I don’t really get how terrible racing games are made.
I can understand them being simply average or boring, or being so light on content that it’s insulting. But really, terribly awful? I just don’t get it. I mean, surely in the early stages of developing a racing game it’s wise to create a prototype, enabling you to make sure that the physics and handling of what you’re going to spend the next two years or so making will actually work, and more importantly be fun. Then, you build from there.
Living the dream
Unfortunately, the developers of Super Street: The Game, Rebel Games and Team6 Game Studios, have fallen at the first hurdle. They’ve created a game with handling that’s unpredictable at best, and with physics that are out of this world. As such, it’s about as much fun to play as pricking yourself with rusty nails. And it’s a shame, because off the track, it does have some merits.
The official game of Super Street, the world’s leading automotive tuning culture magazine, Super Street: The Game challenges you to take an old banger and slowly but surely build it into your dream car. Upon starting your career, you’ll be forced to choose one from a number of rust buckets, and that will be your single project throughout; there’s no buying multiple vehicles here. I should also mention that while the cars are recognisable as real world models, they’re not licensed, so they all have unusual made up names. But that’s not a biggie.
Pimp my ride
The real fun in Super Street: The Game is customising your car to the nines. While the cars themselves aren’t licensed, the aftermarket parts you can install on them are. Everything you can think of can be changed – bumpers, wing mirrors, side skirts – and that’s just the exterior. Super Street: The Game also allows you to increase the performance of your vehicle and redesign its interior. Over time, you really can create a work of art – your dream vehicle – the only problem is, you need money to do so.
Like any racing game, you earn money by taking part in events. In Super Street: The Game‘s career, you’ll find lots of them, but they’re wasted. Whether you’re taking part in a Sprint, Time Trial, Circuit Race or Eliminator event, you’ll eventually become so infuriated with the game’s handling and physics that you’ll simply quit. I mean, I consider myself quite patient with games, but Super Street: The Game drove me to the end of my tether. I wanted to at least push through the races to continue building my vehicle, but I got to a point where I just couldn’t.
The fast and the furious
The handling in Super Street: The Game is just simply unpredictable. Sometimes you’ll take a corner at full pelt and seemingly have infinite grip. Other times, your car will just decide to uncontrollably spin out of its own accord. Making matters worse, there’s no feel to it; no feedback that you’re pushing your car to the edge of its limits. The handling is lifeless. Oh, and once you’ve spun out, forget about finishing the event you’re in; you won’t win. Just restart the event and hope you do better next time.
But that brings us to the second of Super Street: The Game‘s major problems: its physics. Basically, they’re horrible. Inconsistent and horrible. If a vehicle so much as touches your back-end you’ll spin out. Though you can do the same to them, too. There’s just no weight to the hunks of metal you’re throwing around, making the game feel almost broken. And sometimes it actually is. On more than one occasion I’ve had my car ridiculously flying through the air after a collision. One time I landed on a nearby roof and got stuck. All I could do was restart the event.
Put the handbrake on your purchase
To kick the boot in even further, the handbrake doesn’t work. It’ll slow your car down in a straight line, but you can forget about using it to get your back end out and make sharp turns. It simply doesn’t work. For events like races it’s an inconvenience you can work around; you just need to brake more. When you’re in an event that requires you to quickly turn your car around, however, like the ones where you need to cause chains of destruction to score points, you’re at a severe disadvantage.
Under no circumstances should you consider buying Super Street: The Game. Priced at £49.99/$49.99, it’s daylight robbery. It doesn’t matter that it has got a bucket load of customisation options, or that on Xbox One X it actually looks quite nice. It also doesn’t matter that as well as having a career mode, it has quick race options and both split-screen and online multiplayer. The core experience is just so unbelievably bad that it ruins anything that the game does have going for it. And believe me, I tried to like it. I restarted events time and time again, hoping that somehow something would click. But as I progressed further, all that awaited me was more anguish. Simply avoid this game at all costs.
