Street Racer Extra

Street Racer probably has one of the dumbest mascots I ever seen in a videogame. A pink, Frankenstein-like rabbit with a big purple nose, which reminded me a bit of Roger Rabbit without any clothes on. Every time he showed up I felt a sudden urge to shoot and kill him, but unfortunately that isn't possible. Anyhow, Street Racer is a product of the proliferation of Mario Kart clones that appeared at the end of the 1990s. It was released for the Super Nintendo, Genesis, Amiga, PC, PlayStation and, clearly, the Sega Saturn.

With Street Racer UbiSoft continued the sort of game they started with Rayman: At first sight it looks a bit childish, but the gameplay turns out to be suitable for a larger, and also more mature, audience as well. Well, as I said, if you know the principle of Mario Kart, then you know what Street Racer is all about, because this is just a shameless clone of the original. But that doesn't mean it isn't fun, because it is ... for a while. You've got your share of characters to pick from, like Frankenstein, or a show-off in a fast (but uncontrollable) car, a beach chick and so on, but the best and safest pick is a fellow from India with his orange turban.

All of the characters have their own circuits, and some new ones are unlockable as well, so it isn't necessary to complain about the availability of different tracks. The sounds and music are run-of-the-mill, but quite suitable for the game and not in anyway annoying. Control is easy as well; though pressing up means making your car jump can be a bit confusing. There are four different camera views of which I only used the one most far off, which makes the game look a bit like Micro Machines. I found the other views to be too close to the circuits to see what's going on and to make decent turns. The graphics are absolutely a huge improvement over the Genesis and Super Nintendo version: the characters look a bit pixelated, but the surroundings are beautiful with an impressive use of shading and color.

Though the one-player mode isn't bad, this game is definitely most fun multiplayer. The game can be played with up to eight players, that is, if you own the 8-player adaptor. Things are a little hard to see on the split-screen (even in the 2-player mode), but the game doesn't lose any of its speed and it is lots of fun to annoy your friends by shooting them or bumping them of the circuit. Besides racing, it is also possible to play a 'rumble' option in which you just have shoot each other as often as possible (just like in Mario Kart - speak of originality).

Street Racer is a game which has its merits, especially in multiplayer, but it doesn't quite match up to the original Mario Kart. If you are prepared for an unoriginal, not-professional racing game there is definitely some fun to be had. But overall, it is maybe a bit too short lived due to the more attractiveness of professional games such as Sega Rally, Daytona USA and Manx TT.