2 Xtreme

I'd like nothing more than to say that 2Xtreme is a triumphant success but unfortunately, compared to how much I liked the original Extreme Games, I have to concede that this sequel is a miserable failure. There was an attempt to inject some new strategic options into the mix, and some of the animation is better, but the dull locales, the limited mobility of the characters and the fact that, once again, this is a split screen 2 player racing game (instead of a linkable 2-4 player event), does nothing but slow down the momentum of this incredibly cool franchise. One can only hope that developers take to heart some of the criticism aimed at this game and work hard to salvage this series for its next iteration. Racing on skateboards, mountain bikes, inline skates and snowboards should be much more fun than this.

Not To Die For

I ask you, how can a sequel justify looking worse than the original? 2Xtreme's crew had a great engine to work off of, yet here they are with an insane amount of repetitious track (in Vegas, you pass by the same 5 or 6 hotel marquees more times than I can count) and nothing that is more visually pleasing than the original. The "improved" animations ain't all that interesting either. Sure the racers look a little cooler when they're starting up, but as soon as everybody moves into the tuck position to pick up speed, they all become virtually static objects that slide across the screen.

Animation of stunts has been added to the game (it seems that this is where the developers' attention went) but I didn't see any stunts that made me want to forgive anybody. Right now, I play Wave Race 64, or even the flawed but fun Jet Moto, if I want to do stunts while I race.

My biggest complaint about the graphics in 2Xtreme stems from a direct game play decision. Last year, part of the first game's charm was the opportunity to race against a myriad of different self propelled vehicles on a bunch of tricky and funky courses. This year, your course selection predetermines your vehicle choice and you only race against others with the same mode of transport. This makes sense on the snow covered hills (I use the term "hills" loosely) that the snowboard races on, but I sure found it fun taking my skateboard into the jungles of South America last year, and I was looking forward to trekking through Africa on my Rollerblades this year.

Sorry, no can do. In Africa you must race a boring mountain bike race against a horde of 9 other mountain bikers. In Las Vegas you must race on your blades. In Los Angeles, it's gotta be the skateboard. And the aforementioned snow covered mountains (again, I use the term "mountains" loosely) of Japan force you to use your snowboard in the contest. I missed being able to shop for better and better equipment and the freedom to use it anywhere I wanted.

Perhaps the graphics wouldn't have bit so much if more attention was paid to making the environments exciting. In Africa, cardboard cut out elephants line the road side and trees have been made to join and create wholly unnatural tunnels. Los Angeles may as well be a movie set for Anytown USA considering the amount of character it has. I've already mentioned how disturbing it is to careen down the Twilight Zone-esque repetitive streets of Las Vegas. The greatest threat to fun though, has gotta be the snow levels of this game. Not only are the levels boring as hell to look at, they aren't anything at all like a real ski/snowboard slope. It's so excruciatingly obvious that the developers used the exact same polygonal models for every race course and just created tired textures to paint each environment. There are some cool lighting effects in the tunnels but even that kind of stuff was better served in the original.

Looking at this sequel will help you understand what a true graphics tour de force Extreme Games really was.

Grunge

Listening to the soundtrack of 2Xtreme is liable to make you start having nightmares featuring Beavis and Butthead. I've heard so many of these grunge-lite, Generation X, rock n' roll soundtracks in the past year, I'm starting to get an ulcer in my head. It could be just me, however. If you haven't heard enough faceless raunch rock in your lifetime, by all means, enjoy! Personally, I would have liked a lot more flavor and personality to the tunes. This series is all about exceptionally zany racing, it deserves some appropriate music, not this "I'm so serious about my riffs" poser stuff.

The sound effects for the game are nearly identical to last year's rev. You get lots of grunting sounds when racers get knocked off of their transportation. You get lots of "tires on surface" friction noise (or the sounds of shreddin'). Every so often an announcer pipes up to tell you how much that last gate you went through was worth. And new this year is the Greek Chorus of "oohs", "ahhs", "claps" and sympathetic "groans" that accompany your successful (or unsuccessful) completion of stunts.

The audio for this game is solid, but it's more than a little safe and unoriginal. Gamers that move toward purchasing this game shouldn't be too concerned about the tunes and sound effects, though. There are many more important aspects about this title they should be worried about.

Standard

Controlling 2Xtreme is, once again, based upon the strength of your button pressing management. You use all of the buttons on the PSX controller in a typical race, so in order to play properly, you'll have to get accustomed to quick sequential thumb taps alongside coordinated shoulder button hits.

I liked the idea of a "special moves" button sequence for each of the stunts. For instance, something as simple as tapping 'Square' then 'Triangle' during a jump, will allow you to kick your legs out on the mountain bike, or roll your board under yourself on the skateboard. There are a bunch of these generic stunt sequences that work with every vehicle and then there are many hidden sequences that are more specific to what you are riding. Through the course of playing, your goal is to discover as many of these secret stunts as you can.

Of course, you're also supposed to pass through as many gates as possible, collect as many power-ups as you can, knock down everybody that gets in your way and make it to the finish line before any one else. Progressing through a season introduces the same four locales (Africa, Las Vegas, Los Angeles & Japan) over and over, but with new variations at each leg. Winning everything also means taking short cuts and using the edges of the track to your advantage. This is not an easy game.

The control is solid and straight forward, once you learn all of the specific commands. I did find the jump button to be a little more finicky than last year. There were many obstacles I kept smacking into that I would have cleared easily in the first Extreme.

Why Bother?

If developers are going to be so lackadaisical with the construction of sequels to some of our favorite games, why should we bother going out and buying them? 2Xtreme just doesn't offer anything that makes it a step up over the original. The stunts, while they look nifty, are fairly routine. The 2Xtreme power-ups are superfluous (we should already have been able to move fast enough and jump high enough). I would have preferred that, instead of power-ups, the developers would have left in the ability to punch and kick our opponents, because now the fighting is just not as much fun.

That's what it comes down to - all of the new features the developers have decided to run with this time have made this game not as much fun as the first one. Sometimes the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" can be quite profound. Let's hope Sony gets us back on track for the next round of the Extreme games.

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