Midnight Club: Street Racing

Midnight Club: Street Racing
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Developer(s)	Angel Studios (PS2) Rebellion Developments (GBA)
Publisher(s)	Rockstar Games (PS2) Destination Software (GBA)
Series	Midnight Club
Engine	Angel Game Engine
Platforms	PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance
Release date(s)	PlayStation 2 NA 20001026October 26, 2000 PAL 20001207December 7, 2000 JPN 20010301March 1, 2001 Game Boy Advance NA 20011114November 14, 2001 PAL 20020207February 7, 2002
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer

Midnight Club: Street Racing is a racing arcade game, developed by Angel Studios (now Rockstar San Diego) and published by Rockstar Games. The game focuses on competitive street racing and the import scene, later popularised by The Fast and the Furious movies. The game is available for the PlayStation 2 and Game Boy Advance platforms, the former being a launch title for the platform. It is the first game in Midnight Club franchise, followed by Midnight Club II.

Plot

A mysterious group of urban street racers known as the Midnight Club race for pride, power, and glory in sleekly customized, enhanced sports cars. As a regular New York City cab driver, the player learns about this secret club and decides to join.

The player begins with a relatively unmodified and slow vehicle, that being the Taxi. Through a series of races, each with different goals, they defeat other racers and win faster and more expensive vehicles. The goal is to defeat the world champion, who is revealed to be a young Japanese woman named Anika whose father manufactures concept cars in Japan. Being the only person to beat her in a race, the player is the only one who sees her identity and become the World Champion of the Midnight Club, along with winning her concept car. Anika returns to Japan afterwards.

Cities

Players race through London and New York cities. At the time of release, the game's cities were considered highly detailed and large. Along with Turbo Esprit, the game pioneered the use of an open world environment design instead of predefined circuit tracks. Both cities are designed for the street racing scenario.

Each city contains landmarks from their respective real life counterparts. Some of London's visible landmarks include Trafalgar Square, the Palace of Westminster and its Big Ben, and the Tower Bridge. New York includes such landmarks as Times Square, the Empire State Building, the World Trade Center, Rockefeller Center, United Nations Plaza, Plaza Hotel, Madison Square Garden, Washington Square Park, the Wall Street Bull, Battery Park and Central Park.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer modes, such as Capture the Flag, are available for play on the PlayStation 2 by using additional controllers.

Reception

Template:VG reviews The game received positive reviews for the PS2 version, but mediocre reviews for the GBA version. For the PS2 version, IGN, rating it an 8.6/10, stated "In addition to the litany of cars, the huge cities are riddled with secrets and original ways to make shortcuts, which makes single player gameplay and two-player games extremely fun". While GameSpot, giving it an 8.4/10 rating, called it "An extremely fun arcade-style racer".

Game Revolution however, grading it a B-, stated "While offering a decent helping of fun, the bland textures and ubiquitous gameplay make for a somewhat unexciting PS2 start".

For the GBA version, Nintendo Power, rating it a 2.9/5, called it "A decent if not repetitve [sic] drive". Game Over Online, rating it 56%, stated "There is no solid gameplay to back up what is, at the onset, a graphically engaging 2D engine, complete with special effects". While Play Magazine, rating it a 2/5, stated "Unless you stay within the given path, you're guaranteed to lose every race".

The game has sold 1.976 million copies worldwide.

External links

• Midnight Club official website
• Midnight Club at MobyGames
• Midnight Club: Street Racing at DMOZ