5 chapters or so though, MSR gets ultra tough, meaning only a dedicated player can actually beat it. Either way, MSR is a very lengthy game too, though some of it is a bit...err...artificial. At the least, the computer intelligence is smart and tends to race very well, though within the realm of reason. If you tend to make a lot of mistakes (especially as you advance into later chapters), you'll most likely get burned and fail the challenge. It doesn't feel cheap, as most of the time you can race excellently if you avoid playing bumper cars with the walls. Of course, in the solo modes like hot laps or timed runs, the only competition is a clock, which can be even more pressuring as hitting the walls too often can be disastrous.
It's all tied up in a pretty well-controlling bow. While I still hate the Dreamcast pad for racers (the triggers are killer on the fingers after about 1 hour), MSR controls well and the cars feel good and well balanced for maximum playability. It skews towards realism, but retains the arcade roots that Metropolis Street Racer needs - especially on those Kudos-earning powerslides, which tend to be hard, especially when you fear hitting walls instead. Learning when to naturally blow through a corner and when to not force your way through is the key to Kudos.
For a game released in late 2000 on a slightly older console, Metropolis Street Racer manages to look good visually, but not really stand out against today's games (which is, of course incredibly unfair). The cities are brilliant, rendered to the exact routes and details (so I hear, it's not like I get to these cities on a daily basis), and full of details on the roadside paths. The game is a tad dark in places, moreso at night, when it can be very, very hard to see the track and its turns.
The cars themselves are designed and rendered to look like the real deal, and manage to do so. The cars are large on screen so the details stick out, and tend to be shiny and smooth. There's even a driver you can visibly see in the cars, and when you're in a car that can be turned into a convertible, it looks even better. When it comes to Dreamcast graphics, the only other racer that competes is Test Drive Le Mans.
Before there was Grand Theft Auto III, there was MSR, and this is really where the dynamic radio stations first took some attention (though it was done prior in GTA 1&2, but I try to forget the existence of those games). Each city has its own radio stations, each playing different kinds of music, complete with DJ's, ads, and of course, music. However, Bizarre really was bizarre with the musical choices - a terribly lame country music station (it would annoy even country music fans, believe me) in SF and a dreadfully timid jazzy station in London are oddly placed. The music isn't bad, mind you - but who wants laid back tunes like these in a fast-paced racing game? The J-Pop station in Tokyo and the Rock station in SF are the 2 highlights, as they tend to mix in well with racing games. Some of the DJ banter and commercials are a bit amusing, but are there more for realism than entertainment.
Otherwise, there isn't a whole lot to discuss with MSR's sounds. The pedestrian engine noises and skidding around is fine, but there's little else to mention, besides...geez, who came up with the silly country station? In San Francisco? I mean, what's up wit dat?
The Real Bottom Line
Though it's a bit old and hard to come across (especially brand new, given that nobody carries Dreamcast stuff anymore besides some online sites), Metropolis Street Racer is still a fine, if flawed, racer that's worthy if you still game on a Dreamcast. The unique ideas presented are cool, though definitely hit or miss depending on who's playing the game. However, if you do manage to look past the frustrations and get into the game, the length of it will keep you occupied for some time, earning Kudos all the while. While Project Gotham Racing is much more fleshed out (though not nearly as lengthy or cool, lacking the system clock tricks), it's definitely not a bad thing to see the rough draft - that being MSR.
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