MSR at Sports Reviewer (February 2001)

This is an interesting MSR review from the old 'Sports Reviewer' website.  While they gave the game 'top marks', they did raise some valid criticisms about the Kudos system and lack of night lighting.  It was written in February 2001. 

"While the Kudos system is innovative, it is slightly flawed, but not to the point of hampering the game. MSR heavily favors Style points (i.e. power sliding) over skill points. You can cheat and open up all the chapters, but I do not really see the point in cheating. Just because you cheat does not mean that MSR is any easier. Sure, you can prematurely open up all the chapters, but you will not be able to win very many races unless you complete each chapter and open up better cars.

In short, MSR’s developers made an excellent first attempt with the Kudos system. It is not perfect, but I really enjoy the concept. I hope that MSR’s sequel or another developer carries the promise to fruition. An easy adjustment would be to require Skill or Style in certain races. Another adjustment would allow players to tailor their driving style towards Skill or Style. This would allow simulation style players to rack up plenty of Skill points without relying on and abusing powerslides."

"If MSR has a real negative it is the lack of ample lighting during some of the night races. The races in Tokyo usually have enough light to navigate successfully. I found San Francisco hit or miss, but London is usually a total pain in the rump for me during night sessions.

I do not really know how to put my finger on the problem, but night races seem to have poor lighting and actual view distance is just not long enough to provide adequate reaction time for turns. London seems to be the worst offender, especially tracks that make use of parks and other low light areas.

The problem is not crippling, instead the "night light" issue is really just another opportunity (manager speak for a challenge). I have spoken to other MSR owners about this issue and the camp seems to be evenly divided between poor night lighting effects and sucky, whiny players. It should be obvious to Sports Reviewers’ readers that I actually fan into both camps!"

You can read the full review at the following archived weblink: Sports Reviewer's MSR Review (Archived Website)

My Speed Challenge quest

I have always been fascinated by this mode, mainly because Dreamarena players managed such fast times while being forced to use automatic gears with ABS on.  It is very easy to assume that cheating must have been involved, especially as it was quite easy to hack an MSR gamesave or use a Action Replay/Xploder DC device.  

I managed to beat the Dreamarena competition times just over 12 years ago, however I used manual gears and switched ABS off.  I did this by creating Time Trial VMU files for each Speed Challenge course.  However this year, I decided to try and beat those times under the same conditions - automatic gears and ABS on.  After a lot of time and effort, I finally managed to beat them (just)!  It's not all good news though; the London course involved hitting the railings so that could have been the strategy used during the competition.  While I try to race as cleanly as possible, 'playing dirty' is sometimes the only way.  I'll keep trying for a faster, cleaner London time.

Here are the original Dreamarena competition winning times:

Here are my results:

...and here are the videos for each course, including a bonus 'best corner' collection.  All runs were done in 60hz mode; 50hz mode has not been optimised and runs significantly slower.  It took a while getting used to the automatic gears and the 'unwanted downshifts' when you lose speed during certain turns.

It's a shame that the best Dreamcast racing players (who competed in the Ferrari F355 Challenge and Sega Rally 2 internet rankings) were not involved.  If they were, I believe we would have seen some genuine unbeatable lap times!

For more information on the Speed Challenge mode & its Dreamarena competition, please see my blogpost at:  https://msrdreamcast.blogspot.com/2013/04/speed-challenge-competition_3.html

Project Gotham: World Street Racer (Japanese name for PGR1)

I have just discovered that Project Gotham Racing (PGR1) was called 'Project Gotham: World Street Racer' in Japan.  

The Japanese release of MSR was cancelled so maybe Microsoft/Bizarre were trying to establish a clear link between the two titles and make Japanese Dreamcast fans assume that MSR had been moved onto XBOX.  Who knows?

Opel Speedster / Vauxhall VX220 Charity Auction

This has a very tenuous link to Metropolis Street Racer, however Sega Europe themselves put out this press release on 25 October 2000.  

A real version of one of the cars that features in Metropolis Street Racer is to be auctioned on the Internet. The first Opel Speedster (the UK version is the Vauxhall VX220) carries a plaque with the serial number 0001 on the dashboard and has all the makings of a collector's car - especially since the silver roadster will not simply be sold but auctioned on the internet. The first Europe-wide online auction of an automobile takes place from October 27 to November 5 [2000] at www.qxl.com/speedster (auction company now closed.  Subsequently renamed 'Tradus' and then acquired by a large conglomerate in 2008).

Leading European internet auction house QXL.com (closed 2008) will present Opel's mid-engined sports car on its homepage as well as its national pages. Bidders can surf to their local QXL website in Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain to pick up information in their own language and bid in their country's currency. There is no minimum bid for Opel Speedster number 0001.

The real winner of the auction, however, is not necessarily the highest bidder. The cheque for the open-top, two-seater sports car will be donated in full to the SOS Children's Villages, an organization which takes care of orphans and destitute children. The charity helps a total of more than 300,000 individuals. More information on SOS Children's Villages is available at www.sos-kd.org (now https://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/).

The Speedster won the Cabrio of the Year award at this year's Geneva Motor Show. The 147-horsepower two-seater is Opel's first mid-engined sports car and the first Opel to use aluminum and composite materials for the body and chassis. The winner of the QXL auction will enjoy the Speedster's fast, sure-footed cornering, a zero-to-100 sprint in under six seconds and a top speed of 220 km/h. Customers can find out more about the Speedster at www.opel.com (link still works but contains no info about this car anymore.  Just google 'Opel Speedster' or 'Vauxhall VX220' instead).

The auction website has been archived here. The winning bid was £23,511 from a Swiss buyer on 5 November 2000. 

Original Sega Europe press release archive

Gaming Age & Daily Radar interviews with Richard Jacques

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.

Richard Jacque's Gaming Age Interview (Part 1) 

Richard Jacque's Gaming Age Interview (Part 2)

As Gaming Age is still an active website, I can only post links to the interview (only now accessible via Wayback).  

Daily Radar UK also did a shorter interview conducted after the game's release (late 2000/early 2001).

Richard Jacques Daily Radar UK Interview

MSR TV Adverts & Trailers

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.

Bad Driving = More Kudos!

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.

Chapter 17 - Event 6 (one-on-one challenge vs. Mitsubishi Eclipse '99)

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)