Street Supremacy
Score: 65% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Konami Developer: Genki Media: UMD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Sports (Racing)/ Mission-Based Driving/ Arcade
Graphics & Sound: How you feel about Street Supremacy will depend largely on what you come expecting to play. If you're looking for a fine-tuned race title with cars that drive like their real-world counterparts, you'll be disappointed. If lush scenery and lots of it is your style, you'll probably also be disappointed. Street Supremacy isn't a true mission/driving game, either. So you can understand why most of the people in line to play this will go away perplexed. The visuals in some areas of the game are nice, but nothing about the overall cool design of Street Supremacy actually bled into the track visuals. Most gamers have realized over the years that "fog" is really a crutch for not being able to display enough detail in a distant landscape. Another way to do this, as seen in Street Supremacy, is to set the game at night, so everything 100 feet off the road is dark. At first, I just accepted this, but over time the lack of scenery takes its toll. Because every race is relatively short, you'd be forgiven for thinking you just hadn't seen enough of the track. But, once you start to level-up and see more track, you realize there just isn't any variety here. Incidental music, incidental graphics. Setting up the cars is probably the most entertaining piece of Street Supremacy, and it's a sad day for a racing game when playing around with your ride in the garage is more fun than actually getting behind the wheel. But, such is the state of Street Supremacy.
Gameplay: Street Supremacy is more of an RPG than a mission-based racing game. Like an RPG, where players can develop a love/hate relationship with fighting armies of monsters to level up, Street Supremacy makes you slog through a lot of small races to work your way up the ranks. The idea of a competitive racer that does more than focus on winning each outing is good. In Street Supremacy, you join one of several rival gangs, out to gain control of the Tokyo freeway. Buying a car earns you the right to challenge members of your own team or others at night on the open road. Winning earns you money to upgrade your ride, which you badly need to progress. Winning against members of your own team actually improves your ranking, and if you win enough of these battles, you may eventually rise to the rank of Leader. Leaders can "train" team members by racing them, which increases their skill and also improves their loyalty. Even as a member of a gang, racing other gangs' members can weaken the gang or even convince drivers to join your side. What should be the best aspect of Street Supremacy, the Team Battle, is unfortunately the most tedious. Early on, you'll lose and be forced to watch race after race, to see who'll win. Winning teams can conquer territory, and the point of the game is to rule the town. Upgrading your ride is critical, and there is every possible enhancement you could imagine. Cosmetic add-ons are here, also. Vinyls, neon and custom body parts all really add some style, but it's too little too late. Two player is such an add-on, it's hardly worth mentioning. The point of Street Supremacy is to enjoy the progression and team rivalry while overlooking a supremely average racer.
Difficulty: Since most tracks are straight, the only real technical challenge you face is avoiding the few passenger cars scattered throughout Tokyo. What really makes for frustration is the long process of finding low level racers you can actually win against, so you can raise money for upgrades. Even cars a few levels ahead of you seem capable of blasting by you and there's just a general sense of cheap, imbalanced game mechanics in Street Supremacy. I wanted so much to push through the problems, but after devoting hours to upgrading my first car as much as possible, I still felt like I was driving my first track.
Game Mechanics: Upgrading the cars is easy enough, and the garage interface isn't bad at all. There are lots of cars to choose from, and although the add-ons aren't branded parts, as in Midnight Club, there are plenty of ways to tweak your ride. Once you make certain upgrades, you can even adjust the gearing to suit your driving style or make up for a car's inadequacies. On the track, everything starts to go downhill. Control with D-pad or analog stick is muddy and no amount of upgrading made much of a difference. The slightest twitch of the wheel or a moderate corner sends you into a power slide and bangs the car into a wall. Since the whole point of the game is to defeat your opponent in terms of both rank and style, hitting walls or other bad driving accelerates your demise - which would be fine, if the controls were capable of providing any sophistication on the track. The basic method of winning is to gain a lead early on, and drive a straight line until your opponent retires. Rather than apply any benefit from handling or skilled driving, the general rule in Street Supremacy is that the more powerful car wins. If this were a drag racing game, I'd understand that, but there isn't any of the excitement of a street racing title here. And there isn't any point in having all the cool looking cars if you're only going to drive them in a straight line for a few minutes. The focus on cool design and an interesting premise for a racing game - gang-turf battles - doesn't change the fact that Street Supremacy is bust in terms of driving excitement. If you want fun racing on PSP, look elsewhere.
-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock
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