Powerslide

The Good
I personally like this concept of racing in contemporary environments with a twist.

The characters and their backgrounds, and the fruits for trophy give it a wonderful atmosphere.

The implemented physics are good for an arcade racer; not feeling accurate, but good enough be enjoyable, and you need to take time to learn the effects of the sliding. There seems to be a lot of room for mistakes; even crashing and rolling over only makes me lose two to three seconds, but this is not a bad thing for these kind of racers.

The wonderful environments really set the mood with the post-global-disaster theme. they are imaginative, and creative, giving a convincing environment to race in. A lot of detail is put into these tracks, and the 'world' does not stop at the edge of the track; there is more to be seen off track. My favourite is the 'Dam-track', featured in the demo.

Overall great atmosphere. Excellent graphics, good manual. Cheats (wich are not really cheats but add-ons and absurd abilities) are rewarded by completing the championships with different settings etc.

The Bad
Almost continuous sliding, no part of the tracks really gives you grip on the surface.

Differentiating between an AI that is designed to be aggressive, and one that just pushes you aside because you are on its waypoint is difficult. Benefit of the doubt?

The box says 'made you own damn road' but in effect there are only a few options for choosing a road.

The music was making me aggressive; electronic music with a lot of rythmic bass tones. So i turned it off.

Car-car interaction feels strange; the result of hitting another car is too soft; the mass of the cars feels too light. In this aspect it is clear that the emphasis is on racing; not on car-combat. It is hard for me to explain but the demo should give you an idea of the feel.

Some of the cars sound like single-stroke engines, others roar like an animal is trapped under the hood. Not a bad thing in my view, just remarkable.

The Bottom Line
A lot of fun, interesting setting, great atmosphere. The driving can bore you with its emphasis on sliding, yet it will take a while, especially with such interesting environments to race in.

The Good
Powerslide has a lot of personality, especially the characters. They're a lot like those found in "Twisted Metal" -- psychopaths and freaks of nature, with names like Colonel Slanders (a former pigeon breeder turned "feral entrepreneur") and Radiation, um, Boy. (It looks more like a female developer in a baseball cap to me. Perhaps the radiation affected the poor lad's hormones?)

Of course, none of that matters as soon as you hit the track. Once you get used to the controls (powersliding on sand and bouncing along inclines), it's easy to drop into a Zen like state that boils down to three objectives: Drive. Drive faster than the other guys. Win.

The graphics are awesome, especially considering they held up pretty well after six years. (I didn't play it until 2004!) Rolling hills, desert sunsets, sweet vehicle design. The levels look organic and have a "go anywhere" feel to them, even though you're on a track.

The Bad
No matter how much personality the drivers have, it disappears once you begin the race. "Twisted Metal" made use of its wacky characters, they had bizarre special weapons, voice clips, etc. In Powerslide, doesn't matter how insane your driver is, on the track he's a little green dune buggy. (Or red muscle-car dunebuggy. Or purple whatevermajigger.)

Powerslide screams for weapons. I mean, I know this isn't that kind of game, but even the developers realized how much it needed a little vehicular combat: Half the game's cheats allow you to do things like launch bombs, jump, and suck up enemy cars in a whirlwind.

The Bottom Line
Powerslide is the perfect little post-apocalyptic dunebuggy racing game. Featuring impressive graphics, a really bouncy physics engine, and mindlessly fun gameplay, this is a good addition to anyone's dollar store collection. (Hey, no offense to developer Ratbag, it's just where I got mine!)