Sony PlayStation
Price not available
THIS game, it would seem, falls somewhere between Micro Machines and The Need For Speed.
With the bulk of the game being viewed from an overhead perspective, Speedster lacks a little realism, but the Scaleletrix like appearance does make for some great playability. The inclusion of flyovers on some tracks also adds tremendously to the game, enabling you to watch the progress, or otherwise, of your opponents as, they race above or below you.
Speedster comes with few extra frills, the emphasis being purely on gameplay. There are three difficulty levels, Novice, Intermediate and Professional; two classes of vehicles (High Performance and Heavy Metal); three race modes and eight different tracks.
The two classes of vehicles are very different in that the high performance cars are of the sort one would expect to see racing, while the heavy metal variety are entirely jeeplike vehicles. There are 16 racers in all, eight of them hidden. To access these, you have to do well in the actual championship.
Besides championship, there are single race and time trial modes. The timetrial mode also enables you to race against a ghost car, so you can gauge your progress. Then, you can save your best ghost car to your memory card, to load it on a friend's machine for them to compete against.
Alternatively, the two player mode allows you to race a friend on the one console thanks to the excellent split screen facility.
This mode results in no loss of detail or speed, and this points to Speedster's Achilles heel in that there is, sadly, no great sense of speed to lose in the first place.
In a crowded motor racing games market, Speedster can keep its head well above the waterline but it is not quite challenging for pole position. Still, it is good enough to be on your shopping list.