RPGamers Network > Reviews > Game Reviews > Extreme G 3
What a pleasant surprise then, that XG3 (Extreme G 3) provides such a drastic turnaround for the series. The loop-the-loop, insane track designs are still there, but coupled with the power of the GameCube (or Xbox or PlayStation 2) hardware, XG3 finally delivers the sense of speed it needed to really deliver a worthwhile arcade racing experience. Throw in a slick soundtrack, courtesy of Ministry of Sound, and a challenging League Mode for the lone player, and you've got yourself a fine title that easily rivals F-Zero GX, and possibly surpasses the WipeOut series as a third major player in this type of arcade racing.
Gameplay:
Let's not evaluate the story and just get one thing out of the way: there is no story. Now while F-Zero GX may have benefited from its story mode, I do not believe that it's a necessity for these type of games, and I don't penalize the game for not having one. The lack of depth in the background of the Extreme-G racing league is a minor drawback that was built upon in the fourth installment, XGRA, but knowing a huge amount about the history of the league isnÂ't essential. It's really all about the racing.
There are four key modes of play here: the multiplayer Arcade Mode, Championship Mode, Co-operative, and Time Trial, which is oddly only accessed within championship mode. That curiosity aside, these four modes are more than enough to keep you and a few friends plenty busy. Arcade Mode is simple: you can race on any of the available tracks, at any of the available speed classes, with your choice of up to three weapons, and up to four players on split-screen. Nine of the ten tracks available in the game can be accessed from the get-go, along with the lowest (250G) speed class. The higher speed classes, and the tenth track (which, by the way, is a treat to behold) are unlocked by working through the Championship Mode. In this mode, one player plays through each of the four speed leagues, with nine tracks in the first three and a tenth track added on in the highest league only. Like your racing games to be tricky? You'll breeze through 250G quickly, and 500G after a little while. 750G is a bit tougher - the speeds by that point are pretty daunting, but it's the 1000G level that borders on insanity, with an almost unparalleled sense of speed. Track design is wonderfully varied, too, from the dark city scapes of Atradaitoshi and Megalopis 7 to the snowy mountains of Crystalaria and the desert theme of Siris Canyon. A larger number of tracks would have been nice, though the ones available are all a blast to play.
Within Championship Mode, you've also got a few other bits to play with. To pass each league, you must earn a certain amount of money by ranking high enough in each of the races. Money earned can be spent on buying upgrades for your vehicles (weapons, shield boosters, stronger engines, etc.), or on testing out the time trial mode to try and earn further cash by setting fast enough lap records. It's all fairly challenging, and there's a reasonable amount to see and do. Last is the co-op mode, which lets two players take on the tournament together by choosing from one of six (plus an unlockable seventh) teams. Together the two players must earn enough money to progress - and it must be said that this little addition is a lot of fun, and a nice way of extending the replay value of the game.
As for the racing controls, they've been tweaked and smoothed out a little since XG2. A button is, as you'd expect, the accelerate button. B allows you to brake, control stick steers, Y uses the selected weapon, while the D-pad can be used to switch weapons. The nice touches are in the L and R buttons, which are used to air brake to the left or right, allowing for sharper turns (and trust us, you'll be making a few of those). It must be said that on the GameCube controller in particular, these controls feel pretty close to perfect. You've also got the X button for boosting your speed, although this does drain your shields slowly and thus you must plan strategies for your use of boosts, rationing them throughout the lap. Weapons are nicely varied, with standard guns and missiles backed up by weapons such as the Destabilizers, which throw off an enemy's control. You've got the Flash Mortar, which blurs the vision of enemies, while the neat little weapon known as the Leech can actually connect you to an enemy vehicle so long as you drive close to them, transferring their shield energy to your vehicle. Both shield/boost energy and weapon energy can be replenished by driving over the designated green and purple strips on the ground respectively.
All in all, the controls and the overall game layout have quite a bit of depth and some good execution behind them, making this a solid racer for lone play, and a top choice for multiplayer action.
Graphics:
Stylized, to say the least - XG3 is one of those games which looks better at its breakneck speeds than it does when you're moving slowly. The city scapes are undeniably pretty, although they can look a tad sparse at times - though the city scapes of some of the levels, especially the first track and the later Megalopis 7, are impressive. Atradaitoshi features rain effects which spatter into the camera, and all of the tracks feature impressive real-time lighting effects. Oceania features large bodies of water which reflect and glimmer as the track plummets down towards them, while the last track, Pion 6, is a stunner in stylized design. Then there's the blurring effect that occurs as your nicely-detailed vehicle cuts through the sound barrier - breathtaking. On the downside, the frame rate does drop from 60 to 30 on occasion, when the rain effects get too much or when there are too many players on screen. No progressive scan is another small drawback, though neither of these detract from the visuals very much.
Sound:
There's DPLII support, for starters - and hearing this baby in surround would be well worth it (if only I had the money!). Sound effects are fairly straightforward for the most part, though nonetheless well-executed, with a nice variety of gunfire rattles and other weapon effects. One of the biggest highlights has to be the echo and following near-silence as you cut through the sound barrier. The excellent Ministry of Sound soundtrack is another, though the tunes (one for each track) could maybe stand just a tiny bit more variety between them. Otherwise, an excellent audio experience indeed.
Closing Comments:
There's not a lot more to be said, but XG3 has got to be one of the biggest surprise packages I've found in the generation of consoles. Slick speeds, plenty of replay and a wonderfully executed control system help this game really square up to WipeOut.
Recommended highly to all arcade racing fans - XG lovers in particular will be in heaven. At the very least, this one is worth a rental for almost anybody.
Summary:
Presentation
A slick interface and generally good layout. More background to the XG concept would be nice, seeing as it's touched upon here.
Graphics
Impressive more at breakneck speeds than when moving more slowly, but pretty all the same.
Sound
Top notch - breaking through the sound barrier is one of the most satisfying moments on every level. Good soundtrack, nice effects and DPLII support.
Gameplay
More tracks would be nice, but the difficulty curve is well-judged and the controls are near-flawless.
Lasting Appeal
10 tracks, weapons, and a solid challenge, enhanced by multiplayer and co-op modes. This one will keep you bust for a good while.
My Overall Score: 8.7/10 (Not an average)
| Game Stats | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Racing |
| Platform | GameCube |
| Format | DVD |
| # of Players | 4 |
| Released Jap | 03.15.2002 |
| Released US | 12.27.2001 |
| Released EU | 05.03.2002 |
| Aprox. Length | 20-30 hrs. |
| Reviewer Rankings | |
| Battle System | 9.0 |
| Gameplay | 9.0 |
| Music | 9.0 |
| Originality | 7.0 |
| Plot | 9.0 |
| Replay Value | 8.0 |
| Sound | 9.0 |
| Visuals | 7.0 |
| Difficulty | Hard |
| Overall | |
| 8.4 | |
Extreme G 3
By: AcclaimReviewed By: AtomicBlue
It's been a hard life for Acclaim's Extreme G series. Written off as a rip-off of both F-Zero and WipeOut in its N64 days, the two titles on the N64 were often found at bargain prices, or surfacing in second hand stores. In fact, in my area, they still are - and perhaps rightly so: while F-Zero and WipeOut both delivered slightly different but nonetheless intense racers with awesome senses of speed, Extreme G and Extreme G 2 were both spoiled by horribly stuttering frame rates which destroyed almost any sense of fun the games could offer.What a pleasant surprise then, that XG3 (Extreme G 3) provides such a drastic turnaround for the series. The loop-the-loop, insane track designs are still there, but coupled with the power of the GameCube (or Xbox or PlayStation 2) hardware, XG3 finally delivers the sense of speed it needed to really deliver a worthwhile arcade racing experience. Throw in a slick soundtrack, courtesy of Ministry of Sound, and a challenging League Mode for the lone player, and you've got yourself a fine title that easily rivals F-Zero GX, and possibly surpasses the WipeOut series as a third major player in this type of arcade racing.
Gameplay:
Let's not evaluate the story and just get one thing out of the way: there is no story. Now while F-Zero GX may have benefited from its story mode, I do not believe that it's a necessity for these type of games, and I don't penalize the game for not having one. The lack of depth in the background of the Extreme-G racing league is a minor drawback that was built upon in the fourth installment, XGRA, but knowing a huge amount about the history of the league isnÂ't essential. It's really all about the racing.
There are four key modes of play here: the multiplayer Arcade Mode, Championship Mode, Co-operative, and Time Trial, which is oddly only accessed within championship mode. That curiosity aside, these four modes are more than enough to keep you and a few friends plenty busy. Arcade Mode is simple: you can race on any of the available tracks, at any of the available speed classes, with your choice of up to three weapons, and up to four players on split-screen. Nine of the ten tracks available in the game can be accessed from the get-go, along with the lowest (250G) speed class. The higher speed classes, and the tenth track (which, by the way, is a treat to behold) are unlocked by working through the Championship Mode. In this mode, one player plays through each of the four speed leagues, with nine tracks in the first three and a tenth track added on in the highest league only. Like your racing games to be tricky? You'll breeze through 250G quickly, and 500G after a little while. 750G is a bit tougher - the speeds by that point are pretty daunting, but it's the 1000G level that borders on insanity, with an almost unparalleled sense of speed. Track design is wonderfully varied, too, from the dark city scapes of Atradaitoshi and Megalopis 7 to the snowy mountains of Crystalaria and the desert theme of Siris Canyon. A larger number of tracks would have been nice, though the ones available are all a blast to play.
Within Championship Mode, you've also got a few other bits to play with. To pass each league, you must earn a certain amount of money by ranking high enough in each of the races. Money earned can be spent on buying upgrades for your vehicles (weapons, shield boosters, stronger engines, etc.), or on testing out the time trial mode to try and earn further cash by setting fast enough lap records. It's all fairly challenging, and there's a reasonable amount to see and do. Last is the co-op mode, which lets two players take on the tournament together by choosing from one of six (plus an unlockable seventh) teams. Together the two players must earn enough money to progress - and it must be said that this little addition is a lot of fun, and a nice way of extending the replay value of the game.
As for the racing controls, they've been tweaked and smoothed out a little since XG2. A button is, as you'd expect, the accelerate button. B allows you to brake, control stick steers, Y uses the selected weapon, while the D-pad can be used to switch weapons. The nice touches are in the L and R buttons, which are used to air brake to the left or right, allowing for sharper turns (and trust us, you'll be making a few of those). It must be said that on the GameCube controller in particular, these controls feel pretty close to perfect. You've also got the X button for boosting your speed, although this does drain your shields slowly and thus you must plan strategies for your use of boosts, rationing them throughout the lap. Weapons are nicely varied, with standard guns and missiles backed up by weapons such as the Destabilizers, which throw off an enemy's control. You've got the Flash Mortar, which blurs the vision of enemies, while the neat little weapon known as the Leech can actually connect you to an enemy vehicle so long as you drive close to them, transferring their shield energy to your vehicle. Both shield/boost energy and weapon energy can be replenished by driving over the designated green and purple strips on the ground respectively.
All in all, the controls and the overall game layout have quite a bit of depth and some good execution behind them, making this a solid racer for lone play, and a top choice for multiplayer action.
Graphics:
Stylized, to say the least - XG3 is one of those games which looks better at its breakneck speeds than it does when you're moving slowly. The city scapes are undeniably pretty, although they can look a tad sparse at times - though the city scapes of some of the levels, especially the first track and the later Megalopis 7, are impressive. Atradaitoshi features rain effects which spatter into the camera, and all of the tracks feature impressive real-time lighting effects. Oceania features large bodies of water which reflect and glimmer as the track plummets down towards them, while the last track, Pion 6, is a stunner in stylized design. Then there's the blurring effect that occurs as your nicely-detailed vehicle cuts through the sound barrier - breathtaking. On the downside, the frame rate does drop from 60 to 30 on occasion, when the rain effects get too much or when there are too many players on screen. No progressive scan is another small drawback, though neither of these detract from the visuals very much.
Sound:
There's DPLII support, for starters - and hearing this baby in surround would be well worth it (if only I had the money!). Sound effects are fairly straightforward for the most part, though nonetheless well-executed, with a nice variety of gunfire rattles and other weapon effects. One of the biggest highlights has to be the echo and following near-silence as you cut through the sound barrier. The excellent Ministry of Sound soundtrack is another, though the tunes (one for each track) could maybe stand just a tiny bit more variety between them. Otherwise, an excellent audio experience indeed.
Closing Comments:
There's not a lot more to be said, but XG3 has got to be one of the biggest surprise packages I've found in the generation of consoles. Slick speeds, plenty of replay and a wonderfully executed control system help this game really square up to WipeOut.
Recommended highly to all arcade racing fans - XG lovers in particular will be in heaven. At the very least, this one is worth a rental for almost anybody.
Summary:
Presentation
A slick interface and generally good layout. More background to the XG concept would be nice, seeing as it's touched upon here.
Graphics
Impressive more at breakneck speeds than when moving more slowly, but pretty all the same.
Sound
Top notch - breaking through the sound barrier is one of the most satisfying moments on every level. Good soundtrack, nice effects and DPLII support.
Gameplay
More tracks would be nice, but the difficulty curve is well-judged and the controls are near-flawless.
Lasting Appeal
10 tracks, weapons, and a solid challenge, enhanced by multiplayer and co-op modes. This one will keep you bust for a good while.
My Overall Score: 8.7/10 (Not an average)
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