Metropolis Street Racer

Metropolis Street Racer
European cover art
Developer(s)	Bizarre Creations
Publisher(s)	Sega
Platform(s)	Dreamcast
Release date(s)	EU November 3 2000 NA January 17, 2001
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: E
Media/distribution	GD-ROM

Metropolis Street Racer or MSR is a racing game for the Dreamcast. It was developed by Bizarre Creations, and published by Sega. The game was originally intended to be a Dreamcast launch title in Europe and North America, however, due to numerous delays it was not released in Europe until November 2000, with a US version following in January 2001. Development of a Japanese version was started, but was never released.

Metropolis Street Racer is notable for introducing the "Kudos" system (whereby players are rewarded for racing stylishly as well as quickly) into video games, and for its detailed and accurate recreations of the cities of London, Tokyo and San Francisco. Music for the game was composed by Richard Jacques, and delivered via nine fictional radio stations (three for each city), similar to the Grand Theft Auto series. The day/night time spectrum during game play is realistic, in that the game uses the internal clock of the Dreamcast to calculate the present time in each city. Play at 8AM in England, for example, and the San Francisco races will all be at night (12 AM).

A selling point of MSR was the large number of tracks available (262 in total), created by blocking off certain areas of the city to lead the player around specific roads and paths. However, only a small number are available at the start of play and most are unlocked by playing through the single player mode.

Many of the concepts used in Metropolis Street Racer were reused in Bizarre Creations' follow-up racing series Project Gotham Racing on the Xbox.

Gameplay

Gameplay in MSR is centred around the single-player mode, with tracks and cars in the multiplayer mode being unlocked at the same time as in the single-player game. The premise is that, as a street racer, the player must impress other drivers with quick but stylish driving in a series of challenges. These challenges are in sets of ten (called Chapters - there are 25 in total), with completion of all challenges opening the next chapter (assuming the player has enough Kudos, see below) and unlocking a new car. Each challenge is on a different track, and unlocking a challenge unlocks that track in the time-attack and multiplayer modes.

Challenges

• Hotlap: Race solo around a track - typically three laps - and attempt to beat a specific time. An alternate version records the average time for all laps.
• One-on-one: A race (again, usually three laps) against an opponent. The player can give themselves or the computer opponent a head start up to 60 seconds.
• Street Race: A single race against multiple opponents.
• Championship: A four-race series against three opponents. Points are received based on the player's position at the end of each race. Usually this is the last challenge in the chapter.
• Challenge: A race with custom rules, such as passing a certain number of cars within a time limit.

Some challenges (usually the Challenge category) have a time unlock, which allows secret cars or cheats to be unlocked by completing the challenge during a certain time. The challenge can still be completed at a different time, but doing so will not unlock the reward.

Kudos

Kudos is the currency of MSR. It is earned during the challenges in two categories - Skill and Style. Skill Kudos are earned by completing a challenge successfully. The difficulty of challenges is user-configurable - for example, reducing the time limit, or increasing the head start of opponents - with harder challenges rewarding more Kudos for completion. Style Kudos are earned by drifting - using the hand-brake to skid while turning. A "K" symbol appears when drifting, and becomes brighter the longer and more pronounced the drift is. The more opaque the symbol, the more Kudos earned. Kudos are also awarded for finishing a race without colliding with obstacles or other cars. Kudos are lost if the drive collides with a wall, obstacle or other car (theoretically Kudos are not lost if another car collides with the player, but this is not always the case); or by failing the challenge, which results in a final Kudos total of -25 "K" for the whole challenge. Cancelling a challenge will even result in -50 "K".

Kudos are calculated on a per-challenge basis. Each challenge's Kudos result is stored, and only the last attempt at a challenge is stored. If a challenge is completed with 250 "K", then subsequently attempted unsuccessfully, that challenge's result becomes -25 "K."

Through playing the game, "Joker" cards may be earned. Playing one of these cards before starting a challenge will double the amount of Kudos gained or lost during that attempt.

Cars

In the single-player mode, the player has a garage which holds three cars. In order to "buy" a car, the player must complete a challenge in that car - usually completing a short lap within a time limit. The player has unlimited time to complete the challenge, and once completed, can customise the car.

The colour of the car and the opacity of the windows can be changed, as can the number plate. ABS may also be switched on or off, and convertible cars may be set as hard-top, soft-top or open-top for different weather conditions.

Kudos is also tied to player cars. As there are initially only three spaces in the garage, occasionally it is necessary to dispose of cars to make space for better cars unlocked during play. However, disposing of a car also penalises the player 10% of the Kudos earned in that car. This is intended to encourage the player to switch cars less often, or to spend time in their preferred car on lower Chapters later gaining higher Kudos results.

Online Functions

While MSR did not allow network racing, various features can be accessed via the Internet option in the main menu:

• Time Trial: A time attack with a specific car, course and weather condition. Best laps can be saved as ghost cars within the trials themselves. A separate VMU file is created which can be passed onto others to compete against.

• Speed Challenge: These are time attacks on set courses from each city; Market West II (San Francisco), Parliament Street South II (London) and Higashi-Dori Kita II (Tokyo). They can only be raced using the VX220/Opel Speedster cars with automatic gears. Until March 2002, players were able to upload their best times to a online ranking within Dreamarena (see below).

Players registered to Dreamarena/Seganet could also access a special MSR webpage ^[1] using the built-in browser. It contained rankings for the aforementioned Speed Challenge courses, a Global Kudos leaderboard and downloadable ghost cars to compete against. The Kudos leaderboard was not active until 5 Jan 2001 due to score bugs within the first PAL editions ^[2]. The site also hosted nine 'New Time Trials' billed as "races created by Sega on an exclusive circuit that you can download and challenge" ^[3] however these circuits were simply the 'Challenge' tracks (Shibuya Challenge, Westminster Challenge, Pacific Challenge etc) already present in the game. The site and rankings closed in March 2002 with the demise of Dreamarena.

Music

MSR was also the first racer to have a radio stations and deejays talking before the music. Much of the soundtrack was satire for popular acts such as Barry White and Will Smith. The soundtrack was composed by Richard Jacques.

Differences between releases

The PAL version of MSR was released three times in total. In order to meet a November 2000 deadline in the UK, the first release had a number of major bugs. Sega Europe subsequently recalled this first batch and released a second PAL version that eliminated most of the major bugs, but not all (see below). They also offered replacements disks free of charge to those who had purchased a bugged copy. The North American release and the final PAL version were both free of major bugs, although some minor ones remained.

Known MSR Bugs

• Completing Street Race challenges without the required number of Kudos would be considered successful nonetheless (first PAL version);

• The game would sometimes corrupt VMUs (first PAL version);

• After some time of playing, Tokyo races would always be at night (first PAL version);

• When using a keyboard to enter names etc., the keys were mapped incorrectly. Pressing C would give B, pressing B would give A etc. (first PAL version);

• The "Quick Race" screen in the multiplayer mode would be blank and thus impossible to play (first and second PAL version);

• The Alfa Romeo GTV cannot be gained legitimately as the 'time to beat' was set too low at 31 seconds (first and second PAL version);

• The Street Race in Chapter 17, Challenge 8 cannot be beaten legitimately as it was mistakenly set to infinite laps (first and second PAL version);

• During wet conditions, it still rains inside tunnels and under bridges (all versions);

• Ghost cars loaded from a VMU can become corrupt and crash into the sides without reason. This includes ghosts saved within Time Trials (all versions);

• Two Time Attack records (Asakusa Eki-Iruguchi and Koen Minami) are pre-set to 0.000 (all versions);

• Creating a Time Trial with 'misty' or 'foggy' weather will default to 'clear' weather once a ghost car is saved (all versions);

• When selecting a personal music playlist as the default choice, MSR reverts to its own preset list when resuming a game (all versions).

Replay Option

The replay feature was removed from all retail versions of MSR due to time constraints. This is despite the fact review copies for magazines included this option and the US instruction manual implied they were present. Pre-recorded races are available to watch, but nothing else.

References

1. ^ MSR Dreamarena Homepage (via archive.org)
2. ^ Gamesurf Italy: MSR News Update Jan 9 2001(Italian)
3. ^ MSR Dreamarena Homepage: New Time Trials (via archive.org)

External links

• Official site
• Official Site of Richard Jacques (game soundtrack available via streaming)