Extreme-G 2 (Nintendo 64)

Acclaim's second Extreme G title goes 25 years deeper into the future of the future where contestants have now abandoned their virtual reality racing pods for actual vehicles, somehow making fun a thing of the past somewhere along the way.

Sure, the original Extreme G was a WipeOut clone, but it was at least a good one. It had all the trappings of what we've come to expect from a futuristic racing game (turbos, power-ups placed on the tracks, and so on), but it differed from the rest by putting a heavy emphasis on combat and placing its "cars" on the ground rather than floating slightly above it. Beyond that, it had nice graphics, inventive track and weapon design, and an excellent soundtrack (especially in light of the N64's cartridge capabilities). This year's model, however, is a dull retread of the last, where nearly all the previous high points have been brought low.

It's true that the game's improved visually through tons of little lighting/atmospheric effects and its virtual lack of pop-up, but these factors would be much more impressive if the track design were even half as dynamic as the first, with a frame rate not quite so schizophrenic. On average, XG2 has a good feeling of speed about it, meaning that most of the time it's great, but there are certain instances when it absolutely dogs it. Sometimes this happens when there are a lot of other racers on the screen, sometimes when there's a particularly impressive weapon effect going on, and sometimes it just starts lagging for no apparent reason at all. Conversely, the game speeds up so fast on some tracks that it's too hard to control your vehicle. There's nothing more irritating in the game than getting turned around and watching all seven other ships whiz by, and that can happen frequently on these super-speed courses. Other noteworthy bones of contention include the game's largely mediocre music tracks and its shift away from heavy combat to speed racing, which all but robs the series of its uniqueness within the genre.