Metropolis Street Racer


Developer: 

 Bizarre Creations

Publisher: 

 Sega

Players: 

 1-2 split-screen

Release Date: 

 September 23rd (Europe)

Platform: 

 Dreamcast

Style: 

 Racing


It’s not hard to find good racing games, especially if you’re taking a stroll through the arcade. All you have to do is look around that large, dark room and you’ll see more than you thought existed. Cruis’n, Crazy Taxi, and Hydro Thunder are all fair racers and each with several reasons to play. And when you’re walking through the isles looking for games to rent, you’ll see a bunch there, too. R4, World Driver Championship, and Episode 1: Racer are also all good games. However, there are few racing games that take the genre to the next level.

Enter Gran Turismo, the reigning champion of the driving world. Everything was done right in this game, and now, Polyphony Digital is releasing a sequel to the biggest game in the genre. No other driving game stands a chance, right? Wrong. Sega is preparing one huge launch for the Dreamcast, as well as plenty of releases afterwards, so you can bet your teeth there’s going to be plenty of racers floating around for the system. One of these, is Metropolis Street Racer. Aside from Sega Rally 2, Metropolis seems to be the most noticed of its genre. Taking place in three real life cities, London, San Francisco, and Tokyo, Metropolis gives you a selection of over twenty licensed vehicles to take around the nine tracks. If that’s not impressive enough, pay attention, because the numbers are about to get larger. To make the cities and tracks that lie within, well over 30,000 photographs have been taken, and Bizarre Creations say they still need more!

A lot of time, dedication, and determination is being put into the stages, but this game doesn’t stop at being pretty. Metropolis looks nice while having tons of gameplay to back it up. The game will feature two major game styles: Classic Arcade and Gang Battle. Classic Arcade mode will feature three different play modes: Championship, Time Attack and Head to Head. These are all pretty self explanatory if you’ve ever played a racing game before. Gang Battle, on the other hand, is another story.

The Gang Battle mode is a four player Olympic-like event that consists of players battling it out in several different games to see who the ultimate driver is. The idea is very innovative and could be a deciding factor in how well Metropolis does. Of course, there’s a few other things, like the fact that the replays look better than those that are found in Gran Turismo (and Gran Turismo 2) and the amount of stylish convertibles to cruise around in.
Yes, Metropolis Street Racer looks awesome, even better than Sega Rally 2 and Hydro Thunder, titles Bizarre will have to battle come the launch in September. Is Metropolis the next Gran Turismo, though? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.



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Preview by: C.J. Kulp

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