Review: XTReme Racing

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                          Review: XTReme Racing
  Ralph Debusmann                                     rade@coli.uni-sb.de
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For a quite desperate Amiga user like I am it's nice to see there are still
some signs of action in the Amiga market - even when it comes to games.
Recently, we have been delighted with quality-games like Worms, AB3D from
Team17 and Gloom (Deluxe) by Black Magic.  And even though all major
companies have left the Amiga (even Team17 doesn't seem to further support
our beloved machine) I am still not forced to buy a PC-clone.

My faith in Amiga games has also been replenished by XTreme Racing (XTR)
from Silltunna Software (distributed by Black Magic), the best clone of the
SNES-game "Super Mario Kart" I can think of.

As I said the idea behind XTR is neither new nor too original - it's the
old story of racing around several different racing venues and be the first
after a couple of laps.  Of course there are lots of weapons, turbos and
alike scattered about the track to add more variety to the gameplay.  So
what's giving XTR it's distinctive quality over games like ATR (great one
from Team17) or RoadKill I hear you ask?

It's the graphics and the new feeling which those graphics put into the
game.  This is the first Amiga racing game with fast, fully textured
3D-graphics.  And those graphics really are fast and look quite cool.  On
my standard-A4000/030 (EC030, 25MHz) I get a fluid 2*1 full screen
resolution.  With a 50Mhz 030 you can easily get 1*1 full screen.  And for
people with non-accelerated A1200s (that's the minimum requirement hence
XTR is AGA only) the game can be adjusted to run in 2*2 three fourth screen
or so and still is big fun.  You can even choose between a Blittermode and
the (better) Chunky-2-Planar-conversion and it is possible to put cameras
anywhere on the track.

But not only the graphics are great - head programmer Alex Amsel said on
IRC that he has spent most of the development time on gameplay issues - a
fact which you are soon forced to believe.  It just plays good and is fun
from the beginning on.

XTR provides you with four different modes, ranging from "Single Race",
over "Cup" and "Season" to the (2+ player only) "Death Match"-mode.

In "Single Race" you can choose any of the 12 tracks and practice it
against a modifyable number of concurrent cars.  These cars can be entirely
controlled by the Amiga but - theoretically - it is also possible to play
against 7 human controlled cars (!).  4 players can share the same (split-)
screen and XTR additionally gives you the opportunity to connect to another
Amiga via Null-Modem-cable or via a real Modem.  Unfortunately I haven't
tested the (Null-) Modem-option yet so that I can't give any statements on
this.

In "Cup"-mode you attempt to finish three distinctive tracks in the top
three (of eight cars).  Like in "Single Race" and all other modes it is
crucial for you to learn the track and know exactly where you are going. 
It is for example crucial to use as many of the "Turbo-pads" as possible. 
These let you run quite fast for a short amount of time.  It is a must to
learn the tracks because XTR doesn't seem know the word "mercy" at all.  If
you've hit one of the couple of barrels on track (which let you turn around
- mostly you then look in the wrong direction) or if you've fallen off
track into some ugly liquid or into space - only one "error" can be fatal.
XTR's computer controlled cars won't hesitate to overtake you and be far
ahead soon.  This is one mayor gripe I have about the game - it's too hard.
I for myself take this as a challenge but not too experienced players will
surely find this very annoying.

The third mode "Season" confronts you with all 12 tracks in a row.  Here
you need to collect points to be the first after you've gone through all
the tracks and money to improve your car - and it is crucial to improve
your car because the default "Season"-car is much slower and less
maneuverable than the "Single Race" or the "Cup"-car.  In "Season" you need
the first 4 races just to improve the car while finishing 7th or 8th.  Then
again, after you actually have improved the car over the computer
controlled cars the game becomes a bit too easy.  Alex should have a look
on this mode again IMHO because it doesn't seem to be as well thought out
as the rest of the game.

The fourth mode ("Death Match") also is the mode which is the most fun. 
Here you race around a track (no fixed course) not to finish it but to kill
your up to 7 (human) opponents.  The "killing" is done either by kicking a
car into water or by shooting it with any of the possible weapons.  These
range from a simple missile over homing missiles, mines, bombs to sheep
(!).  Weapons are collected by running over a questionmark and then waiting
what cute weapon the random generator gives you.  Of course (nearly) all
these weapons are available in all other modes either (e.g.  you can shoot
an opponent with a missile when he reaches the finish-line in "Single
Race").  The "Death Match" is over when one player has accomplished a
distinctive number of kills.  Besides I should mention that the "cracked"
version of XTR lacks this mode - sorry, bad luck Pirates :)

Honest purchasers will get a really nice game.  I liked it from the minute
on I got the demo from Aminet.  I like the speedy and good looking
3D-graphics, the good playability, the wide range of weapons and the
variety of modes.  I also like the huge amount of options as well as the
possibility to play against up to 7 opponents via Modem.  The sound is
fairly good as well, although the ingame-musics are pretty poor (you can
turn them off luckily).  It should be noted that XTR also is quite
system-friendly in that it quits without touching the Workbench and is
easily HD-installable.  Furthermore there is NO copy-protection at all. 
What a breeze after having quite much trouble with the latest Team17
"black-on-black" protection schemes.

What I don't like about XTR is it's extreme difficulty level (hence the
name).  I dislike that you have to learn the courses so very very well to
be able beat the computer.  I also think that the "Season"-mode should be
looked upon again by the programmer.  The "Death-Match"-mode has potential
to get better either, although it already is big fun in this stage.  My
last gripe is that although XTR lets you choose from 8 different looking
cars the cars don't bear unique qualities like e.g.  in Super Mario Kart -
they seem to behave all the same.

I give XTR a rating 4 out of 5 stars, the fifth star could be achieved by
working a bit on several details and by decreasing the difficulty level.

I've sent Alex a list of suggestions and I hope he'll incorporate a few of
them in future versions of XTR.  In comp.sys.amiga.games Alex has recently
promised to lower the difficulty level, to bring out new tracks and publish
a full-blown Track editor.  So please support him by buying XTR if you like
it.

You can get a demo of XTR on Aminet in game/demo/xtrndemo.lha.  Also
available on Aminet is a Laptime-viewer and a FAQ.  Again, if you like the
game, please purchase a copy (directly from Silltunna would be the best
way).  I got my copy from Silltunna one week after I had sent them the
money from Germany :) 

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