A short video showing the 'split match play' feature in multiplayer mode. I firstly drove the whole race in the Clio and once I passed the finish line, the CPU took over the running of that car. I then drove the RV8 while the CPU was driving the Clio around the course.
Following on from my 2015 post about MSR fan sites, here are two that were never completed.
I enjoy reading critical reviews for MSR as some of them raise valid points. The game had a lot of hype in the UK Dreamcast press and some people were disappointed when it was eventually released. Sadly these reviews are no longer online, however they have been preserved at Archive.org.
"While MSR is a welcome change in the identikit-driving genre, the game has some series flaws with its basic design, which unwind the whole experience. By relying so heavily on the original 'Kudos' scoring system, the simple problems are highlighted throughout the lengthy single player campaign and unfortunately the experience is ruined as a result."
NSTC-UK Rating: 6/10
Link to full review: NTSC-UK MSR Review
But not that everyone thinks I don't like MSR. MSR is a good racing game, but nothing more. In my opinion, it just didn't turn out to be the high-flyer I was hoping for. However, I recommend the game to every racing fan. Everyone else should borrow the game first and test it enough."
Planet-Sega.de Rating: 86%
Link to full review: Planet-Sega.de MSR Review (translated from German)
"When MSR is good, it’s very good, and its innovations deserve a lot of credit for making the game so engaging, once you get over the initial hump. Sadly, there are too many little aggravations, too many flawed design decisions and too many visual annoyances disrupting the experience to keep it from being the perfect Dreamcast racing game that some players might have been expecting. To say nothing of MC H*m* and company. Wey hey!"
Link to full review: Electric Playground Review
"MSR" is a universe of drifting and cornering, accelerating and power-steering, peppy music and decent graphics that, while worth a visit from time to time via a rental ticket price, it's too unrewarding and punishing a formula for the hardest of the hardcore to plow the cash for. Test-drive before you buy... another Infogrames driving game that is (he, he, he)!
DC-Swirl Review: 3.5 / 5
Link to full review: DC Swirl Review
"More than one other car on screen and the frame-rate wheezes and chugs. Oh dear.
Given that MSR has finally arrived a year late, hotly anticipated by game-starved Dreamcast owners, this is just an insult. And the overall game structure is flawed too. It doesn't offer the instant, designer arcade thrills of, say, Ridge Racer V on the PlayStation2, yet the pointless punishing of minor collisions prevents it from being a really nail-biting hardcore revver like Gran Turismo. MSR does boast a fine two-player mode and it's very pretty, but really - kudos schmudos."
Guardian Newspaper Review: 3 / 5
Link to full review: Guardian Review
When I first began researching MSR in-depth back in 2010-2012, I came across this German fan page.
This ranking was initially set up back in 2006. Unfortunately by the time I found it, the facility had more or less been abandoned; the upload/login feature was broken as membership was closed, and you could only download existing ghosts. I made a video 13 years ago showing some of MSR's Dreamarena homepages on my Dreamcast (via the Wayback Machine) and I included this ranking within it to demonstrate downloads.
