Smooth as a marble floor and a bit more exciting, too. Review

Smooth as a marble floor and a bit more exciting, too.

Looking for fast and furious racing? Need to vent some pinned up road-rage

via machine guns, missiles and rockets? Then look no further. Nintendo and Acclaim

have kicked up their version of one the best Wipeout

clones to grace a console.

Extreme G, the lightning fast futuristic

racer, has made it through GR security and into our Gamecube. And for the most

part, we’ve had a pretty good time speeding and shooting. But with overly sparse

competition, this race is sometimes less than thrilling.

You begin by choosing from one of six XG teams competing in the Extreme G Racing

League for gold and glory. The League was founded at the end of the 22nd century

for futuristic sports fans as the ultimate spectator sport. Whatever. You’re

not playing this for the story.

You race futuristic Akira style

bikes at up to 800 mph through various locations and climate conditions.

This earns you much fame and, more importantly, cold hard cash. This can be

used to upgrade your machine to perform better. Take a trip to the shop for

new engines, thrusters, missiles, rear guns, EMP devices, mines, rockets, energy

leeches (cool energy pilfering devices) and more to beef out your ride’s offensive

capabilities.

Shields and ammo are replenished by driving over colored strips strategically

laid out on each course. Often they are side by side, requiring you to decide

which one you need most.

The lion’s portion of the gameplay takes place in the game’s Career mode. This

includes a few different League challenges for you to undertake. Leagues are

sequential – beat one to gain access to the next. Each League sports a different

set of tracks and varying cash purse rewards.

There’s also a two-player Career mode, which is the same as the normal Career/League

races but this time you have another rider on your team to help you bump and

shoot the competition. Topping off the gameplay modes are Practice, Head-to-Head

and Time Trial, where money can be earned for impressive completion times.

Technically speaking, Extreme G 3 has it all. There is no slowdown,

even with all 12 riders on screen. The game stays remarkably smooth throughout.

The environments are huge, colorful and nicely detailed. The streak of colored

light that trails behind each cycle lends a very cool futuristic touch. Riders

also turn to look at other competitors as they approach on either side, and

sparks fly when bikes collide and scrape against each other or the metallic

track walls. The particle effects from weapons and boosters are solid. A pretty

game, through and through.

I’m

sad to see the absence of any kind of replay. Some of the better moments are

totally lost, never to be seen again. Every racing game should have a replay

of some sort as it helps the game look a bit more cinematic. Oh well, que

sera, sera.

The handling is superb. For a game that blazes with such speed, it’s incredibly

easy to control the bike. Acclaim did a good job mapping out the button placement

as well. The learning curve is literally little to none.

But for all its solid performance, Extreme G3 still comes packed with

its share of problems. The missing excitement is one of the more severe gameplay

issues. While there are twelve riders per race, the tracks are huge and you

often find yourself alone with no one to antagonize. This is weak. With no shooting

or bumping going on, you’re simply flying down a track alone, which is pretty

unexciting.

What make matter worse is the mindless, drone-like driving skill of the NPC

competitors. They almost never scrape against each other or the walls and all

their turns are perfect. This is annoying and sucks the realism and immersion

right out of an otherwise good game.

At least you can enjoy the well-recorded audio. Engines hum, turbos blast and

many of the weapons rumble and boom accordingly. The sound effects are believable

and appropriate.

Extreme G3 excels in its delivery, but the lack of excitement and any

sort of replay system dampen the fun. Tricking out your ride is neat, but with

no riders around to take an expensive missile up the tailpipe, you’re left with

just an above average futuristic racer that doesn’t bring anything particularly

original to the table. It’s still a pretty solid game, but maybe the upcoming

Wipeout Fusion can raise the stakes a bit.