On your marks!
This is the followup to the bike racing game, Redline Racer, which was a pretty solid piece of action which offered plenty of high speed thrills. This one is similar to its predecessor but comes with the official Suzuki license which gives it the feel of a more serious and detailed game, and is likewise an entertaining, if not exactly memorable racer. The game itself is a very arcade oriented take on bike racing, and there's a number of modes to try out, notably Single Race, Main Game and Reverse Challenge. The Main Game is probably where you'll spend most of your time, and here you'll have to complete certain challenges in order to earn your place on the Suzuki team. The Reverse Challenge is the same thing, except the tracks are reverse, and Single Race is exactly what you'd expect. A lot of attention has been paid to the slick presentation which gives the game a TV show feel, while there's the expected range of tracks and which feature environments including city, beach, country and desert. Extreme Racing is certainly a fun little racer, at least in the short term, but extended play reveals a number of issues. On the plus side, the visuals are pretty decent, with a good sense of speed and some nice environments to race through. The controls too are simple and easy to pick up, but this might be a problem for some players as they make the game just a little too simple, and there really isn't that much in the way of depth, which hurts the game's long term appeal. In the short term though, this provides plenty of thrills and spills, just don't expect to be playing forever.
