I rented this game by accident, actually. But spent the weekend playing it, since I had it, and here's my two cents' worth.Graphics: Looked like a PS-ONE title. Lot's of clipping. Lots of faulty physics: I see competitors ahead of me riding a wall about ten feet off the ground as if they have wires holding them up, or have an invisible ledge to ride. One time I'm able to bounce off the side of a sheer wall as if I were in a Matrix movie, but ten feet later I crash on something smaller than the curb.
Lifestyle section: There are no choices. You are assigned an apartment and girlfriend based on your performance. I selected my racer when I began, but he's a non-person. There is no uniform customization and no interaction with him. I can't even tell you what he looks like anymore.
Sound: The music is HORRIBLE! A single song repeats endlessly throughout a race. There is no option for playing your own music - a feature I've come to love on other race games. Thankfully, there is an option to shut the music off entirely. You'll do so about the third race - trust me.
I haven't played a lot of cycle games, but this didn't impress me. Quantum Redshift is better. Collin Mc 3 is better. Apex is better. Forget it and wait for Project Gotham 2.
IGN sums up this game about right: (from IGN.COM)While SX Superstar lacks the Jeremy McGrath license, it also happily cuts out the extreme sport collectathons so prevalent in extreme sports titles. Instead, Superstar is, simply, an arcade racer. Modes are a slim selection of Arcade (essentially Quick Race), Championship, and Multiplayer. By focusing solely on racing elements instead of trying to come up with a game to compete with the established Tony Hawk and its dime a dozen followers, we should see one top notch arcade racer. Acclaim has pumped Superstar full of bikes, speed, big air, and stunts...what's not to love?
Unfortunately, there is a lot that is wrong in the world of SX Superstar. It's great that Superstar incorporates not only the racing elements, both outdoor supercross and Baja, and stunts that are recognizable to any fan, but goes beyond in an attempt to simulate the life of a SX superstar. While the intentions were good, the actual execution is a foul mess.
As with any racer, the bulk of SX Superstar can be found in the Championship mode. Of course, there's a slight twist to the typical career mode. Not only are you moving through the ranks from amateur to pro circuits and managing sponsors, you also are trying to get enough cash to upgrade you digs, your bike, and your girlfriend.
When you start out, you're in a crappy little apartment whose last tenet was apparently murdered. You've got no cash, a girlfriend that looks like a man, and only a bike (Ted's Tiny 125 cc) and a dream of going pro to get you the hell out of there. So, with the support of your parents, you enter the amateur supercross circuit. As you advance through the season, you win cash prizes, get sponsorship offers, trade-in your girl for one that'd make your mother proud, and hopefully finish the season in first so you can move on to the semi-pro and pro circuits.
With each successful season (you have to finish in first), you move up a circuit and your apartment gets upgraded. You start earning more cash, get asked to invitational events, and have the means to upgrade to a faster bike. If you're the inquisitive type, you might be wondering how deep this simulation goes. Do you get to pick out your new apartment? Can you choose your girlfriend? This is a mere shell of a simulation. The most interaction you have with the "lifestyle" aspect is choosing whether to accept sponsor deals or whether to buy a new bike.
Not only are your options limited, especially with only four bikes in each of the three classes to choose from and your girlfriend is represented by a picture on your coffee table, you also spend half your time playing fax machine simulator. Simulating real life, you get to check your fax machine for offers, and your answering machine for messages. What fun!
Since SX Superstar is the first game to attempt to simulate the SX rider lifestyle, you can't expect everything to be perfect. Even if the simulation aspects are tedious, pointless, and annoying, these shortcomings can be excused as long as they get the core gameplay right.
As you might have guessed, they didn't exactly sink the putt. Wrapped into a scraggily ball of arcade action is a shoddy physics system, questionable AI, and an almost unusable stunt system. Arcade games are supposed to border on realism. You are supposed to be able to pick up the game and maneuver your racer around the track with little worry of real world physics (as in he goes where you direct him). However, while arcade games often capitalize off the fantastical, it still needs to be grounded somewhere in the plausible.
The first thing you'll notice when you pick up SX is that the game is slow. If you're stuck on a 125cc bike it feels like the whole course has been doused in a mixture of sap, tar, and molasses. While all the bikes feel slow, if you've been playing with the 125cc for a while and then upgrade to a 250cc or 500cc bike you will notice a definite increase in speed, but you're on a bike - 60mph should feel fast.
3/10
