dark_dragon's Full Review: Extreme-G XG2 for Nintendo 64
FIRST THOUGHTS:
After playing the original Extreme G this game is a huge disappointment. The single edge that this game has over the first game of the series is that it is possible to break the sound barrier. Aside from that, everything else is a step down - not an improvement.
GRAPHICS/VISUALS: 6/10
Although the graphics of the bikes and of the track textures are a big improvement from the first game, I am disappointed with the quality of details added to the track environments. In the original, there were a lot of details alongside the track which added to the experience of racing in a futuristic world. The world in XG2 gives a limited expression of a futuristic society.
CONTROL: 7/10
All in all, the game has a good control scheme - the Z trigger is used as the accelerator; this allows the players to have the full use of the A, B, and C buttons. One feature that is a welcome addition to this game is the ability to throw away unwanted items. Controlling the bikes, however, is not an easy task because of the changing camera angle. The camera changes the angle of view on turns and slopes. I originally thought that this would be a good idea, but it doesn't help at all - in fact, it makes some tracks harder - forcing the player at times to use the first person view. The bikes seem to skid around the corners; this makes the game a lot less smooth than the original.
SOUND: 4/10
What happened? In the first XG the music was wonderful: it was intense, it was exalting, it was the perfect music for a futuristic racing game. In XG2, unfortunately, the music is dull, and it takes away from the quality of the game.
This game also has voice commentary, but it is strictly limited to announcing what weapon you picked up or what place you get when you finish the race. The voice is often hard to understand and is completely devoid of emotion and of any sense of being human.
MULTI PLAYER: 3/10
The multi player options in this game a very disappointing. First, you can play the single player game and have little fun; then, you get to have no fun while playing with you friends. There are no insane races in XG2's multi player mode: just a dull fight for first, or a fight to be the fastest player to end the boredom.
The battle mode also falls short of expectations. Unlike the first XG, which had the regular bikes in battle mode, XG2 has tanks. This, at first, sounded like a very good idea. Wrong. The tanks move slow and take too long to destroy. The arenas are awful; they are too big to have a deadly battle. Most matches end up being an endless search for someone to attack.
REPLAY: 2/10
There are about three really good tracks in this game - not near enough to make this game worth playing over and over again. The game features a dual mode and a mirror mode, but what good are they if you don't even enjoy racing the tracks on the regular racing mode?
WHY THIS GAME FAILED:
Arcade mode - The original Extreme G had a fun shoot-em-up mode that consisted of shooting as many drones as you could in three laps. In XG2, the racer gets to keep shooting drones until he blows up from too much damage. A drone which shoots back is extremely rare, so the racer is not too likely to be destroyed. I have only finished an arcade round once or twice - I usually quit from sheer boredom.
The Tracks - the box advertises that the game has more than forty tracks. But it is really only twelve tracks with small variations to them, such as short detours. Another so-called improvement from the other game was the inclusion of wider tracks. The original sorely needed wider tracks, at least for beginners. This game has wider tracks, but the tracks would often split into two tracks and would often be half as wide as the tracks in the original.
The Weapons - The weapons in XG2 failed to live up to the razzle-dazzle of the weapons in the original XG. Some of them were simply too slow and way too inaccurate to be of any use. The primary weapons were awful. Each bike had the same primary weapon, but they could be charged to different levels depending on the bike. This was also inaccurate and took too long to charge to be of any significant use.
WHAT LITTLE I DID LIKE:
I'll admit that I did like some features of the game - that is why I game it two stars instead of one. As I mentioned earlier, breaking the sound barrier is cool, even if it is only a gimmick. Also, in XG2 your opponent's bikes can be destroyed once their shields are depleted (this is a quick way to finish duel mode). Plus there are codes that give this game a little replay, but some of these codes, unfortunately, are also only gimmicks.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2010 Shopping.com, Inc.