Developer – Vivid Image
Publisher – Ubisoft
Rating – N/A
After the release of Super Mario Kart, kart-racing games were being developed left, right, and center. One of many company standards and innovations that Nintendo pioneered at the time. Street Racer, to me, was undoubtedly the closest competitor to Super Mario Kart. There was more depth in gameplay than the likes of Apogee Software’s Wacky Wheels and Sonic Drift for the Game Gear, for example. One thing that I must point out, however, is that it heavily depends on which system the game is being played on. As many of them differ greatly. Personally, I would recommend either the Super Nintendo or Sega Mega Drive port over any of the others. The PlayStation and Sega Saturn ports, for example, were heavily dubbed down in terms of gameplay and nowhere near as enjoyable as a result.
Graphics – 7.5/10
From a technical standpoint at least, the visuals actually exceed the quality of Super Mario Kart. As mode 7 rendering was used to design the game. And thus it was made a lot more graphically smoother and much more polished than the former. However, whilst the settings are fairly diverse, they’re not as diverse as Super Mario Kart, and I personally believe that artistic merit in visuals should come before graphical capability.
The Super Nintendo port also has much more diverse settings than that of the PlayStation. And because the graphics were rendered differently for the PlayStation port, details can also take longer to load up than in the Super Nintendo version. So, not only is the Super Nintendo superior from a conceptual perspective. But it’s superior from a technical perspective too. Which to me, would have seemed particularly embarrassing at the time, given that the PlayStation was supposed to be the superior console.
Gameplay – 6.5/10
In terms of gameplay, I think that this is a decent Super Mario Kart clone; but nowadays, that would be pretty much all I would have to say about it, really. There are a few imaginative gameplay modes attributed to it. Such as the soccer mode for example. But the problem is it’s just not quite as varied as even the original Super Mario Kart. Let alone other games of the kind that have been released since. Such as Diddy Kong Racing, for example. So by that logic, it hasn’t held up as well as I initially suspected that it might have done before I started playing it again for the purposes of this review. But as I pointed out earlier, it is much more enjoyable to play the game on the earlier consoles. Alternative gameplay modes were removed from the PlayStation version in particular.
Controls – 10/10
For all ports, there are no problems with the controls. Not even for the systems, it was later ported to. As the formula had been long since mastered by developers. Something interesting about the PlayStation version was that the game could be switched to a different gameplay mode. Which would make the gameplay stand out a bit more like the Micro Machines games. As opposed to a conventional kart-racing game.
Lifespan – N/A (10/10)
Though it will take an hour or two to complete each championship mode tournament (if that), very much like Mario Kart and other games of the genre, Street Racer then becomes a game that can simply be picked up and played at any time without the worry of needing to make conventional progress. After the championship mode is completed, the game’s lifespan is simply dependent on the player’s own personal interest.
Storyline- N/A (10/10)
As a racing game, there wasn’t any call for any kind of elaborate storyline, and there’s no need for Street Racer to lose marks for not having something that it didn’t require. I think if the developers did try and make a story of it, however, I don’t suspect they would have gotten very far. It’d be particularly hard to make a story out of the characters that are included in the game, I find.
Originality – 3/10
Though this game does have a certain level of uniqueness about it such as the moderate level of diversity in track design, it is essentially a rip-off of Super Mario Kart. And there wasn’t enough for me to make it stand out to the extent whereby it would hold up today. I believe this opinion of mine is made even more apparent whilst playing the PlayStation version, as many of the best track designs and additional game modes had been taken away. Like the life had been sucked out of it, in a sense.
Happii
Overall, I believe Street Racer makes for a good few hours of entertainment, but I would advise people wanting to try it out to get their hands on the Super Nintendo or Sega Mega Drive version of the game to truly see the game for what it is. A moderately imaginative and fairly enjoyable Mario Kart clone.