It's a nice touch. The cars themselves are rated on acceleration, breaking, and speed, and all seem to handle differently. As mentioned, the game's driving model is strictly arcadey, although Ubi Soft seems to have taken things a bit too far from reality.
The cars don't seem to make contact with the ground at times, as if you're on a hover-vehicle, and there seems to be a little something called momentum missing from the whole experience. Compare this to other arcade-style racers like Sega Rally , and you may find yourself somewhat disappointed. The problem is actually not all that big a deal, and I was able to accept and overlook it after a while, but a better driving model would have made the experience more enjoyable.
The game's tracks are, like the cars, full of personality. You race across various tracks themed in locations from across the world. Each track is full of detail, free of pop up and glitches, and has features you'd expect to find in the corresponding real world location. Hollywood, for instance, has a giant T-Rex, a mammoth King Kong, and a Jaws lurking in the water in one area of the track.
Nevada is actually more of a trip through Las Vegas and its outskirts, as you'll find neon lights and various other pieces of casino imagery, as well as the reddy sands characteristic of the wasteland - err, the state.
These background elements actually work into gameplay. The King Kong tries to smash you, for instance, and you'll have to travel through the T-Rex's legs, while the beast is moving, no less. On top of this, the tracks actually change as you race from lap to lap, with landslides filling up areas of the road in some stages, and objects being positioned differently in other stages. The actual track design is first class, but the designers went a little overboard in some respects.
The tracks have constant twists and turns, inclines, a few jumping points, as well as multiple paths and shortcuts. The only problem is that the tracks are just too long. Each lap can take between two and three minutes, which can be somewhat of a drag, as you're forced to race three laps.
I often found myself bored and growing impatient. When you sit down with Speed Devils , expect to stay down for quite a while. You can race through the tracks in one of three modes, arcade mode, versus mode, and championship mode. In arcade mode, you go through a quick three lap race and select from a wide variety of cars. The arcade mode is limited, unfortunately, by the aforementioned lack of free run or single lap options.
In versus mode, you go up against a friend for a split screen race; the split screen is handled well, with no apparent drop in detail and minimal drop in framerate. There are actually different versions of the two player mode, including a Time Lag Mode, a Distance Lag Mode, and an Attack and Defend mode in which the defender tries to keep the attacker from getting in front of him. The latter mode is somewhat like a simplified Tokyo Xtreme Racer , as the defender looses if the attacker manages to get in front for a certain amount of time they even have the energy bar in there!
The championship mode is the real area of interest in Speed Devils , though, and it does a good job of adding to the lastability of the one player gaming experience. In this mode, you start off with a crappy wreck of a car and go through a series of races in your attempt to go from a Class D racer to a Class A racer capable of taking on the untouchable Driver X I hear he's related to the long lost Genesis action hero Ranger X.
You race through multiple seasons consisting of races across various tracks, earning points depending on the results of the race. Get enough points, and you'll advance to the next class.
To get the points, you'll have to be successful in the races, and the clunker you start out with ain't gonna cut it, for sure. You'll have to upgrade your car engine, breaks, nitro capability nitros are little turbo boosts you can give to your car with the press of a button , and various other areas using a simplified modification system. Also requiring cash are the car repairs you'll have to make between races.
Speed Devils actually has visible car damage that affects gameplay, and if you want to keep your car up to speed, you'll have to cough up the bucks for a full or partial repair. Cash required for these modifications and repairs can be earned by finishing races, staying ahead of the competition, getting the fastest lap, busting a copper's radar, and betting on the outcome of races. Whoa there! Those last two parts require some amount of explanation, eh?
I mean, busting a copper's radar in real life is one thing, but who ever expected to find something like that in a game? And gambling? Is that even legal the state of California that's where I'm playing the game, afterall? Actually, these two features are unique to Speed Devils , and they're probably the title's two highpoints aside from the interactive tracks and personality-filled cars.
Radar Busting takes place during a race. You'll find coppers at various points on the track, and when you approach them, a number will flash on screen. If you manage to keep your speed above this number for a few moments, you'll earn cash. What makes this work so well is that it forces the daring player to maintain top speed during the more difficult parts of the courses. Expect to find yourself crashing into walls and flying off the track in your attempt at busting the radar.
Here there are various modes like Defend and Attack fighting your opponent to stop them overtaking and Special Challenge least nitrous used, fastest lap, most radars busted etc. These should have been incorporated within the final Class S races along with the ability to choose each course.
I would have also included rewards for knocking your opponents into the tornado on Louisiana or sending them into the lava pit on Mexico! The other minor niggles are the lack of autosave on Championship mode, no real advantage to using manual gears and lack of reward for clean racing.
All in all Speed Devils is a fun racer that doesn't take itself too seriously. I'm glad I gave it a try; it's just a shame it lacks a good physics engine that would've made it something really special! Even if you don't like racing it's still worth picking up and can be bought very cheaply. Want to know why Last edited by rjay63 on Sat Apr 14, pm, edited 13 times in total.
The aim was laudable; to take the best part of Speed Devils the Championship and make it completely online. This meant you each of your opponents for each race would be a real person. Now unfortunately I cannot review this part of SDO as I never played the game online and probably never will.
However if the basic mechanics of the offline mode are anything to go by, that's probably a blessing The biggest change is the additional of a new course, Montreal Industries. Now this is actually a very good course containing plenty of shortcuts and twisty turns. There are also some new cars models and more crazy colour schemes; the highlight being the F1 dressed in rainbow "Alphabetti Spaghetti"!. Even with one car on the track, the graphics engine splutters and wheezes its way through the race.
Where once was smoothness now lies slow motion replay; it's that bad! The worst example is going down the staircase shortcut on Montreal; with one car on screen the game almost stops Fatal error number 2 are the controls Tight controls have now been replaced by clunky, unresponsive handling that make difficult sections such as the short-cut "ship jump" on Louisiana that much harder.
Please note, if you played Speed Devils Online when the servers were up, enjoyed yourself and you're angry with my review I apologise. Again I point out I am not reviewing the online section of the game as I cannot play it. However if the controls and framerate on the offline mode were the same as the online mode, I'm glad I didn't. Sorry, but there is no reason to buy this version whatsoever! Last edited by rjay63 on Thu Apr 12, am, edited 2 times in total. Come, bow before your King!
Bow ya shits! Neohound Joined: Tue Jul 20, pm. Just read your review, rjay, and I found it to be a very interesting read. I think you are right to point out the differences in playability in both games - It's definitely a tale of two halves!
But there should always be a place for 'alternative' games on any system and I'm so glad Speed Devils got released on the DC as it's so full of character s! I always thought the handling was broken in the second game but always put it, along with the framerate problems, down to the developers incorporating the online code into the game.
I'm not really sure I seem to remember F having this weird online aspect: that when you'd finished tweaking your suspension offline and took your car for a spin online , the suspension changed back to default settings Strange, but again I put it down to it being part of simplifying the mechanics of the game to get it running smoothly over dial-up. This is only speculation though, don't quote me on it When we talk about the graphics of thirteen year old games, it can be tough to imagine or remember what impact they had all those years ago.
But I distinctly remember thinking Speed Devils was impressive back in the day, especially in the way the obstacles were animated and the little details that brought the game to life.
It, and I'm referring to the first game here, was also pretty solid looking, without too much slowdown or pop-up and certainly nothing game spoiling. I think you're right in saying it could have been an even better game. Yes, a deeper or even 'drift' handling mechanic, plus those multiplayer options you suggested, could have elevated it to classic status.
But, as it is, it's still a game everyone should try out. Like you say, it's a unique experience. I read that it was entirely based on the Speed Devils engine, and playing the game reminds me of the demo of SD online that I have on one of the web browser discs.
I never played the first SD, but what got me about SD online and about Pod, was that the cars didn't feel like they had much momentum. The turning, coasting, and breaking all felt unnatural compared to how you would think the car would act based on its perceived weight.
The sheer difficulty of doing a skid or a drift in the game was part of it. My views echo those found in IGN's review: "But nothing prepared us for the other major change in this year's model.
Pod was a responsive, albeit stiff title while playing both online and off, and the original Speed Devils was a bit tricky, but it was definitely tight. But SDO? This game handles like a bad cell phone connection. Commands are delayed to the point where it doesn't feel like you're steering a car, but rather like you're blowing the wind at a car on the freeway, and maybe if you are a big enough gust, you just might nudge it to the side a bit.
If you could imagine driving your run-of-the-mill RUSH vehicle with about 3 cars stack on top of it, you'd have an idea of how heavy these vehicles feel. A lot of the people I raced online didn't seem to mind, but I have to tell you I had a hard time getting used to it, and even after I did, I can't say that I enjoyed it.
I appreciate the Model 3 arcade board could performs tricks the Dreamcast and even the original XBOX for that matter couldn't. I used to bemoan the fact the PAL version of Daytona had the online race functions removed. But after hearing all those stories about constant 'dropped' games and clunky controls, I'm somewhat glad it was. I should point out I've never played POD. They have the original POD Gold game too. It was cool to read through those pages, nearly brought a tear to my eye.
I might even download that mobile version onto an old phone of mine, it's got to be worth a try I only played the game online a few times back in and I've been wracking my brains to try and remember much about the experience. Tbh, though I think I enjoyed the experience, everything was so novel for me back then that I would have been content with an online slug racing game.
Oh, and online F was so good that everything else came second to that. BTW, did the collision detection in SD cause you any grief? That is a common gripe about the game. There were one or two minor problems with steering it seems if you spend too long turning, the car will randomly spin out and reversing after crashing yes it can be done I like to try and accompany my reviews with a few extra items like old official websites or archived discussions.
I've found the old Usenet archives at Google Groups an interesting resource as you can see Dreamcast opinions from the period rather than historical revisions.
You must buy them all! Then I saw their review Speed Devils sure is packed with stuff. On the 'stuff-o-meter' rating system it's an easy eight. Oh - and wait - there are short-cuts on the tracks and a Quest Mode, too, so that's nine. And there's more great stuff. The tracks, for example, are really long, and it seems to take forever to drive around them.
Just when you think you're done, you realize that you've got another two laps to go. The fun never ends or, at least, it certainly feels like it never ends. There's even a Two-Player Battle Mode, where you 'fight' the other car and get points for sort of bumping into them. The 'stuff-o-meter' is fit to burst and the sarcasm-meter But there's no need to duck just yet, because Speed Devils, despite all the extras is - thanks to terrible handling, weak opponents, and uninspired track design - no fun to play at all.
I haven't seen a negative comment about this game on usenet yet and that's saying something.
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