PlayStation 2

Supercar Street Challenge

Giving Supercar Street Challenge a final score was a lot harder than I thought it'd be. On one hand, it's this great, exciting game that I enjoyed a lot. But on the other, it's a game with many frustrating problems that cannot be overlooked. In the end though, I realized that the good far outweighs the bad. Video games are not perfect. They never have been and they never will be. There are more great games being released right now than ever, but that doesn't mean that I should grade this game any lower.

The option to create your own car is very cool, but it can?t carry the game. Fans of supercars will have fun with this one, but if you?re expecting a grander Turismo, you?ll drive away disappointed.

There is little doubt that the cars in SSC are super, but the game itself is only mediocre. I like that winning races unlocks new parts and shapes for you to customize your vehicle with, but that thrill only lasts so long. In the end it’s all about the racing and nothing here is that compelling. Average car models, average racing, and average challenge make for…you guessed it…an average game.

There is no doubt that Supercar Street Challenge is an arcade racing game throughout, where it is simply easier to bounce off barriers to get ahead of the opposing racers than to drive the course precisely. But the game really isn't much fun, and it also doesn't do justice to its high-performance licensed vehicles. The engine sounds are hardly true to life, and the cars themselves aren't very detailed in terms of visuals.

There’s a lot of potential in a game like this. Just the idea of racing supercars is neat and could’ve stood as just as valid a gimmick as the Kudos system from Project Gotham Racing. Still, interesting ideas don’t merit awards without the hard work needed to make a fun and interesting game. Supercar Street Challenge definitely falls flat on its face with simplistic, arcade style gameplay and a lack of decent execution. Most certainly a bargain bin title, I wouldn’t even rent this one if I had the chance. Oh, one more thing. Bring a book the first time you sit down to play SSC, as this thing takes forever to load.

SSC ultimately suffers from poor track designs, incredibly tedious gameplay, and a non-existing challenge. It's a shame that features as good as the Styling Studio was used in a videogame as bad as Supercar. Stay away from this racer, folks. Unless you have absolutely no respect for yourself, wait for Test Drive or Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 to come out early next year.

I know there is a good idea in here somewhere, but I sure couldn't find it in all the mess. Supercar Street Challenge is simply a bad game that has no wheels to stand on against the likes of Gran Turismo 3, Tokyo Xtreme, or even the ho-hum Driving Emotion Type S. Sure, it's playable, but just barely. It's time for this Supercar to retire to the junkyard.