Demolition Racer: No Exit
Score: 95% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Infogrames Developer: Pitbull Syndicate Limited Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Racing
Graphics & Sound: This game rocks. If you've played Demolition Racer on the PlayStation and you liked the game, you HAVE to get it for the Dreamcast. If you have never played it on the PSX, you HAVE to get it for the Dreamcast. The game is BEAUTIFUL. The soundtrack rocks pretty good, too. You get to race around at high speed, dealing death and destruction while listening to the original soundtrack and remixes by Cirrus, Fear Factory, Empirion, and Coffee Boys.
Gameplay: Racing and tearing things up might be little boys' two favorite pastimes. In Demolition Racer: No Exit, you get to do both. Actually, 'get to' is not quite right... it's more like 'have to.' In order to progress, you need to find that balance between coming in first and smashing the heck out of the other drivers. Oh, you'll have to watch out for useful powerups and bonuses around the track... and beware of the negative 'powerups' and other traps as well. I played this game more than was required to review, and I'll probably play a lot more of it if I find some spare time in the near future. There are some really interesting modes/races, such as 'Chicken' where you race around the track in the opposite direction of all of your opponents (PLEASE don't ask how they figure out your position rank in THAT one). There are also some cool things you can do to your opponents, such as the glorious 'death from above' one hit kill - land on top of another car and you'll destroy it and get a nice chunk of points to boot. Of course, this can sting a bit if you're the car on the bottom...
Difficulty: Demolition Racer has an excellent learning curve. This is partially due to the sheer fun involved in playing the game. Even when the goals are high and extremely hard to achieve, the game is so fun that you want to 'try it just one more time' to see if you can get past that race. You can save your game after each successfully completed race, so when you finally make it past that really tough spot, you can save your game and have some feeling of accomplishment. In addition, there are three difficulty setting: Easy, Medium and Hard, which can be used to tailor the game to your skill level.
Game Mechanics: The handling is nice, the action is hot, and the graphics are beautiful! This game is quite possibly one of the best I've seen on the Sega Dreamcast. Period. The control is tight, and there's a good bit of strategy in deciding how much effort to put into trying to come in first, smashing your opponents, and going for those out of the way power-ups. This game is candy.
-Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins
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