You're not logged in! Sort it out. Sign In | Register | Lost Password?

Street Racer Review


Games like this are all too common nowadays. Any rubbish licensed character/franchise can get its’ own kart racer. For God’s sake, even Crazy Frog has a racing game. But back in the early 90s, quirky racers like this were a rarity outside of Mario Kart. When Street Racer came along it never concerned gamers that this was the beginning of a horrible spiral into franchise-racer hell. Mainly because Street Racer isn’t a load of trash.

Racing is split into a few different modes; Practice, Head-to-Head, Championship, Rumble and Soccer. With aid of a multi-tap you can play with up to 4 players as well. The game includes a nice selection of 8 original characters. You hear that Nintendo? Original! No franchise/licensed old crap here. Each character has a unique sense of humour attached to them and their own special moves. Apart from that, they all control relatively similar.

Practice does exactly what it says on the tin. Head-to-Head allows you to play in any of the game’s modes and on any track but only against one other player. Championship puts you in a series of races against all the other characters. Getting the top places in each race gives you the most championship points leading to the best overall score. Winning a championship opens the next cup and you are given a password to return to it should you decide to stop playing. There are 3 cups in total as well as a custom cup which allows you to pick any series of races you want. These modes are where you will spend the most of the game as they are easily the best playing.

Rumble is a complete waste of space. You constantly race around a ring-shaped track with the aim being to barge other players off the edge. That is all there is to it. Soccer is a loose game of football where you drive your player around one half of a football pitch, stealing the ball off other players to shoot it in the goal. The player with the most goals wins. This mode fairs a little better than Rumble but the gameplay doesn’t last long enough for you to want to play it in extended sessions.

Anyway, back to the racing. Controls are best mapped to a 6 button pad; B to accelerate, A and C to punch in either direction, X and Y are the character’s special attacks and pressing A, B and C together activates a boost. Boosts are limited with 1 given out every lap you complete. There are also boost pick-ups scattered around the track. Boosts are essential to the game’s gameplay and the smart player will save them for the final lap. There is no brake button which makes for an unusual way of controlling your vehicle. Letting go of the accelerator will cause the car to drift which makes cornering a lot more accessible without losing too much speed. This is strange to get used to at first but with some practice it soon feels natural. Other than that small gripe, the controls in Street Racer are very responsive and make playing the game a real treat.

However, the presentation is Street Racer’s biggest selling point. Graphics are beautiful to look at. Each stage is very well rendered with highly detailed sprites and textures as well as some brilliantly drawn backgrounds. The tracks themselves also scroll very smoothly and make all previous behind-the-player Mega Drive racers look terrible in comparison. Not only does it pack all this in to a stunning looking package, it also maintains a perfect 60 frames per second throughout the entire game.

Sound is relatively decent with some nicely composed music that sets the tone well but is nothing that’ll stick in your head for years to come. The effects are better with some nicely sampled sounds like the very clear ‘thwak’ you make as you throw a punch.

For racing fans looking for a bit of a twist on the original formula, you can do no wrong with Street Racer. The racing is great fun as you trade blows with the other characters and thanks to the fine-tuned controls, it’s remarkably simple to pick up. As long as you avoid the naff Rumble and Soccer modes, Street Racer is one of the best racing packages available for the Mega Drive.


9/10



Written by Sonic Yoda on 08/09/2009


Cartridge



Screenshots

SEGADriven is proud affiliates with the following websites:

- Dreamcast Live
- Emerald Coast
- MegaDrive.me
- Project Phoenix Productions
- Radio SEGA
- Saturday Morning Sonic
- SEGA Retro
- Sonic HQ
- Sonic Paradise
- The Dreamcast Junkyard
- The Pal Mega-CD Library
- The Sonic Stadium
SEGADriven and its original content are copyrighted to their respective authors. Media related directly to SEGA is copyrighted to its respective authors. Any comments on SEGA-related materials do not represent SEGA themselves. All rights reserved 2008-2022.