Street Racing Syndicate - NGC
This new title from Namco (originally from the now defunct 3DO) seems to fly in some areas and try too hard in many. Unfortunately, this game seems more of a lackluster lovechild between Need for Speed: Underground and Grand Theft Auto.

The game seems far too easy in the beginning. You get started and juice your car up beyond what most beginners would even think about. Your noobie limits are when you want to take the 1-on-1 "Uber-car" races for added street respect. You will get stomped.

The menuing system is hard to work with and the load times are atrocious. There's load time when selecting a car, changing the variables, making a change in parts, etc... It's pretty unbearable after a while.

Most racing titles will try to give you the sense of speed when playing, but this game fails here also. The use of nitrous (NAAAAAWZ!) in your car makes the screen blur and forces you to crash into things since you can't see what's up ahead. The only indication of speed that I had (other than the speedometer) was on the launch off the line. I knew I was going fast, but that was only relative. Smoking the opposition on "Go" only meant that I had a better tuned car than the one's I was racing. It still didn't mean I was fast. It certainly didn't feel like I was going fast by any means.

The biggest letdown is the driving around town. You drive forever just to get to an event. You can get your chicks, go "earn" some respect, check out new unlocked rides, smack down at some crew meets, etc... The only solace is the jump button. You can essentially warp right to the places you want/need to be. Granted, you can learn the layout of town, but why? It's only a mini-game reminiscent of GTA with all the non-linear game play without any real objectives.

Another sore spot is how the game is so incredibly rap laden. This is a totally biased statement from me, but this kept me from giving the game a fair shake right off the bat. There weren't even options to control the soundtrack.

Amazingly enough, there's some good stuff here. Fans of real racing and driving from Japan will be happy to know that Keiichi Tsuchia's Drift Bible was watched over and over again by the development staff. This is evident in the game when all the different aspects of dynamic drifting are properly portrayed during game play. They also added the original Toyota Corolla, the famed Hachi Roku, to the list of cars.

The addition of car damage to this licensed car game is quite unique. With the exception of a few rally games, real car damage wasn't cool to have for the manufacturers. what automobile manufacturer wants to see their car smashed even in the virtual world? My guess is that they finally listened to what the fans want... Real damage in realtime.

The game isn't total trash... It's just that there aren't enough pluses to warrant a positive review. More game play will probably help add more spice, but it seems that we've come to the end of the line. The lack of online on the NGC version just adds salt to the wound. Try to stay away from this one and buy a pre-owned copy of Need for Speed: Underground.
- posted by ChoSanJuan @ 9:41 PM