Metropolis Street Racer (Dreamcast)

The history books may tell you that Formula One '97 for the PlayStation was just another racer in an increasingly-bloated legacy of annually-updated sports sims. However, those who remember it will testify that the 32-bit era would never see another F1 game to match its excellence, and perhaps not without good reason - it would be the second and final F1 game developed by Bizarre Creations, who would disappear for a couple of years and, in 1999, resurface with announcement of a new racer that would become one of the Dreamcast's most hotly anticipated titles. Where F1 '97 succeeded was in its ... more

When this monster of a game was released back last year, it was heralded as the Dreamcasts make or break game. It had been years in the making, and delayed more than British Rail services, but this could only make it a better game, surely? Well... no. This game has been over produced. It has been killed by the developers over-ambition. It has had so many good ideas pumped into it that none of them have been implemented as well as they could have been, and the result is a mess. The major selling point of MSR is the tracks you race on. You race around parts of three major cities – London ... more

Having just bought myself a Dreamcast I have been addicted to this game recently, hence my lack of Ciao time over the past few days. The package is very slick indeed from the introductory video clips to the level of detail within the game itself. There are hundreds of races to take part in and dozens of different cars to drive. You can take part in individual races or time trials or the centrepiece of the game, the street racing itself which involves driving your way through from easy beginnings up to the ultimate skill level. There are a total of 25 chapters of racing each with 10 events ... more

What can I say about my opinion of MSR? Yes, I've played most other racing games on most of the other platforms and yet Metropolis Street Racer is still the one that I would choose above any other. MSR is all about driving. Well, for a car game that sounds pretty obvious, but it's the way the game is designed to reward how you drive as well as how fast you can get from A to B. Most of the time you'll find yourself trying to impress the game with the style of your cornering and the fact that you don't actually scrape the walls every time you swing round a bend as well as trying to beat the ... more

I LOVE driving games. They are without a doubt my favourite genre when it comes to gaming. I’ve loved and played the best: Grand Prix 3, Toca 2, Gran Turismo, Sega Rally......the list goes on and on. Then came this. If you’re a Dreamcast owner it’s very unlikely that you’ve been able to escape the publicity (I don’t want to use the word ‘hype’ here) surrounding this title. In fact, this game was supposed to be one of the first titles on the Dreamcast. It was originally going to be out just after the Dreamcast’s October ’99 launch date but ... more