Midtown Madness, created in 1999 by a development team know as Angel Studios. It is one of the first racing games that started something that was uncommon to the racing genre, open-world racing; racing through tracks in multiple ways possible in a city that simulates a real life counter-part. In 2000, Angel Studios teamed up with RockStar games to release a similar game that focuses on the underground racing scene for the launch of the PlayStation 2 console, Midnight Club.

The Midnight Club series is one of the first games that started an theme that many racing games would used throughout the 2000s. I decided to take a look at the first three games of the decade old franchise.

The year 2000, the PlayStation 2 launches with several launch titles, one of them being Midnight Club: Street Racing. You start out as a regular cab driver, who is then greeted by a Latino New York Native name Emilio. After you beating him, you are then welcome to Midnight Club, a club with members of a elite underground racers that meet up at midnight.

You get to race in two cities, New York and London. Both cites are filled with racers, known as "hookmen," with very eccentric persona. As you beat them, you receive their cars as the winning prize. You eventually encounter a mystery world champion as the final boss. Each race has you dodging traffic, taking one of multiple path ways to get each checkpoint, and get first place, while a generic techno soundtrack plays as you race through. The game will pulls the Metroid twist at the end, as you find out that the world champion is a young woman name Anika. Cop cars, buses, and taxi cabs are also available as bonus unlocks for the arcade mode.

Midnight Club wasn't much of the way of story, but the thing about Midnight Club's fiction, was the eccentric personalities of all of the hookmen. Some were very stereotypical, and yet, they offer a sense of goofy-ness to them; so much that they were somewhat likable. It almost seem like that developers made the hookmens what they are on purpose, instead of accidental.

Midnight Club: Street Racing

Midnight Club was a good showpiece for the PlayStation 2 console, and it also won over critics and consumers. Midnight Club became one of the top selling PlayStation 2 games of 2000. A Game Boy Advance version Midnight Club was released a year later, the 3D world of New York and London was traded for a top-down perspective that's reminiscence of the early Grand Theft Auto games. But the Game Boy Advance version failed to capture the success of its console counterpart. Midnight Club would become an establish franchise for RockStar.

Angel Studios made the next and last sequel to Midtown Madness, Midtown Madness 2 for MicroSoft for the PC, which was in development at the same time as Midnight Club. The New York level from Midnight Club made its way into Midtown Madness 2 due to both games using the same engine. Angel Studios eventually got owned by RockStar, and got renamed as RockStar San Diego.

Two years after the release of the original, RockStar San Diego releases the sequel to the acclaim racing game in 2002. The game improved all aspects of the original, making it far superior than its predecessor. Like the first game, minimal story is presented throughout the career mode, You're a nameless racer who is also first encountered by a racer name Moses, after beaten, he introduces you to Midnight Club.

The eccentric personality of all the hookmen is driven even further, as you see a CG cut-scene of the hookmen you're about to race, first deep in thought, then says a few lines of dialogue to you before the race. You encounter a female hookmen name Gina, who you befriend then have to save after she was cheated in a race by a fellow hookmen and got her into some trouble with the Yakuza clan. No Metroid twist ending in this time around; at the end, you're greeted with a congratulation message from Gina, and that's the end of the game.

Midnight Club II offers much more than the original, a greater sense of speed that gives Midnight Club II more intensity in the races. The career mode spans across three cities: L.A, Paris, and Tokyo are your three main cities. And of course, more vehicles, with motorcycles making their debut along side them. And to top it all off, online play also makes it debut for the series. The experience is much improve as the generic techno soundtrack was replaced with more memorable license music, most of it is filled with techno, a long with a few hip-hop tracks.

Adding more to the package isn't enough to justify a sequel, there has to be some changes to the gameplay. Techniques can be use to help the player in certain tight situations in a race. While up in the air, players can use "weigh transfer" to position the car and give it a better landing when hitting to the ground. If a needed boost in speed is what you need, you can use "slip stream boost" that is gain by tailing your opponent long enough for a meter to fill.

Midnight Club II

Midnight Club II became another commercial hit for RockStar, selling over three million copies for the PlayStation 2. Even beating out a sequel to a franchise that RockStar San Diego created, Midtown Madness. Midtown Madness 3 was developed by Digital Illusion for the Xbox. Midtown Madness 3 sold over an million copies, while Midnight Club II sold twice as much.

With the Fast and the Furious films popularizing the underground racing scene, EA Games responds to that with the release of the next iteration of the Need for Speed series, Need for Speed Underground in 2003. The game did one thing that Midnight Club never did, an empathises on customization. Players can add their own decals, front bumpers and back bumpers, hood, exhausts pipes, and so on; giving their vehicles their own personal taste. Need for Speed Underground proven to be a huge success for EA, as the game sold over fifteen million copies. Sequels follow suit, and other numerous of racing games copied the same theme. Midnight Club may of started the underground racing scene, but Need for Speed Underground established it.

Need for Speed Underground was the leader of the pack in terms of the underground racing scene for the racing genre. That built up motivation for RockStar San Diego to make the next Midnight Club to be ever better than the last.

2005 mark the release of the third game, this time, with upgrades that rivals its evolve competitors of the underground street racing genre. Though it was no easy path to claim success like its predecessor, the market of underground street racing games was considered "flooded," but Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition surprised everyone that experienced it.

Some major changes have been made, along side the better graphics and sense of speed, the majority of the soundtrack is no longer techno, music from other genre appear to make the game more appealing to others that weren't quite fond of Midnight Club II's sound. The eccentric personalty of the hookman is no more, each of the hookmen no longer speak, not even lines of text is said to you. With the majority of the soundtrack no longer techno, and the gone eccentric personality of the hookmen, a part of Midnight Club is lost in the third installment.

But that didn't stop Midnight Club 3 from being entirely disappointing. The game packs in more cars than the last two games combine, and for the first time in the series, licence cars are featured. Like Need for Speed Underground, the player has the ability to customize each vehicle. The vehicles are spilt up in separate division, such as exotic, trucks, muscle, etc. Each of the division have special moves that can help the player in a tight spot once the player fills a special meter; for example, the muscle cars can use "agro" to push all the cars out of the way.

Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition

Midnight Club 3 achieved success for RockStar once again, the game was a commercial and critical hit, a difficult thing to gain in a flooded market. An year later, RockStar re-visited Midnight Club 3 by re-releasing the game as Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix. More vehicles, music tracks, and the return of the Tokyo level from Midnight Club II makes a return for the updated version.

The Midnight Club series will continue on as RockStar's hit racing franchise. The made its way onto the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Throughout the days of the Midnight Club series, RockStar San Diego created other games for RockStar, such Red Dead Revolver, Smuggler's Run, and the critically acclaim Red Dead Redemption. While fans are awaiting the next Midnight Club game, they have the current games to enjoy.