A great addition to the XG titles

User Rating: 9.2 | XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association XBOX
By AshikawaYuki | Review Date:
When I first saw XGRA, I knew I had to have it, as a fan of XGIII. I was hoping for more customization, but unfortuately, was disappointed in that regard. In fact, many of the customization options from XGIII were completely removed in XGRA. In XGIII, players would play through races, earning money to put toward new engines and weapons for their bikes. In XGRA, races earn the player points, and upgrades happen automatically, taking away a degree of interactivity from the game.

While this is something of a setback, the game has a lot of things going for it. The tracks are simply stunning, at at times, completely mindblowing. Instead of playing every track over and over as was done in XGIII, the career mode has different circuits consisting of three tracks (four in the ultrasonic speed class) with different race modes. This definitely makes the gameplay more interesting and less boring.

The music in the game isn't great. It's not bad, but I prefer listening to my own music while I play. The sound effects for the bikes and weapons, however, are great.

The gameplay is slightly easier than XGIII. I found that even Ultrasonic wasn't too difficult, but I think it's just right with the different limitations each race type places on the bike. Choosing the right bike is essential in some cases. Some bikes are better geared toward handling, where others are geared more toward speed and acceleration. There are four unlockable teams, each sporting very nice, well-balanced bikes. They also have several different bike types, and the teams are not preset to their riders.

The game doesn't have a whole heckuva lot of replay value once you beat the one-player mode, but it's a great game to play with a buddy, and there's always time trial, playing against your best times. Some tracks are harder to learn than others, and sometimes it's just plain fun to try to wipe out all of the other riders.

The weapons are really great. Each team has a different primary weapon, ranging from cannons, energy weapons, electronic weapons, bombs, or rockets. The first level weapons aren't very powerful, but with your first two kills, your weapons are upgraded, and some of the maxed out weapons are just plain devestating. You are given a wide range of secondary weapons, some of which are earned through completing certain contracts (secondary missions given to you in races, which can range from destroying billboards to destroying other racers). The best of these is deathstrike. It allows you to instantly kill a targeted rider. It's admittedly too powerful and makes the other secondary weapons completely useless because it's the best. The only drawback is that you have to collect 10 special green orbs placed around the track in order to use it.

Overall, XGRA is a great game, and it's a great addition to the XG series.
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