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Masochism, anyone?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 8
Date: December 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I reccommend this game for people who have it all. For people who are in good health, with a great life, and no worries. In other words, people who might *want* to spend their videogame experiences in sheer and utter frustration. Everyone else, stay away. Far away.

For your fifty hard-earned dollars, the game you get is a badly put-together farce of other (dare I say--good?) racing games. Games like Gran Turismo 2 or 3. In every aspect it fails to motivate and entertain the player:

The game is a rehashed version (with nothing added, save an even worse interface and a DVD trailer for "The Fast and the Furious", which is now obsolete since it will be out on DVD for purchase here in a few weeks.) of the Dreamcast title Tokyo Extreme Racer 2. Worse than it's ripped-off bretheren is the lack of VGA support for the PS2, making it difficult to discern any detail whilst playing the game.

Game mechanics rate anywhere from 'moderate' to 'poor' anytime during play, typically causing you to lose a race due not to a lack of skill on your part, but the inability to drive your chosen car in a consistent manner. Most of the time it tries to feel like a race-simulation with a (very) slight arcade touch, but believe me, you'll be fighting your instincts and reflexes constantly, because no car in real life (or any other game, for that matter) behaves as erratically and unpredictably as these. I should know; I race in real life.

The graphics are sub-par for any Playstation 2 title (the colors being mostly monochromatic, and the detail quite hard to make out), and worse than it's Dreamcast donor. The audio effects are few and far between, and the music score is Extreme-ly repetetive. You'll probably end up turning on your own music after a very short while.

The actual gameplay is easily the most frustrating experience in the whole of my gaming history (and I grew up from Atari...). You'll often lose because the opponents' cars are vastly superior to yours, but only because you can only upgrade your onw car very, very slowly in this game. You'll have all the money in the world, but be unable to do anything with it. The rivals seem capable of driving in a manner impossible to you, so when/if you defeat some of the tougher opponents, it's typically a fluke, after having raced the same person eight or nine times prior.

Don't buy this game. It's pain and frustration at it's worst. Instead, buy it for your brother, whom you've always enjoyed tormenting. Then, when he won't play it anymore (this shouldn't take long), you have a brand-new shiny coaster to protect your coffee table with.

Go buy Gran Turismo 3 instead. Thank me later.

IT didnt work

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 6
Date: January 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I got a PS2 and my mom couldnt find Smackdown 3 so she got me this....it didnt work...but that might have been because it was used

Save Your Money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: July 10, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game was enjoyable for the first two hours and then its fun factor quickly went down hill. It is far too complicated to figure out the right combination of car, color, license plate, etc that is needed to race the different groups. For Japanese street racing geeks that is probably their idea of great fun, but it's not mine. I regret buying this game.

no GT3 here....

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 3
Date: January 07, 2002
Author: Amazon User

well, I am not going to start out by bashing the game even though I only gave it 2 stars. It could deserve more all depending upon the game player you are. I don't have a lot of free time. I am a web designer and student that bought PS2 mainly b/c I have some down time lately (and no school r/n), and wanted to get PS2 simply for GT3. I saw this game, and the graphics looked pretty good. Overall, it probably doesn't have the easier learning curve like GT3, or the graphics. I suppose if one were to rate this independently w/o ever playing GT3, then it would probably get (and deserve) 4 stars. If you are a young kid, or have a lot of free time, get the game, play it and learn it. It looks like it could be good. If you are like me, and don't have the zillion hours to invest in learning the game, then this is probably not for you. Maybe rent it at Blockbuster. I found the directions in the game to not be that great and it was very hard to just figure out on my own. I wound up "racing" for 25 minutes one evening before finding an opponent.

Graphically it is a 4/5
Gameplay is 3/5
Learning curve I feel is a 2/5

[...]

don't waste your time

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: February 25, 2002
Author: Amazon User

this game is fun for a couple of days, but then it gets boring because your car is faster than anyones else's car.

Great if you have the Logitech Steering Wheel; if not, yikes

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: September 24, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The scenery is boring and the soundtrack is a huge yawn but it is satisfying if you have the capatible steering wheel. Unfortunately, if suffers in comparison to Gran Tourismo 3. If you do not plan to use it with the steering wheel...just rent it if you feel the need.

It's hard to have fun at 70 mph

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: February 20, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The idea for this game is good. The finshed product is not. First off even with upgrades your car goes at least half as fast as your rivals. Another thing is that there really isn't enough track to race on and the ones they give you can also get boring. I liked the idea of upgrading my car but it just didn't work out very well. Some nice graphics but this game is very good overall. Try Gran Turismo 3 or Midnight Run instead.

Great game with fast boredom rate

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: June 30, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Others who have reviewed this game have raved over it - with good reason. The graphics are excellent, the sound is superb, and the handling of the cars is wonderful. Best of all, load times are extremely quick for the amount of visual detail included in the game.

However, after about a week with this game, I found my interest level dropping rapidly. Less than a week later, I sold off the game. Part of this was due to the frustration of the Wanderers; when you encounter them and challenge them, they will always turn you down, but on their own schedule - and I have yet to see any information published on what determines this schedule - the Wanderers will come to challenge you. I have also received e-mails from many other players frustrated over this.

If your interest level stays high, great. If not, the ..investment will be rather disappointing. At least Gran Turismo 3 is about to be released

Just another game

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 06, 2001
Author: Amazon User

It was ok, but only for driving around. There's nothing special about it. It's not like a lot of racing games like midnight club or San Francisco Rush, where the game pace is fast, it's kind of just cruising around. And it's too realistic. It's hard to make turns and there are not very many crazy shortcuts with ramps and stuff. Plus, there's not to many places to race. I personaly think that midnight club is a better game.

ambivalent

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 4
Date: June 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The graphics are good and there are plenty of fun ways to modify the cars, but the actual racing is not as fun as other games I've played, such as midnight club.

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