blimey,  kei's  said  he's  a  bit low on articles for the word 15, so I
thought I'd write some more bol..er..stuff.

Um,  how  about  another  Playstation  game review?  Yeh, I know, you've
probably  just  read all the other reviews of mine and promised yourself
at least a days break before you read another one, but...

Right, the last game I rented was Speedster.  I rented it as I wanted to
see  if  the reviews were right about the game.  Let me put it this way,
they  were  wrong.   They  stated  that  the title of the game was quite
ironic  as  it  ran  rather slowly.  Er, no it doesn't.  It Seems to run
slowly  when  you  play  the game in professional mode then novice mode.
Playing  the  game  in  novice mode is a no-brainer anyway, as you don't
earn  any  cars when you complete all the circuits.  The aim of the game
(in one-player mode) is to complete the game using each car to gain more
cars.  There are two types of car available, high-speed and all terrain.
Let me tell you, it's bloody hard using either!

There  are a number of circuits to race across, each circuit beautifully
crafted with some very nice graphics being chucked about.  The detail is
superb, with the view being able to zoom in and out and although there's
no  in-car  view, the game plays very well with the set views.  The best
view,  the  one  that  you  start off with, is the best, being above and
slightly  behind  the  car.   However,  if  you so wish, the view can be
zoomed  out  so  the  cars  appear smaller than those in Micro Machines.
This  offers  more  of  a view of the track, but control suffers and you
don't get as much of a sensation of speed.  Playing one-player, as said,
offers  you the chance of gaining more vehicles to race with, but what a
bloody  hard  chance  it  is!   It increases in difficulty if you make a
mistake  but  I found if you cut every corner as best you can there is a
possibility of coming first.  Be warned, it's a tough challenge!

The  game  offers  a  whole  new  perspective when played in two-player.
Although  it's  only head-to-head (no computer cars), it's a race to the
finish  through  cunning and cutting up your opponent.  The split-screen
view offers a good view of the surroundings and the speed is kept up.  A
real  challenge  is  offered  when  played in professional mode with the
Ferrari  on the motorway race.  The graphics just fly.  Although this is
where a serious problem occurs that I last heard of in Doom - the sticky
wall  syndrome.   This happens especially when you are hurtling around a
slip-road  and  you  happen  to clip the wall.  You sort of "stick", and
because  you try to counter-steer, it then sticks to the other side.  It
can  be  infuriating  when  your  opponent is closing in behind.  That's
another  thing.   The  game  can  be played so that the car behind has a
catch-up boost.  For example, it knocks the car in fronts speed down and
raises  the car behinds speed.  This is okay if you are playing the same
car,  but if one of you is playing with a faster or slower car, the odds
can  be  stacked  against  or  for you.  For example, one cars top speed
could  be 220, the other could be 180.  When the faster car is in front,
its  speed  is knocked down to 205 and the slower car which is behind is
knocked  up  to 195.  It kind of defeats the object, really.  The slower
car  has  Got  to be a better player than the faster car, otherwise it's
had it.

There's  also  an  energy  bar to contend with.  Well, Ferrari's weren't
made  to  withstand  constant  wall bashing, were they?  Obviously, this
decreases  whenever  you  hit anything, until black smoke starts pouring
out  the  back  and  you  get  a  warning  about low energy.  Oh, and in
one-player  mode,  the replays are beautiful!  The camera panning around
All The Time while zooming effortlessly in and out keeping your car well
in  view.   Brilliant!   Lap  records  and setups can be saved.  There's
three  modes  of play - single which offers you a single race (and keeps
it  in  memory,  so  if  you  want  to  race the track again, there's no
loading,  smart  one!)  -  championship,  which offers you the chance of
racing against some very hard computer opponents to gain more cars - and
time trial which offers you the chance to race around a circuit and beat
your  times.  The time trial option offers a ghost car facility, which I
guess  would  show  your car going around the circuit as on the last lap
you did, but I didn't see it.  Strange.

The sound ain't bad, either.

So  then,  a  compelling  (if  a little difficult) one-player game and a
brilliantly   implemented  two-player  game.   All-in-all,  pretty  good
really.

The ratings, if you would :

Graphics    :  92%
Sound       :  90%
Lastability :  90%
Playability :  89%

Overall     :  89%

review by kenco and chocolate hobnobs/carnage

-ende-