Since the day the Dreamcast was released, it has never had a shortage of racing games. TNN Motorsports HardCore Heat, Sega Rally Championship 2, Monaco Grand Prix, Flag to Flag, Pen Pen TriIcelon and Tokyo Xtreme Racer to name a few. The racing styles are well varied aswell, so fans of the genre should certainly be pleased at the selection so far. Unfortunately, not many of the titles are excellent, with most of them falling in the average to good range. The 2000 outlook is promising though, as at least two great looking racing titles are set to arrive: Sega GT and Metropolis Street Racer.

Metropolis Street Racer was supposed to be released in Fall '99 but was delayed until winter 1999. However, it wasn't released then either, and the title was then pushed to April 2000. April wasn't to be either, as the game was pushed back yet again. The latest reports from the developer, Bizarre Creations, are that the game will be released in November. There has even been talk of a simultaneous release in Europe, Japan and the U.S. While delays are always disappointing, if the developers can make the game look better than it already does, then we will all be in for a treat.

Metropolis Street Racer takes place on city streets, three cities to be exact and all these cities are also the locations of the three primary divisions of SEGA, London (Sega Europe), San Francisco (Sega of America) and Tokyo (Sega of Japan). Each city is then divided into three districts where the races take place. You will recognise these cities immediately if you have ever visited the cities. They have been recreated right down to the very last smallest detail. The makers of the game filmed and photographed areas in each city to make sure they were recreated appropriately. This games graphics are going to be top class!! Everything you see while walking through any of these cities will be recreated in the game.

Some expected modes of play within the game include Arcade Mode and a Gang Battle mode similar to that within Tokyo Xtreme Racer. Arcade Mode will probably feature the standard single player race against computer controlled cars. Gang Battle is similar to a season mode as players earn the ability to upgrade their car and save their progress. Another feature mentioned will make use of the Dreamcasts' modem. Not for online gaming though but for uploading and downloading items, such as ghost cars etc. So by downloading another players ghost car you will, in effect, be racing against them.

An exciting aspect of the game is its sound. Music in the game is heard as if it is coming from your car's radio. Traffic reports, DJ voices and music will directly reflect the city the player is currently in. Users will also have the ability to select their favorite tracks and save their playlist to a VMU so that they can listen to them each time they play. Aside from the music, each racing area will affect the sounds you hear. For example, the echoing sound of a car's engine will vary depending on whether you're driving past tall buildings or speeding past trees.

The Cars
While Metropolis Street Racer does not feature the number of cars you will find in simulations like Gran Turismo and Sega GT, there are a fair amount of licensed vehicles to be found. The cars that are known to be included are as follows:

Although this list is very impressive, keep in mind it is possible that more cars will be added. So, how good will they look? If the backgrounds are not indication enough that Bizarre Creations has gone all out for this game, then the cars should convince you. Each car is made up of approximately 3000-4000 polygons! They should run smoothly as well, as the frame rate will hopefully be a constant 60 frames per second. All of the demos to this point are running at a constant 30fps and look just fine, but 60fps is definitely what we would all like to see.

At this point, Metropolis Street Racer is looking awesome. With each screenshot released the game looks better and better; even those released in the summer of 1999 looked incredible. All of the detail in the backgrounds and the lighting effects in both the backgrounds and car headlights are certainly impressive. You can only imagine how much more Bizarre Creations can do with almost another full year of development. Not only should it be the best looking racer on the system, but it very well may be the best looking game on the Dreamcast when it is released.

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