GENRE
	Racing
	DEVELOPER
	Probe
	PUBLISHER
	Acclaim
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-4
	CONTROLLER PAK
	yes
	RUMBLE PAK
	yes
	RAM PAK
	no
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Acclaim exploded onto the N64 scene and shocked gamers with the blockbuster Turok, a solid first person shooter based on a comic book hero featuring stunning graphics, excellent control, great music, and an excellent atmosphere. Their next two titles retained some of what Turok set: NFL Quarterback Club 98 retained the same engine and Extreme G retained the same fog effect and blurred textures. But fortunately, Extreme G really pushes things to the extreme despite a few setbacks. And better yet, both of Acclaim's newest titles make use of two new novelty items: the 4 controller ports and the Rumble Pack; something Turok failed to make use of. Of course, the Rumble Pack wasn't available at the time of Turok's release but the 4 ports were. Extreme G is a rather original title for the most part, with elements of F-Zero, Wipeout XL, Mario Kart, and your typical racer thrown in. And, like most racers, the story, if there is one, is a sorry excuse to get down to what you really want to do: play the game.

visuals

I wasn't altogether too impressed with the graphics that Extreme G offered. First off, the same fog that plagued Turok still lingers in the background and, while nowhere near as thick as Turok's, it doesn't seem to blend in the first few levels. Of course it prevents the pop-up problem and helps maintain the outrageous speeds, but I can't help but notice after playing hours of TGR's fog free atmosphere. Fortunately, in later levels, it seems to lessen, though that may be due to the race at hand. Also, in some levels it does add atmosphere and seems to blend more naturally seeing as how it adjust in parts of the track (i.e. in caves or dark tunnels it goes darker, etc.). While not a totally bad thing, it probably could've been avoided.

My other complaint is about the textures. Sure, I don't really notice textures altogether that much, but in Extreme G, I couldn't help but notice the blurred textures after complaints about Turok's blurred textures and the N64's dreaded "blur effect" (though Rare seems to have cleverly counteracted it in Goldeneye). Granted, at high speeds it's only natural for them to get blurred, but even at painfully slow speeds things look... sloppy in some areas. Thankfully, there is a cheat that will undo it although it will reduce the graphics to the PSX's level, known as "uglymode".

And on another note, I would have preferred the bikes to bigger. The different camera angles simply didn't cut it for me. The first person one made me dizzy (never thought I'd say that^_^), the last one was too far away, and the default one was just okay. I would have preferred to be able see more detail on my bike and I think it would've helped to give the gamer a more intense feel and a better sense of control. How this would affect the framerate is beyond me, but I'm sure some compromises could've been made. Still, I want to stress this is really minor and more of personal taste.

Of course, Extreme G isn't all bad. The bikes themselves are great looking. You can actually see the wheels moving when you start and gradually pick up to speed. The bike selection screen is beautiful with large, detailed bikes, each uniquely and very well designed to give the gamer a distinct feel with each bike. From the menacing Grimace, to the powerful Mooga, to the ultra sleek Neon (a bike that bears similar resemblance to my name; two horns and blue^_^) each bike is clean cut and smooth.

The tracks can become quite engrossing themselves. First timers may be a bit discouraged with the first the few tracks since they appear rather dull and bland. Fortunately, it picks up soon after; especially at the end. From a horde of bats flying past, all the way to enormous alien spaceships hovering overhead with lights flashing, the tracks in Extreme G soon become anything but boring. There are some excellent things to see. A personal favorite has to be the challenging lava track. With few rails, warps, multitudes of turns and half loops, and, of course, loads of lava, it doesn't seem to get any better. Others feature streaks of lightning, a space shuttle zooming by overhead, falling rocks, various planets, and so on. Each track provides loads of twists and turns which helps give it a more three dimensional feel.

Moreover the use of lighting adds greatly to the atmosphere. All the tracks provide rails, due to the speeds I would think, and the developers have taken advantage of this in some tracks to sneak in some nice lighting effects in darker courses. Along the rails and some tunnels are little lights to help guide the way, and, as your bike zooms by, you can see the effect it has on the bike which helps create the illusion of more speed. And, of course, the now all too common sunlight effects are perfectly intact.

As for the weapons, they were a little disappointing at first, but they soon became lethal and one of my favorite aspects of the game. One of the things I really enjoyed out of Extreme G was the weapon's design. The way the various weapons attach to the bike is rather original and goes well with the futuristic design. If Mario Kart didn't have enough weapons, Extreme G does. 18 as a matter of fact consisting of various missiles (including homing and backward firing missiles), mines, a tractor beam, shields, ion side blasts, static pulses, phosphor flares, turbo boosts, rockets, and one evil warp. And while the effects created are well done, I feel that the N64's hardware features could've been taken better advantage of. The explosions aren't anywhere near as convincing as those found in Goldeneye or Turok, although if they were, massive slowdown and such would occur, but they simply weren't all too convincing. In the end, I think the developers could've used better transparent effects and even lighting effects on the weapons to help add to the atmosphere.

Naturally, there are a few cinemas to spice up the game a bit, but very few. The intro is about as much cinema as you'll see, but the intro is actually very well done with dramatic camera angles and some nice effects. Also, after winning or losing a race by not gathering enough points to progress on to the next track, your bike will either be glorified in a short but effective scene of victory or put to the recycling bin in shame. While nothing spectacular, the cinemas are pretty cool to watch either way.

As for the speed, you won't be disappointed rest assured. The game went so fast at one point, I had a headache that lasted for hours. Of course there was some tinkering involved (i.e. anitgrav, nitroid, and xtreme cheats plus the Neon). Speed ranges from 0mph to close to 500mph (488 mph was my max). Things stay together well at most all speeds except when you get close to 500mph in which case the screen breaks into streaks of color and, essentially, goes nuts. It doesn't mess the game up or anything, it just turns everything into a blur and one wrong move sends your bike hurdling through the air. Whether or not it maintains the claimed 60fps I can't say for sure and, personally, I couldn't care less. To say the game is fast is a large understatement.

Overall, I simply wasn't too impressed with the graphics compared to other games. It just didn't have that clean cut and fresh look that I had in mind. It had its ups and downs, but didn't come across to me as being a good start on the 2nd generation of games. Still, I think other people won't be disappointed in the least, even if I was slightly. A solid attempt that doesn't go by unnoticed.

audio

This was the biggest let down for me. It wasn't the quality of the sound, that was rather good, but, instead, the music composition. Of course, when one thinks of a futuristic theme, the first thing to come to one's mind is robots and metal and such, and so it's only natural that techno is well represented in futuristic games. And being a fast paced racing game, fast, upbeat music is needed. As far as that goes, Extreme G delivers. But for my tastes, the music simply didn't cut it. Each song for the 13 tracks, featured a strong bass beat to keep the pace and then a bunch of strange instruments and effects. Aside from the opening theme and a few selected others, the music just sounded like noise. Allegedly composed by a 20 some year old, I would've rather listened to TGR's music by all means, which while not matching onscreen activity, would be more ear pleasing for my tastes. I can't really count the music against Extreme G, it's all a matter of opinion, but I do think better composed music would've helped.

The sound effects, thankfully, are great. Each of the 10 bikes have a different engine sound ranging in sound from a vacuum cleaner to a jumbo jet taking off. It helps give the bikes more personality, something that's always a good thing. The weapons have nice sound effects to match, with some great sounding explosions to the discharge of missiles and so on. All of the weapon's effects work smoothly with the theme and atmosphere. Nicely done.

gameplay

As far as control goes, Extreme G maintains accurate control for those sharp turns, twists, and loops. The use of the analog makes turning second nature without being too sensitive or too stiff. The button layout also works well, though it can be adjusted for personal preferences. I'd be lying is I said brakes mattered, because they don't. This isn't meant to be anywhere near realistic so you can pretty much use your accelerator for everything though some situations require sharp turning to get out of sticky places. Maintaining high speeds and working your way through the tracks is easily done though it requires some practice to adjust. Novices will undoubtedly smash into the rails constantly at first, but will soon pick up easily. It's an easy game to pick up and requires mastering for perfection.

Some people may complain about the rails guiding your way along almost the entire track, making racing a simple matter of holding down the accelerator and following the rails. Granted, the first few races will let you. But after that, good luck. The AI isn't easy to beat especially when you lack bikes like the Roach and Neon. Not only do they start picking up their speed and slowing you down with their primary weapons (laser or pulse depending), but they start really nailing you with the secondary weapons like missiles and their favorite weapon: the incredibly annoying but effective static pulse that reverses the controls on the opponent's bikes. And don't let your guard down either. Being first for two laps means squat. On a few occasions, I was doing just that, when in a flash of light and many explosions I finished last. The AI provides an excellent challenge, something that many developers seem to be picking up on. Anyways, back to the rails. At such high speeds, the lack of rails would make any chance at good gameplay fail. One wouldn't know where to look or what to do. However, be warned, there are some areas that provide that option, a lot being on jumps, but the lava track itself is a dangerous one with very few rails especially on turns.

The one player mode is relatively challenging, but can be beaten in a few days. Still it maintains quite a bit of the challenge and fun. The main mode is the Contest mode, which is divided into 3 levels (Atomic, Critical Mass, and Meltdown) with 3 different difficulty levels (novice, intermediate, and extreme). With each progressing level, you race more tracks and with each progressing difficulty level, the AI picks up, of course. In the Contest mode up to 2 players can race with all of the AI bikes. Also, each player can select the same bike. There is also a separate mode entitled the Single Player mode which consists of Time Trials, Shoot em Up, and Practice (AI included), all of which are relatively self explanatory. And the last mode, aside from the options, is Multiplayer which consists of Head to Head (2-4 players), Cup Challenge, a sort of tournament mode, Flag Game (whoever collects the most flags), and the usual Battle mode.

On the up side, there are quite a few cheats that can help enhance the replay value. There are the usual passwords for those who lack memory packs, but also those for neat little tricks like unlimited turbo boosts and such. Also there are two hidden bikes, well worth the effort, both fully capable of mauling the competition. Not only are there secret bikes, but a secret track. However, don't get your hopes up on this one. The tracks are pathetic and definitely not even worthy of being a secret track. Whether it was meant as a joke or not, is beyond me, but it's no Strip Mine (reference to TGR's ultra cool secret track).

multiplayer

While the Single Player and Contest Modes are fun, the Multiplayer mode is, sadly, deeply lacking. Racing head to head is often unfair either because one player knows the tracks better or someone else uses a faster bike which makes catching up next to impossible. The Flag Game is okay, but again, is lacking. And Battle Mode is worst of all. The tracks are compact and confusing. As a matter of fact, Mario Kart's look downright huge compared to those found in Extreme G. Aiming is a mess, because the bikes are small and hard to hit, and, simply, too fast. It's almost never fun, even in 4 player mode.

overall

In the end, Extreme G delivers but still manages to fall short of being anything really special. Still, it definitely adds to the ever growing racer genre for the N64, and comes away as a solid title, though probably not for everyone.

6.5/10