Gaming Age did this interview with Richard about the MSR soundtrack. It was conducted in early March 2000, about 8 months before the game's European/PAL release. The most notable part is the list of the equipment used to produce the music.
Sega Europe really tried to push Metropolis Street Racer by creating TV adverts and purchasing prominent 'time slots' for their broadcast. Here is a news article from the UK's Official Dreamcast Magazine about this:
The first advert is around 30 seconds long. The English language version (left) has what sounds like a female vocal being put through a 'digital meatgrinder' - I sincerely hope that was an encoding error! The French version (right) thankfully lacks this sound.
Update: I've also just found a German TV advert on Youtube (see below)! Completely different to the ones above.
There were also trailers present on VHS promotional tapes. I think the one below was displayed at the 'Dreamcast Premiere' event (Empire Cinema in Leicester Square, London. 3 September 2000) although the Gary Numan "Cars" track has been replaced.
The final one (below) is just a longer version of the introduction found on the game disc.
Unfortunately none of this really worked out as Metropolis Street Racer sold less than 20,000 copies in Europe. Far more copies were sold in the USA with less hype and a standard magazine advert/web advert campaign.
A video showing that reckless power sliding awards much higher Kudos than careful driving (non Hot Lap / Timed Run courses). This is because Skill / No Penalty Kudos are 'fixed' and offer lower scores than Style Kudos. Therefore any penalty deductions (for hitting the sides or other cars) are more than made up by the excess Style Kudos you earn.
Course: London - St James's Park - Medium - Birdcage Walk East II (St James' M-5)
My car: Nissan Skyline GTR (Manual Gears / No ABS)
Skilled and careful driving total. 25 second head start to opponent
Kudos score: 1281.8 (Skill: 112.9, Style: 368, No Penalties: 160. Joker played so score doubled).
Reckless power sliding. 60 second head start to myself
Kudos score: 3792 (Skill: 0, Style: 2216, Penalties: -320. Joker played so score doubled).
3792 vs 1281.8 is more than double so if you want record kudos scores, sadly this is the path you need to take. However if you are disciplined and aim for skilled, careful driving with a touch of style, I believe you will enjoy the game much more (just don't expect many kudos records).
Please note, due to a bug in the game (all versions), the record display screen does not show the 'Head Start' seconds given to the CPU or yourself. It will only display as 0.0s (no head start/head start given to CPU) or -0.0s (head start given to yourself)
