XGRA is Acclaim's latest entry in the Extreme-G franchise, but unlike its predecessors, it has the disadvantage of running on newer hardware. I say disadvantage because while the game is obviously a big set up from previous incarnations of the series, it's an equally big step down from other games that have been coming out this generation. It would have been a lot more attractive if F-Zero GX was still a year away.

While playing the title I'd often wonder if the designers actually bothered to get some feedback about the game they were making. Take the weather effects, for example. Varying weather in racing games is a good idea, and I'd love to see more developers embrace it, but Acclaim just got it all wrong. When racing on one of the Mars courses an extreme wind was supposed to make the race more challenging, but all it did was kick up massive amounts of dust and reduce visibility to nothing. I don't mean that in a "keep you on the edge of your seat" or "spice up the race" way either. It was more like a "run into walls over and over and over again because you literally are racing in a giant field of insanely think haze" situation.

Another good example is the impressive sonic boom effect. Again, another cue that other developers should take note of, when your craft reaches the speed of sound the screen blurs and a sonic boom takes place, followed by eerie silence until your speed drops. It's very very cool if you can maintain it, but therein lies the problem. There were several occasions on the faster levels when the initial blur from the sonic boom would cause me to hit a wall I couldn't see, immediately reducing my speed. I would quickly recover and regain my speed causing it to happen again. The end result is blur effect, crash, blur effect, crash, and on and on it would go. Sometimes it would happen five or more times before I could reorient myself.

Neither of those potentially fatal flaws would matter if XGRA's controls were tight and responsive, but they aren't. Even when I knew a turn was coming and prepared myself by leaning in as early as I could, I would often crash into the outside wall. This would be a much more frustrating experience if it affected one's end ranking, but it rarely did. Even on the final races of the game I was sliding all over the course and crashing into walls repeatedly, but I still won every race handily. It's like the developers knew their controls couldn't cope with the courses on the higher speed settings, so they just dumbed down the AI to compensate.

XGRA isn't all bad, however. I got a lot of enjoyment out of the game's weapon system. The standard guns, missiles, and mines are all featured, as well as some more "extreme" weapons. Capsules picked up on the course give you access to special weapons. Every capsule sends you up a level, so you can use the weaker ones very often, or build up to the instant-kill "Deathstrike." There's even a small tactical nuke to unleash on your enemies. The ability to hound another racer until they're gone is a welcome one indeed, and keeping an eye on your own shield adds another dimension to the gameplay.

Although the graphics and sound are both lackluster, XGRA does have its moments. After surpassing the sound barrier I was racing in complete silence, with the entire pack right in front of me jostling for position, unleashing missiles and bombs left and right. I was able to nuke the entire bunch. It truly was a beautiful site, especially because it was silent, but unfortunately those "Whoa!" moments are few and far between.

The bottom line is that XGRA couples uninspired course and bike design with (at best) average graphics and sound. If the title had more character and tighter controls it could have been a winner. It's a shame that all the good ideas featured in the game aren't put to better use; perhaps next time.