Genre: Racing
Developer: Majesco Inc.
Publisher: Blade Interactive
Released On: January 14th, 2003
# of Players: 1-4
ERSB: Everyone
Supports: Analog Control, Memory Card, Vibration
Also On: None
Retails for Only: $9.99

Introduction

If HSX looks familiar to you, do not be shocked. Borrowing heavily from series such as F-Zero and more recently Wipeout, HSX scores very little in terms of originality. Just about every fan of racing games has played this type of game before: Futuristic setting, ’xtreme’ racing circuit, breakneck speeds at high altitudes on courses full of twists, turns and jumps. Oh yea, turbo powerups galore as well as vehicle damage for hitting the walls. It’s a tried and true formula that have brought some series to the top and dropped others to the bottom. While HSX really has no glaring flaws, it also does nothing to break itself from the pack.

Graphics

The best way I could describe HSX graphically would be a watered down Wipeout 3 or an enhanced F-Zero. It’s not the ugliest game on the market, but the graphics would definitely look better.

For starters, the ship models are extremely generic and differ far too little. Worse than the ships are the backgrounds, which look like something straight out of a PSX game. Not only are they ugly, dark and dull, but there’s also absolutely no life to them whatsoever.

The game boasts the simplest special effects. When you’re damaged enough, your engine catches fire. When you’re using turbo, you get a decent little red streak effect. Anyone remember Test Drive 5’s rain effects, where regardless of which way you’re going or turning the rain hits and falls down the same cheesy way? Well, that method has made a return for this game.

On the plus side, these types of games are always good for their frame-rates, and HSX is no different. Crisp and smooth with hardly a drop of slowdown, Blade Interactive atleast did one thing right here.

Sound

Even more so than the graphics, the ’been there... done that’ feeling is very apparent when it comes to the sound. Do you enjoy electronica? I certainly hope so. If not, you’ll want to turn this music all the way down because that’s all they offer.

The special effects are just as average. The engines in the ships are low and forgettable. The ’wooosh’ sound of the turbo is just as exciting. There’s also a splashing effect for when your ship lands in water, which is actually quite good, but probably just because everything else is so average.

Gameplay

Luckily for Majesco and Blade, a game of this type doesn’t really need incredible sound or graphics, only a thrilling race at the promised speeds. It somewhat delivers, although you definitely won’t be as pleased with this title if you’re into F-Zero or Wipeout as opposed to someone who’s new to this type of game.

First the good. The control in this game is just right- not too floaty that you can easily take every corner and not too stiff that you crash on every corner. Also, as already mentioned, the speed in the game is very good. There are huge jumps and turns to navigate, and the lack of slowdown really helps. There are also a good amount of tracks to mess with, and weather effects to toggle.

Lastly, the game features a pretty awesome track editor, quite possibly the best I’ve ever seen for a racing game. It’s incredibly simple to use and you can whip up a track in no time at all. Not wimpy little boring tracks either. My first track took about 4 minutes to make and it was quite a few twisting vertical climbs as well as straight drops of hundreds of feet.

Now for the bad. The tracks are a little too far fetched for their own good. Going full speed, there will be many a time where you’ll simply fly off of the course because the drop is just too steep or there’s just one too many twists in the climb. Also, with the track editor, you’d better have a friend that likes the game or enjoy racing solo, because the CPU AI sucks hardcore on custom tracks. You will have no problem beating them.

The game also suffers from a lack of any depth. I think after one or two races, most gamers will have the control and gameplay pretty much mastered. The game could have really used some weapons, speed boosts on the track, or natural hazards of some sort. If you’re gonna copy someones idea, why not go all out and copy all of the good parts?

Overall

With a retail price of only $9.99, it’s hard not to recommend this game to a racing fan. With just $10 burned, I think most can walk away happy from this title. Just remember, you get what you pay for, which, in this case, is basically a slightly above average clone of F-Zero. It’s sleek, fast, and well worth the $10 pricetag because of the track editor alone. If you like these types of racers, don’t pass this one up.

The Good
+ Only $9.99 MSRP
+ Great track editor
+ Good amount of tracks to race on
+ Great framerate, litte slowdown

The Bad
- A little shallow
- Borrows a little too heavily from other series
- Lackluster graphics/sound