Racing games can often be just passed over by people who shrug them off and
say, "Oh, that's just another racing game. There won't be anything new,
exciting, or terribly interesting about this game!" The truth is that people
usually don't give racing games enough credit. Once in a while, a truly
great racing game will come out of the blue and surprise us all. Sadly,
Speed kings isn't that game.

Graphics
I can sum them up in one word: unimprerssive. The edges are jagged. The
locations are uninspired, and the whole game just gives off a sort of 'blah'
feel. There is a good variety of traffic in the game which is at the same
time really good and really frustrating. Even though they are uninspired,
the environments do look good and get the job done so it redeems itself
somewhat.

Most of us all know and love the saying "Variety is the spice of life."
Obviuosly, the developers of this game weren't aware of this saying when
they were designing the bikes. I'm sure there is a limit to how much one
can tweak the design of the racing motorcycle, but this is ridiculous. For
some bikes, it just seems as if they slapped a different texture on a mesh
where they moved a couple vertices. Luckily, the textures are at least
varied, but the next time Acclaim makes a motorcycle game, they should at
least try to make the bikes look different. Come to think of it, the riders
aren't varied much at all either. For one thing, they all have helmets,
which covers everthing on there face, so there is absolutely no personality.
The closest thing you get to personalization is your three letter name and
the color of your uniform. That's it.

One part I actually enjoyed was the crashes. They are eerily realistic.
Your rider is thrown from his bike, squished under it and all sorts of other
things. There's even a name for every different crash that gets flashed on
the screen when you actually crash. The crashes, although sometimes
annoying, provide some nice variety in an otherwise unvaried game.

Gameplay
Speed Kings fails to make any great strides in the way of controls or
general gameplay. This is mainly because it's a racing game, but some things
that were obviously attempts to try and make Speed Kings original just make
it seem ridiculous. For example, during a race, you are encouraged to
execute tricks to get a meter all the way filled up so you can get about a
twenty-second burst of speed. These tricks include a jump, a wheelie, and a
"drop knee", which are all perfectly normal tricks. But there are some that
boggle the mind as to why they even exist. Things like a sort of reverse
wheelie that ends up totally stopping your motorcycle; I mean, why in would
you want to stop in a racing game? And a handstand on the motorcycle, while
it's moving? Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't believe that during an
actual motorcycle race, the riders will do a handstand, jump over great
distances, or go upside down like they do in Speed Kings.

On the subject of realism, I will give the developers credit for adding
traffic to try and make it more realistic. But, seriously, when you start
off on this game, you WILL crash into a oncoming car or truck about every
two minutes. It is really, really frustrating and will probably drive most
people away from the game with a few hours of play. Even if you stick with
this game long enough to really get the hang of it, dodging traffic will
really slow you down.

The one thing I really like in Speed Kings was the driving school. It was
fun, to the point, and really enjoyable. However they will say something
like: "Push the trick button," but they won't tell you which button is the
trick button. So you probably will need to have the booklet with you for
the first few tutorials. The messages telling you what to do can also be
really cryptic but it's still the best part of speed kings and just a lot of
fun.

The main thing that keeps Speed Kings from being a good game is it just
really doesn't know what it is. Is it a crazy trick game or a realistic
morcycle racing simulator? It doesn't really have a purpose. It really
needs to have a place and it just doesn't. Sure there are a lot of things
to do and if you stick with this game, and enjoy it, you will get a lot of
play out of it but, I wasn't one of those people.

Sound
One of the good aspects of this game is the sound effects. They are spot on
and effective. The motor sounds like an actual motor and you can be assured
of a crunch every time you crash into something. However, THERE IS ONLY ONE
BACKROUND SONG FOR EVERY RACE! It can get so annoying! It is a little
entertaning for a while, but it gets old fast. At least you barely notice it
with all the crash sounds you'll be making! So, in summary, don't buy this
expecting the next great thing from John Williams. It's mediocre sound that
has its high points and sadly won't be winning any awards any time soon.

Value
It's really not worth 50 dollars for anyone, you won't get an ooey-gooey
feeling inside when you complete it and will think: "I really spent that
money wisely!" But at least you won't say: "This game isn't worth the
plastic and harsh chemicals it's printed on!" You really have to decide for
yourself. If you're a big racing fan who is really patient, you'll probably
like this game. If you like seeing crazy drivers perfomring wacky tricks and
then crashing, you may like this game. But if you're looking for a deep,
engaging or realisic racing game, spend the money on something else.

OVerall
I could form a better opinion on this game if you could actually classify
it. But as I said before, it doesn't know whether it wants to be a racing
game or a trick racing game or just a plain trick game. Some people may
like it but I suspect most won't. It'll probably appeal to hardcore racing
fans or really big motorcycle fans, but with its limited appeal and
sometimes just weird gameplay it just really doesn't warrant a strong
recommendation.