Trickstyle (Dreamcast)

I've taken a look at the other opinions in this section stating what a good game Trickstyle is. Perhaps I'm missing something then because personally I think it's an insult to Dreamcast owners.

Let's start with the good....it's a fairly original concept I suppose. Course layouts are pretty good - the chance to race through city streets, leap up or down flights of stairs, speed through subway tunnels and crash through famous monuments like Big Ben is a great idea. That's about it.

On the negative side...The first thing you'll come across is the training mode. This covers the basics of the game. It doesn't take long for there aren't that many but then this is a racer so I didn't expect too much.

Then comes the graphics. These are quite simply dreadful. They look like they were designed with a 64 bit machine in mind. The general scenery is dull and lifeless with no sign of any weather conditions having an effect on it whatsoever. The building look like cardboard badly pained by the Playschool presenters. When you smash through glass the shards are blatant 2D triangles formed of the most basic polygon graphics. The characters themselves sway unconvincingly from left to right. About the only thing that does look good is when your character falls off, something that happens all too often.

If a computer player crashes into you, 95% of the time you fall off. Unfortunately, the computer uses this to it's advantage and frequently aims straight at you. It's also annoying to note that computer controlled characters never, EVER, make a mistake. Tricks in the game are awkward to pull off and lead to very little reward even if you manage it. Christ, even steering the board on a gentle curve is difficult enough!

There is absolutely no sense of speed in the game at all. This is a racer? Not likely. It's created a new genre...the crawler. Controls are sluggish and unresponsive. Even the most simple "trciks" like the luge which are supposedly activated by pressing one button as you approach a luge chute work once in a blue moon.

The other major irritation is that you can only play one course at any time. You have to come first in that course in order to open the next one. This leads to you being utterly frustrated as you desperately try to get lucky and come first in a race that you have been stuck on for weeks...if you can put up with the game that long.

There are several different characters to choose from, all of which play exactly the same regardless of the stats they show. There are 3 specialist boards as well as the normal one. The effect these boards have is so slight that you will barely notice it.

All in all this is one of the worst games made for Dreamcast and to be honest its one of the worst games I've ever played in my life. Do yourself a favour...leave this on the shelf.