XGRA (GameCube) Review

If Acclaim is to be believed, then in the future Extreme Gravity Racing is to become the most popular pastime of sports fans all over the world. An organisation by the name of Sports Interactive News Network (SiNN) is where the main story element of XGRA stems from, with the entire game being set in the fashion of a live TV broadcast. It is certainly pleasing to see Acclaim sticking to its word and introducing a new idea such as this into the series; however it is not exactly implemented to the best possible degree. In fact, the storyline is quite muddled in most instances, often leaving the gamer with a little reason to race other than the usual 'Play to Win' attitude you have with any other game. Although many will not have too many qualms with this, as it is the main game racing that matters most...

But what about the graphics? Sleek, stylish and deliciously sexy! Yes, I am talking about a computer game here and no, I have not yet gone crazy...You see, Extreme G Racing Association has heaps of style oozing out of every gaming pore. Admittedly you will have seen the majority of the inclusions in other games of this genre – tracks surrounded by neon lighting, meshed floors, billboards all over the place, multi-directional tracks and generally dark hues a-plenty. Thankfully, though, not everything is as predictable as this, with Acclaim putting great thought into other styles of track locations. XGRA sees you going round and round, twisting and turning through the depths of space, zooming across rock-strewn landscapes and flying by rich green forests all complete with differing weather conditions. Do you want to be skidding around tight icy bends? Or maybe you would prefer some stormier conditions – turbulent winds and torrential rainfall? Whatever you desire, you can have – and it all looks absolutely superb on your GameCube!

The glamour does not stop there, either, as just like in XGIII there are special effects strewn across the game. Rather than simply moving the track and vehicles around at a huge rate of knots, Acclaim Cheltenham have incorporated a very funky blurring effect that is evident in one of the screenshots dotted around this review. Just as Burnout has its heartbeat sound effect to get the adrenaline rushing through your veins, XGRA distorts the surroundings as you hit top speeds in a race. Viewing this in a plain screen may not be impressive, but wait until you experience first hand and you will certainly get a funny feeling inside of you! Also in one of this review's screenshots, whilst racing up a steep slope on one of the tracks, you come face-to-face with a large blimp flying through the sky – and only then do you actually realise exactly how high you have travelled! If it were not for the frame-rate being heavily affected by features such as these, then XGRA would be a true graphical masterpiece...

Acclaim is improving its in-game musical prowess with each Extreme G title – and this time around is no different. The gamer will become immersed in the action thanks to the meaty sound effects flying around - deep, humming engine noises, whooshes and explosions from the weapons, banter between racing combatants – everything is perfectly suited to XGRA's atmosphere.

The same is true about the in-game music as well, to some extent. You are given three choices here: Pure dance music, a straight rock soundtrack or a mixture of the two. Now, everyone's tastes will be different, but in this reviewer's opinion the dance side far outweighs the rock one. Having to listen to rock-style music whilst driving at full-pelt around futuristic locations does not fit with the game's style and presence accordingly. This is something that is not helped by the average quality of the rock music included! On the other hand, the licensed dance tunes are amazingly catchy and really get the adrenaline going, particularly when you have your GC hooked up to a stereo and have the volume turned up high! The choice belongs to you, but at least heed my warning…

As soon as you boot up your XGRA disc the differences implemented will jump out at you, with one of the main additions being a career mode, or the 'Season 2080' mode as the game calls it, that features many varying options – like choosing which team you wish to begin your racing life with. However this means that the choice of bikes is restricted, with new vehicles merely being passed on from time-to-time rather than you amassing funds to purchase new ones. So to compensate for the element of freedom found in XGIII being negated this time round, a 'Workshop' has been included where you can tailor a bike's specifications (airbrake power, ride height and so on) to your exact preference. Acclaim, because we are feeling generous you can just about be forgiven in this case…

After your life-changing decision as to what team you ally yourself with, the 'management' dole out several tasks for you to complete during the races. Generally you have a main objective of simply winning the race and a secondary, extremely annoying one that has clearly been thrown into the game to try and extend the longevity. It is a very cheap way of lengthening XGRA, though, as an example of a secondary task is to just make sure you stay ahead of a particular racer. Therefore, on the whole this is rather a shallow career mode and nowhere near as in-depth as we were made to believe in the run-up to XGRA's release. Fortunately there are the usual Arcade, Time Trial and Multi-player options to play around with until boredom sets in.

As soon as you actually start racing, you will instantly spot another large change from XGIII – the racing style is completely different, with extremely heavy bike handling and turning sensitivity that harks back to the original Extreme G (in other words, the days of bikes bouncing off walls due to slight movements sending the vehicle flying all over the track!). Now if you can dispel your preconceptions formed during XGIII play-time and cast your minds back to the, still extremely enjoyable, Nintendo 64 days, then there will be no problem at all. It will simply take a little while to get back into the swing of things – with the action once more feeling natural under the guidance of your GameCube controller. The reason for changing the previous winning formula is unknown, but with patience your mind will fall in love with this reversion of gameplay.

As discussed in the graphics section, the tracks are just as devilish as in XGRA's predecessors, with the usual array of twists, hair-pin bends, steep ramps and dangerous, cliff-like drops to area of the track below. Much thought goes into the layout of each course and it definitely shows. It is, therefore, such a crying shame that the smoothness of play is affected by the graphical detail, with so much stuttering whilst racing at times that your fun-factor is knocked down several notches without any question. This is something that should not be happening at this stage in gaming, so Acclaim, hang your heads and pull up your socks for next time, please.

Again, after finding a complaint with the title, it will subsequently be followed by a positive factor...and this time it is in the area that has never really been too strong in the XG series – the weaponry. Learning the uses of each different type of weapon in XGRA is worthwhile as it gives you such a sense of satisfaction and sheer joy to blast your annoying, back-chatting opponents with the meaty firepower. Now if only as much attention as this had gone into keeping the frame-rate higher than 30fps…

Many that loved XGIII felt rather short-changed by the lack of tracks (with only ten available) and modes included. This time, however, there is an extensive Season Mode that contains five main leagues – Invitational (the beginning of your character's career), Subsonic and Sonic (both of which have six circuits that are split into three tracks each), Supersonic (featuring three race circuits, each made up of four tracks) and finally Ultrasonic (where you must race in one enormous league that pits you against seven of the most difficult tracks in the game!).

If you are coming off the back of any futuristic game other than F-Zero GX then you will get great pleasure and replay value out of XGRA, both its single- and multi-player modes. But if you have just sampled the delights of Nintendo & Amusement Vision's exemplary racer, then XGRA could be pushed to one side pretty quickly.