Cool Beans.
A nice and tightly crafted racing game with some funky visuals. I remember playing and reviewing the 2000(The 1998 one right now, rightfully renamed as the preceding one) version, and it was, despite being fun and engaging, and also somewhat more grandiose in scope, a fucking buggy mess. Thankfully, both the bugs, and almost all of the complaints i had about that version, are improved upon here.
The level design is less of a clusterfuck now, with roads having very clear main and offroads, if you're into collecting bits, i guess. There aren't that many levels, sadly (and no autobahns =( ), and the map design isn't as interesting as the 1998 version. Still, the variation is always good. Dunno if it makes much sense to employ grid powerups on hard levels though (having said that, thank god you've removed the retarded powerup).
Copy-pasting my views on the controls from the previous game: "I actually found the controls to be ok, and you absolutely can get used to them, try to be turning in advance, as if you're really trying to tokyo drift this shit. The slight problem is that the turns, due to sliding, are very slow and smooth, so they work in a double-45. My strategy was always to do a 180-degrees turn first to stop any momentum i had, and only then doing turns. It made my life much easier." Well, in this case, except for the boss levels, you DO NOT want to slow down this way, just practice turning. Also, including different controls schemes is a nice touch, though i personally don't find this "screen pov steering" to be comfortable.
The artstyle and visuals are still very funky, with unique approaches to different zones. Also, the rivals aren't dumb fucks now, so thank god for that. They are somewhat tough to beat, and require you to be absolutely perfect in your driving. I've found that following their skidmarks was generally a good enough strategy (maybe turning a bit after them, if your car is weaker). The different approaches to rival battles, with having either powerups or shortcuts, is also kinda cool.
Overall, it was a nice unique little game. Maybe if it had the scale of a previous version (or at least some standout features, like the police, or achievements and secrets, or different powerups, or even shops for your bits or whatever the hell), it would've been great, but it does have some replayability. 8/10. Consider me hooked for what yo're having in store for a 2000 version that i'll be sure to grab, if the price is reasonable enough.
Also, i feel it was a bit lazy of you to just paste a scene of Florida as a C state ending screen.
