If you wanted to turn a certain group of (let’s call them) experienced gamers into dust instantaneously, you need only remind them that we are nearly a quarter of a century away from the demise of Sega’s final console, the Dreamcast. Apologies to anyone who found that sentence distressing, but it’s true. The Dreamcast was discontinued in March of 2001 leaving behind a library of games arguably most notable for bringing all the quarter-consuming action of the arcade into our living rooms.
With the loss of Sega’s final console, some of its most notable titles were in need of a new home. Many of them found new life on the Microsoft Xbox including Jet Set Radio Future (2002), Shenmue II (2002), House of the Dead III (2003), and Outrun 2 (2004).
One less obvious relocation is Bizarre Creations’ Metropolis Street Racer (2000). Try though you might, you won’t find any green game cases emblazoned with “MSR” in the Xbox library, but you will find the bones of what made this Dreamcast racer stand out in its spiritual successor, the Xbox-exclusive Project Gotham Racing.
Bizarre Creations’ follow-up to MSR launched alongside the original Xbox in 2001, bringing with it MSR’s unique “kudos” system. Where most racers required you to get from start to finish faster than all the other vehicles on the road, MSR concerned itself with how stylishly you reached the finish line. Power slides, precision driving, overtaking another driver, and navigating a track without taking any damage would net you kudos which were required to complete challenges and advance the game. Stringing together fancy driving tricks would multiply your kudos, while crashing would cost you precious kudos.
Happy to let Forza lead the way on simulation driving, Project Gotham racing blends simulation-style control with driving action that would feel at home in any arcade. While Project Gotham’s 30 drivable cars was relatively small compared to its contemporaries, the game did manage to snag licenses from Porche and Ferrari allowing drivers to tackle the game’s 200 or so tracks with the Porche 911 GT2 or the Ferrari 360 Spider.
Project Gotham Racing managed to stay in gear for a sequel on the original Xbox and two more games on the Xbox 360. Bizarre Creations ended the series with Project Gotham Racing 4 in 2007 after being acquired by Activision. Project Gotham Racing received its own spiritual successor when Bizarre Creations’ launched Blur on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC in 2010. Bizarre Creations’ final game, James Bond 007: Blood Stone, released in November 2010. Activision closed the studio down in January of 2011.
