Extreme G3
Score: 90% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Acclaim Developer: Acclaim Media: GCD/1 Players: 1 - 4 Genre: Miscellaneous
Graphics & Sound: While Extreme G3 may not have the deep sense of style of Kinetica or the WipEout series, it makes up for it with a blazingly fast game engine. Those who played the original games in the series will remember how bad the framerate could get; no more. Yes, the environments can be quite gorgeous, but they never captivate like some of the tracks in other games of the same genre. There's the obligatory underwater track, the loop track, the crystal (well, ice) track, and so on; you've seen them before. What you haven't seen is them zooming by at such blistering speeds that your head spins. No other game that I've played gives you the sense of speed that Extreme G3 does. Indeed, when you break the sound barrier, you can hear the snap, the screen blurs, and then you are bathed in . . . silence. It's a magnificent feeling, a gorgeous effect, and it's extremely cool. Ah, yes, the graphics. The textures aren't as detailed as they probably should have been; the environments are detailed structurally but not graphically, which is a shame. It still looks very nice, though, as games of the genre tend to do. The music in the game is precisely what you'd expect it to be--a mix of different techno tracks by various artists. It fits the game perfectly, but there's nothing here that you haven't heard before--if not literally, then at least the style. Futuristic racing is one genre that I can't knock for having thumping techno beats, though, since it fits so perfectly. The sound effects are spot on, and you can catch the launch of the various weapons if you listen closely enough. The engine whine from your bike is damned sweet too.
Gameplay: As is the gameplay. Those of you familiar with this sort of game will find themselves right at home; those who haven't played futuristic racers before will have a bit of a learning curve with Extreme G3, but nothing that any good videogame fan can't handle. I wish that there were more tracks, but that's a given with any racing game, especially those that entrance me the way that Extreme G3 did. It's not particularly original, and it doesn't do much more than scream, but it screams really, really well. Extreme G3 doesn't even bother with a semblance of a plot. You're on a racing team, you're out to beat the competition by racing the four different circuits, and, well, have at them. As you progress through the races, you gain prize money depending on how high you rank. You can then spend the money on faster engines, weapon power-ups, and the like. After you complete the three cups at the 250 level, you move up to the 500. Eventually, you'll make it to the coveted 1000 class, and you'll be able to scream around courses at rates that make your previous excursions look like Sunday drives. The core gameplay is much as you'd expect. You've got a vehicle to control, a course to drive on, and a bunch of other racers that get in your way. In the grand tradition, there are weapons that you can use, although it's often better to just race hard and stick with the pea-shooter; the better weapons are exorbitantly priced, and there are more useful vehicle upgrades that you can purchase with the same money, like faster engines and shield scoops. In a pleasant twist for the genre, your bikes use the same energy bank for their shields and their boosts. This means that using your boost can be a dangerous thing, because it could put you much closer to destruction, especially later in the game when the AI starts to get ruthless with weapons. It's a pleasant level of complexity, one that requires you to think more than most recers, even if it's more of a gut-instinct thought process than anything particularly strategic. If you tire of the single-player experience, the GameCube version of Extreme G3 sports a number of excellent multiplayer features. Perhaps the coolest is the team career mode, where you and a friend can race on the same team through the career mode, garnering money and fame for your corporate sponsors. It's something I've never seen before, and I think it's pretty darn cool. If you're looking for something more visceral, there's four-player splitscreen racing, which is always a big hit at my house. If you want to poke holes in the game, you can point out the relatively small number of tracks and the resulting short length of the single-player experience. There's still a lot of fun to be had screaming around the tracks at maximum velocity, though, so even loners will find quite a bit of stuff to do with this game once they've beaten it.
Difficulty: For the uninitiated, the rapid pace of Extreme G3 can be extremely disorienting and difficult to handle. Once you've spent some time with the tracks, though, using the Practice mode to learn their feel, you can really put some serious moves on the competition. The AI is sharp, and it gets sharper as the game progresses, but it's not omnipotent, and careful use of the turbo will make or break most races. The courses themselves are quite challenging as well, but unlike WipEout you can afford to tag the sides when necessary and you don't lose all of your momentum. Careful racers will use the shoulder buttons to maximize their turning radii, make use of the 'lean forward' and 'lean back' properties of the bikes, and memorize the turn patterns. They will then proceed to smoke their opponents in both single-player and multiplayer modes.
Game Mechanics: Extreme G3 uses just about every button on the GameCube controller, and surprisingly enough I never felt limited by the control scheme. The main button is thrust, you can boost or fire your weapons with the X and Y buttons, and you use the shoulder buttons to throw your weight to the sides for sharp turns (or if you don't want to jiggle the control stick). You can switch weapons with either the Z button or the control pad, whichever you prefer. The controls are tight, and the bikes control like I felt they should--lighter than cars, but not as floaty as the craft in WipEout. Of course, I must note the excellent woxil interface, which is easy to navigate and gorgeously done, the proper mix of simple symbols and clear text. Futuristic racing game designers take note. Add to this the darn near instantaneous load times, and you have a very tight package. It's not going to turn the gaming world upside down; in the end, Extreme G3 is just another entry in the futuristic racing game genre. But it's quite possibly the most entertaining one I've played since WipEout 3, and the raw sense of speed that the game provides is just amazing. Fans of the genre would be fools not to pick this up (and, from what I've played, the GameCube version is superior to the PS2 release); those who would like a taste to see if it's their thing would do well to rent it. The first time you break the sound barrier, a silly grin will spread across your face, and you'll realize just how cool this game is. I know; I had that silly grin too.
-Sunfall to-Ennien, GameVortex Communications AKA Phil Bordelon
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