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NYR New York Race Review
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Take the wheel of Korben Dallas infamous flying taxi, and pilot it through the maze of airbourne traffic and high-rise tower blocks.
Whether you liked The Fifth Element or not, youāve got to admit that Luc Bessonās vision of the future was pretty cool, bustling with hovercars, neon adās, the floating Chinese pagondas, the aerial tramwaysā¦ Not since Bladerunner has there been such an artistic representation of the future, and now thanks to Kalisto and Wanadoo youāve got the chance to race around it.
New York Race (NYR) pits you in a race with seven other opponents from the film, in a fast paced futuristic racer akin to the Wipeout series; with one crucial difference these cars have full 3D action giving you complete freedom of movement. This could have posed a major problem if the controls hadnāt been deviously worked out, as you can strafe not only left and right but also, up and down.
It takes awhile getting used to, but eventually youāll be whizzing through the courses without any problems. The movement of the craft closely resembles the same erratic manoeuvring that featured in the film, so youāll be turning on a six-pence, ducking and weaving in between skyscrapers, aerial trams, monuments and all manner of different architecture that populates Luc Bessonās vision of the future.
Besides the controls, the most striking thing about NYR is the courses, based upon four different areas in the city; Middle Class; Jet Set; Chinatown and The Slums. Kalisto brought in the original film designers to model the courses and boy does this show. Thriving with activity, neon lights illuminate the sky, whilst trams run up the sides of buildings; each of the games 12 different courses perfectly captures the spirit of the film. At times your eyeballs will just melt with the variety of colours, the activity, the detail and the games many special effects. NYR is a wonderfully looking title that just screams out at you.
The game wouldnāt be up too much if all it relied on was the aesthetics, but thankfully there has been a lot of attention paid to the actual design of the courses. At first youāll find them devilishly tough, but persevere, begin to learn the layouts, the shortcuts, the obstacles and youāll realise that most of the courses are really good fun to race around. With the amount of objects on screen and the narrow gaps youāve got to run through, the game could have been disastrous if you kept getting stuck into objects, thankfully Kalisto have taken a liberal approach to collision detection, ensuring the race is always smooth and not frustrating.
To spice up the action you can collect four different power-upās based on the elements from the film; Water ā“ leaves a liquid sphere behind you that slows your opponents down if they hit it; Earth ā“ activates a temporary shield; Fire ā“ allows you to shoot a guided fireball at your opponents; Air ā“ gives you a speed boost. The power-upās may be slightly generic, but become essential to winning the races. In fact thatās my only real complaint with the title, it doesnāt really add anything new to the genre, essentially youāve seen it all before, just probably not as nice looking as this.
There are four different modes available in NYR, the main one being the Championship mode that takes place over four different categories; Qualification, Beginner, Pro and Expert.
Starting off in Korbenās taxi on the qualification, as you advance youāll open up new vehicles, of which thereās over 30 to collect, each with their own characteristics and handling, finishing in 3rd place unlocks 1 new vehicle, 2nd place 2 and 1st place unlocks 3. This approach adds to the games longevity, with the last few cars proving to be extremely elusive.
Other modes include Single Race, Time Attack and the rather cool Keirin mode, that eliminates the contestant in last place at every checkpoint until the last man remains.
The last things to mention is the games wonderful soundtrack, a mix of different styles in a futuristic fashion, suffice to say itās the only game Iāve ever ripped the music tracks from to my playlist.
