Fox's Review: Hypersonic.Xtreme (PS2)

[Fusion]

What is HSX?  Simply put, a game that tries to be F-Zero.  Has the speed down, the drifting, speed boost zones... Kinda beats F-Zero but also can't pass it.  It's like that one driver who drives slower than you in the corners but drives faster than you down the straightaways.  Also, I know I'm out of order in reviews.


So I'll start off with...

(Story: 6/10)

The story's what we've heard of before: Race to the finish, or to the death.  The opening CGI video makes it clear if you don't win or lose, you're usually dead.  The story's pretty basic, though since the game takes place on a global scale I'll give it credits for that.  There's nothing exciting to the story, but then again why would there be anything exciting?  This is a racing game.  A racing game that tries to be F-Zero and itself at the same time!

(Graphics: 8/10)
Aside from the laughably low-budget opening cutscene that depicts the vehicles in an incorrect manner, the game actually looks pretty solid for something that may seem so low-budget.  The vehicles are surprisingly detailed for a game of it's age.  The thruster exhaust looks believable, and even though on it's own the environment is nothing breathtaking, you can be subjected to some pretty good visuals.  Rain, snow, dust, and the like are all provided weather effects here.  Day, night... Plenty to mess with.

(Gameplay: 9/10)
If you fly off the track, you die.  If you fly into a building, you die.  If you destroy your vehicle's shield, you die.  Unlike F-Zero there are no recharge strips but boosting is given to you in bursts and it's up to you to manage how long you boost and how often you boost.

The game's other claim to fame is the track creator.  By playing through the game, you can unlock new track pieces and build your own masterpieces or crazy-insane tracks which can have features such as the track waving around, bouncing, twisting around, the track turning invisible, the walls going missing, and all the like.  The creativity is endless, and I think this was the primary feature of the game outside of the racing mode.  The track editor is easy to manage once you get used to it, and all of the AI can drive the courses you create.  Which is why I like to give the CPU an impossible scenario yet it be entirely possible to me, just watch them all fly into the ground.

Remember when I said if you crashed you die?  You don't so much die as your machine blows up and you respawn later.  It's a bit like Episode I Racer, where if you blew up your podracer you had to wait a second before you could respawn.


(Overall: 8/10)

HSX is a not-so-bad escape from all the first-person shooters out there.  It's not F-Zero, but it doesn't try to be F-Zero.  It's not Wipeout, and god help us if it tried to be Wipeout.

Now, I'm going to prepare for another Star Wars review.  The clue is here in this review itself.