Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association

Written by Adam Woolcott on October 10, 2003

Full Review: XGRA special, or XGRA crappy?

Once a novelty, futuristic/action racers have become all too common. What started with F-Zero and then moved along to Wipeout has given way to hordes of copycats and followers. The longest running series in this genre aside from the aforementioned F-Zero and Wipeout is Extreme-G, which started life on the Nintendo 64. For the 4th installment of the Extreme-G series, Acclaim and developer Acclaim Studios Cheltenham reinvented the wheel, so to speak, titling the game XGRA (Extreme-G Racing Association) and generally attempting to make the game feel like a sports video game instead of a pure futuristic racing game. This evolution is duly noted, but unfortunately XGRA does little to compare to other racers in its sub-genre on the PlayStation 2 or otherwise, especially in the wake of F-Zero GX on the GameCube. Thanks to some touchy controls and incredible ease of clearing the various events, XGRA is only a shell of its potential, and resigned to be a bargain bin purchase (as it seems to be with all too many Acclaim-published games).

XGRA comes with all the trimmings you'd expect, including time trials, single races for solo and multiplayer action, and of course, a career mode that ever-so-slightly apes from F-Zero. In the Career mode, you start off as an unknown racer in the Extreme Gravity Racing Association, looking to score a contract with one of the numerous teams scouting talent. Fare well enough in the first league, and you'll score said contract with one of the teams and you begin the march to the league championship. There's numerous leagues, each consisting of plenty of races and some solid track designs. The only thing that's disappointing is that you must choose from set racers, and not actually create a character to tailor them to your specifications. It at least would add a smidge of role-playing to the game, a minor enhancement to a mostly faceless game.

For the uninitiated, XGRA feels somewhat like F-Zero, only with weapons you can use. You can use a speed boost, find power УstripesФ on the side of the track to gain more boost, and many tracks have multiple paths to separate the racers from time to time. The only difference is that you're on a variant of a motorcycle, only it's the kind that gets enough speed that it floats in the air (the anti-gravity thing, ya know). While the concept is far from original, the early installments were fairly successful on the N64, though Extreme-G 3 never really caught on as a PS2/GCN release.

The largest problem with XGRA lies in the controls. While they can be learned with time, at the outset, the controls are very touchy and more often you'll end up slamming into the wall on a turn more often than coasting through it. Supposedly the bikes are all different with special attributes, but from testing many of them, there's very little difference between them, which is unfortunate. A bike that is supposedly heavier takes the turns just as erratically as a lighter one, and bikes built for speed get crushed sometimes by those heavy brutes. But with time you can develop the right touch, which is okay (of course, you could say the same thing about Auto Modellista, but I won't), though honestly it's no excuse for the touchy movement.

The bizarre thing is, even with the crappy controls, XGRA is awfully easy. Despite ramming walls like an idiot the first time through the events, I wound up in first more often than not, simply by learning where the speed boosts were on the track and timing the use of my own boost. All the while, the computer opponents just let me whiz on by and take the finish line. Before I knew it, the game was pretty much over and I didn't earn anything besides the wondering thought about how a new XGRA player can just walk in and win it all with little to no effort or skill required. Even as a $30 budget title, it's only worth a $5 rental to clear everything and add it to your beaten games list.

It's a shame too, as XGRA does a lot of things right. The track designs, for the most part, are really good, with multiple paths and cool locales to race in, and the sense of speed is great, almost too great really, which leads to the awkward craft controls, since anticpation usually means smacking the wall again and again. It's almost too fast for its own good, though on the other hand, when F-Zero GX can be so fast yet control like a dream, it seems that XGRA is just half-finished, that the team gave up and went with the game to meet a deadline instead of tweaking the controls to even up with the blazing speed. Too bad.

It's also too bad because the graphics in the game aren't too shabby. The sense of speed is very well represented, thanks to a rock-solid frame rate that never dips too low, if it ever does. It's also fast enough, that it's very hard to notice roadside details in-game, since it's too hard to take your eyes off the track since everything is blazing by. Despite numerous riders on the tracks, the game doesn't slow down or otherwise hinder the performance of XGRA. Many of the tracks are based in odd locales, and are designed and detailed to appear that way as well Ц such as a track on Saturn, that lets you see the planet in the distance. It all looks pretty good and runs smoothly and effectively Ц it's not as pretty as other games in its genre (on other consoles, granted), but for the PS2 it at least surpasses Wipeout Fusion and the evil demon child HSX for futuristic racing visual supremacy.

XGRA has gone the licensed music route this time around, and they even managed to make it doable for different kinds of gamers. There's a combination of techno and rock music in the game, and at the outset you can actually set the music for what you'd prefer hearing. As such I could weed out the annoying techno-crap and make the soundtrack all rock music, which is much easier on my ears. If you prefer you can go the other way or have a combination of both. It's a nice touch to add a bit of customization to the soundtrack.

Otherwise, XGRA really doesn't have a whole lot to talk about. The hokey announcers before a race are pretty good (if intentionally campy) and add to the Уreal sports eventФ feel that the game is gunning for. Otherwise, aside from the cheering crowds and the sounds of anti-gravity bikes racing around the track and smacking walls and each other, there's little to write home about. Hell, I barely even heard the weapons being fired, as there apparently is no indicator that either yourself or an enemy is attacking or being attacked. Which is not fun at all.