A little over a year ago I was compiling a large imgur post titled An A-Z of great Dreamcast games. I had a really good game that I was already familiar with for every letter of the alphabet except one...
I do quite a lot of video game A-Zs, it’s a good way to mix up the format rather than trotting out the world’s millionth ‘Top 25’ list, and usually ‘J’ is the problem letter - but obviously this is not the case with the Dreamcast - the phenomenal ‘Jet Set Radio’ has that more than covered.
No, it turns out the Dreamcast has only one game in it’s entire library that starts with the letter ‘X’, and technically that's only in North America where the game otherwise known as ‘Sega Extreme Sports’ or ‘Pepsi Max Extreme Sports’ was given the radical new name of, simply: ‘Xtreme Sports’.
Obviously I had to do some research and play the game to include it on the list, and in the course of that research I discovered that alongside the Dreamcast & PC game was another, completely unrelated, game of the same name for the Game Boy Color, and what’s more it was developed by none other than WayForward Technologies, a developer of whom I am quite a fan. So I bought both versions.
I do quite a lot of video game A-Zs, it’s a good way to mix up the format rather than trotting out the world’s millionth ‘Top 25’ list, and usually ‘J’ is the problem letter - but obviously this is not the case with the Dreamcast - the phenomenal ‘Jet Set Radio’ has that more than covered.
No, it turns out the Dreamcast has only one game in it’s entire library that starts with the letter ‘X’, and technically that's only in North America where the game otherwise known as ‘Sega Extreme Sports’ or ‘Pepsi Max Extreme Sports’ was given the radical new name of, simply: ‘Xtreme Sports’.
Obviously I had to do some research and play the game to include it on the list, and in the course of that research I discovered that alongside the Dreamcast & PC game was another, completely unrelated, game of the same name for the Game Boy Color, and what’s more it was developed by none other than WayForward Technologies, a developer of whom I am quite a fan. So I bought both versions.
If I hadn’t known in advance that the team behind ‘Shantae’ had a hand in 'Xtreme Sports' it would only have taken the length of the introductory sequence to make that abundantly clear.
There’s a lot of the same excitable style in both the comic book intro and the wonderfully characterful sprites.
You take control of either a male or female multi-event Xtreme sports aficionado who sails off to an island resort to take on all comers at In-line skating, Surfing, Street Luge, Skateboarding, and Sky Surfing.
I have a suspicion that the overworld of Xtreme Sports Island could be described as Pokemon-esque - but as I’ve never played a Pokemon game in my life I’m basing that on the fact that it reminded me of the excellent 'SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters Clash' on the Neo Geo Pocket Color, and I’m sure I remember that game being compared to 'Pokemon'.
Anyway, after registering (“You’re Ret-2-Go!” says the dude at the admin desk) you wander the island meeting fellow competitors and, rather than showing them your pocket monster, you take it to the streets/skies/waves to throw down with your Xtreme skills!
Skateboarding is a left to right affair with the occasional half-pipe thrown in for good measure, tricks are simplistic but satisfying with grinds, flips, and handplants available.
Surfing is a similarly horizontal scrolling discipline with spins available when jumping from the top of the wave, while in the tube you’ll be star-collecting and turtle avoiding.
Street-Luge scrolls downwards, there are jumps to hit, gates to pass and obstacles to avoid.
In-line skating is fairly interchangeable with Skateboarding, only there's no half-pipes but more obstacles to avoid.
Finally, Sky Surfing features a rather clever design whereby you fall downwards, avoiding birds and trying to collect arrow tiles. The arrows correspond to directions on the d-pad and any you have collected are accumulated across the bottom of the screen. When ready you can hold the ‘B’ button and tap in the combo dictated by the tiles to perform a trick.
There doesn’t seem to be a direct correlation between the combo entered and the trick performed, but this is still a brilliantly original way to add variety to the mix.
In each sport there will be a timer running and flags to collect. Along with your trick score, these three elements make up the challenge you will have to beat from each competitor.
One may simply require you to beat the time they’ve set on the Street Luge course, while another might have a time to beat, a number of flags to collect, and trick score to match or improve upon.
The map layout and NPC positions means you’ll naturally encounter clusters participating in just one of the events, and whatsmore, you are most likely to run into them in a roughly easiest-to-hardest order.
This is a little bit of genius as there is only one ‘course’ for each event, so by the time you’re meeting the toughest competitor you’ll have got to know the layouts well enough to stand a chance against them.
This is necessary because, despite it’s happy-go-lucky presentation, Xtreme Sports isn’t a game where you’ll beat every competitor on your first attempt. The simplistic style belies a game where learning the course and avoiding mistakes is essential to success - the small screen size and fast pace means that a combination of knowledge, instincts, and quick reactions are needed for most of the events. A little luck won’t hurt either.
If five different events aren't enough to entertain you then there’s even a story going on. It has something to do with the nefarious cola company that’s sponsoring the event, but it’s neither here nor there really; a mild diversion if you want it.
To me, the most intriguing thing about this plot is that the PC version of the Dreamcast game which shares its name with this one, was title-sponsored by Pepsi... The games are not related in any way, but that’s a hell of a coincidence.
Xtreme Sports is a fantastic game. It’s structure is perfect for handheld play, it has battery save, the events are great fun, and it’s one of the best looking games on this hardware - I see an “A-to-Z of great Game Boy Games” in my future, and I’ll have no hesitation about what I’ll be listing under ‘X’.
There’s a lot of the same excitable style in both the comic book intro and the wonderfully characterful sprites.
You take control of either a male or female multi-event Xtreme sports aficionado who sails off to an island resort to take on all comers at In-line skating, Surfing, Street Luge, Skateboarding, and Sky Surfing.
I have a suspicion that the overworld of Xtreme Sports Island could be described as Pokemon-esque - but as I’ve never played a Pokemon game in my life I’m basing that on the fact that it reminded me of the excellent 'SNK vs Capcom Card Fighters Clash' on the Neo Geo Pocket Color, and I’m sure I remember that game being compared to 'Pokemon'.
Anyway, after registering (“You’re Ret-2-Go!” says the dude at the admin desk) you wander the island meeting fellow competitors and, rather than showing them your pocket monster, you take it to the streets/skies/waves to throw down with your Xtreme skills!
Skateboarding is a left to right affair with the occasional half-pipe thrown in for good measure, tricks are simplistic but satisfying with grinds, flips, and handplants available.
Surfing is a similarly horizontal scrolling discipline with spins available when jumping from the top of the wave, while in the tube you’ll be star-collecting and turtle avoiding.
Street-Luge scrolls downwards, there are jumps to hit, gates to pass and obstacles to avoid.
In-line skating is fairly interchangeable with Skateboarding, only there's no half-pipes but more obstacles to avoid.
Finally, Sky Surfing features a rather clever design whereby you fall downwards, avoiding birds and trying to collect arrow tiles. The arrows correspond to directions on the d-pad and any you have collected are accumulated across the bottom of the screen. When ready you can hold the ‘B’ button and tap in the combo dictated by the tiles to perform a trick.
There doesn’t seem to be a direct correlation between the combo entered and the trick performed, but this is still a brilliantly original way to add variety to the mix.
In each sport there will be a timer running and flags to collect. Along with your trick score, these three elements make up the challenge you will have to beat from each competitor.
One may simply require you to beat the time they’ve set on the Street Luge course, while another might have a time to beat, a number of flags to collect, and trick score to match or improve upon.
The map layout and NPC positions means you’ll naturally encounter clusters participating in just one of the events, and whatsmore, you are most likely to run into them in a roughly easiest-to-hardest order.
This is a little bit of genius as there is only one ‘course’ for each event, so by the time you’re meeting the toughest competitor you’ll have got to know the layouts well enough to stand a chance against them.
This is necessary because, despite it’s happy-go-lucky presentation, Xtreme Sports isn’t a game where you’ll beat every competitor on your first attempt. The simplistic style belies a game where learning the course and avoiding mistakes is essential to success - the small screen size and fast pace means that a combination of knowledge, instincts, and quick reactions are needed for most of the events. A little luck won’t hurt either.
If five different events aren't enough to entertain you then there’s even a story going on. It has something to do with the nefarious cola company that’s sponsoring the event, but it’s neither here nor there really; a mild diversion if you want it.
To me, the most intriguing thing about this plot is that the PC version of the Dreamcast game which shares its name with this one, was title-sponsored by Pepsi... The games are not related in any way, but that’s a hell of a coincidence.
Xtreme Sports is a fantastic game. It’s structure is perfect for handheld play, it has battery save, the events are great fun, and it’s one of the best looking games on this hardware - I see an “A-to-Z of great Game Boy Games” in my future, and I’ll have no hesitation about what I’ll be listing under ‘X’.
No comments:
Post a Comment