Metropolis Street Racer

From Sega Retro

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MetropolisStreetRacer title.png

Metropolis Street Racer
System(s): Sega Dreamcast
Publisher: Sega
Developer:
Genre: Racing

















Number of players: 1-8
Release Date RRP Code
Sega Dreamcast
US 		51012
Sega Dreamcast
EU 		MK-51022-50

Metropolis Street Racer, known as Metropolis during development and frequently listed simply as MSR, is a racing game developed by Bizarre Creations for the Sega Dreamcast. Highly praised at the time of release, MSR was often considered to be the Dreamcast's answer to the PlayStation's Gran Turismo racing series, as it has over 250 circuits (set in real-world locations) and numerous officially licensed cars.

History

Development

MSR's origins date back to 1997 when Sega's Kats Sato was tasked with finding out who had developed the PlayStation games Formula 1 and Formula 1 Championship Edition for Sony Computer Entertainment. Reportedly Sato purposely pulled the power cable at a display at ECTS 1997 to see the game's intoductory credits, and, upon discovering the team was Bizarre Creations, a meeting was arranged with Kazutoshi Miyake in an attempt to get the team to produce games for Sega instead. Martyn Chudley of Bizarre Creations accepted the offer and work on MSR began.

Metropolis Street Racer had an extremely rocky development cycle, being announced well in advance of the Dreamcast's launch and repeatedly missing deadlines over the course of a year. It was reportedly the first Dreamcast project to be started in the United Kingdom[2].

While initially aimed at the Dreamcast's western launch window (late 1999), the game did not materialise fully until November 2000, at a time when Dreamcast sales were on the decline. Development on a Japanese release was started but never completed.

Thirty hours of real-life footage from the streets of London, Tokyo and San Francisco were captured in order to create accurate representations of the host cities, as well as 35,000 photographs[3]. Richard Jacques who had at this point composed many soundtracks for Sega, provided the audio for the game.

Release

Metropolis Street Racer originally launched in PAL regions with a number of bugs, so much so that the game was recalled and Sega felt the need to issue replacement discs (the later North American version is the bug-fixed version, although not all the bugs were actually fixed). A replay option, included in review copies of the game, was scrapped at the last minute due to time restraints.

Despite initially high expectations, MSR sold 101,757 units in the U.S. through January 2003 according to NPD Group. In the UK 13,297 were sold in the week ending November 4th, 2000 according to Chart-Track. In Germany it debuted at number one in Media Control's November 2000 Dreamcast chart. Martyn Chudley described releasing the game exclusively on the Dreamcast at this time was like "The Beatles exclusively selling The White Album on Mars". £1 million of Bizarre Creations' own money went into the project, and although the team was happy to port the game to the PlayStation 2, management at Sega declined the offer.

Bizarre Creations would use what they learned through Metropolis Street Racer to create their line of Project Gotham Racing games for the Xbox/Xbox 360 which are seen as a spiritual successors.

Magazine articles

Main article: Metropolis Street Racer/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

  • FR print advert

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Print advert in Official Dreamcast Magazine (US) #10: "Holiday 2000" (2000-11-28)
also published in:
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Print advert in Official Dreamcast Magazine (UK) #12: "October 2000" (2000-09-07)
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Physical scans

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
94 №107, p88-90[5]
100 №229, p82-83[1]
90 №91, p98/99[6]
86
86
82
80 №1, p46[7]
Sega Dreamcast
 88
Based on
7 reviews
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
576 Konzol (HU)
98
[8]
Ação Games (BR)
65
[9]
Bonus (YU) PAL
95
[10]
Click! (PL)
60
[11]
Consoles + (FR) PAL
94
[5]
Computer & Video Games (UK)
100
[1]
Dreamcast Monthly (UK) PAL
90
[12]
Dreamcast Magazine (UK) PAL
96
[13]
Edge (UK) PAL
90
[6]
Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U
70
[14]
Entsiklopediya igr dlya Dreamcast (RU)
91
[15]
Fun Generation (DE) PAL
86
[16]
GamePro (US) NTSC-U
88
[17]
Game Station (UK)
100
[18]
Game Informer (US) NTSC-U
89
[19]
Gamers' Republic (US) NTSC-U
100
[20]
Hyper (AU)
92
[21]
MAN!AC (DE) PAL
91
[22]
Mega Fun (DE) PAL
91
[23]
Neo Plus (PL)
90
[24]
Next Generation (US) NTSC-U
100
[25]
Official Dreamcast Magazine (UK) PAL
90
[26]
Official Dreamcast Magazine (US) NTSC-U
90
[27]
Playbox (FR)
86
[28]
Play (PL)
94
[29]
PSX Extreme (PL)
93
[30]
Power Unlimited (NL)
98
[31]
Sega Magazin (DE) PAL
93
[32]
Strana Igr (RU)
95
[33]
Video Gamer (UK)
80
[7]
Video Games (DE) PAL
82
[34]
Sega Dreamcast
 90
Based on
31 reviews

Metropolis Street Racer

Dreamcast, US
MSR US backcover.jpgMSR DC US Box Front.jpg
Cover
MSRDCUSInlay.jpg
Inlay
Dreamcast, EU
MSR DC EU Box Back.jpgMSR DC EU Box Front.jpg
Cover
MSR DC EU Disc.jpg
Disc
Dreamcast, EU (White Label)

MSR DC EU Disc White.jpg
Disc

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 File:CVG UK 229.pdf, page 82 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:CVG UK 229.pdf_p82" defined multiple times with different content
  2. ↑ File:Arcade UK 07.pdf, page 13
  3. ↑ File:EGM US 132.pdf, page 64
  4. ↑ Official Dreamcast Magazine, "March 2001" (US; 2001-01-28), page 24
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 File:ConsolesPlus FR 107.pdf, page 88 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:ConsolesPlus FR 107.pdf_p88" defined multiple times with different content
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 File:Edge UK 091.pdf, page 98 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:Edge UK 091.pdf_p98" defined multiple times with different content
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 File:VideoGamer UK 01.pdf, page 46 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; name ":File:VideoGamer UK 01.pdf_p46" defined multiple times with different content
  8. ↑ 576 Konzol, "December 2000" (HU; 2000-xx-xx), page 40
  9. ↑ Ação Games, "Fevereiro 2001" (BR; 2001-xx-xx), page 47
  10. ↑ Bonus, "9/2000" (YU; 2000-12-25), page 50
  11. ↑ Click!, "3/2001" (PL; 2001-02-01), page 24
  12. ↑ Dreamcast Monthly, "Christmas 2000" (UK; 2000-11-23), page 84
  13. ↑ Dreamcast Magazine, "No. 15" (UK; 2000-11-02), page 62
  14. ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "January 2001" (US; 2000-12-05), page 193
  15. ↑ Entsiklopediya igr dlya Dreamcast, "Izdaniye chetvertoye, dopolnennoye" (RU; 2002-xx-xx), page 131
  16. ↑ Fun Generation, "11/2000" (DE; 2000-10-18), page 58
  17. ↑ GamePro, "January 2001" (US; 200x-xx-xx), page 105
  18. ↑ Game Station (UK) (+0:00)
  19. ↑ Game Informer, "December 2000" (US; 2000-1x-xx), page 123
  20. ↑ Gamers' Republic, "December 2000" (US; 2000-xx-xx), page 69
  21. ↑ Hyper, "February 2001" (AU; 2000-12-20), page 44
  22. ↑ MAN!AC, "12/2000" (DE; 2000-11-02), page 52
  23. ↑ Mega Fun, "12/2000" (DE; 2000-11-02), page 38
  24. ↑ Neo Plus, "Grudzień 2000" (PL; 2000-xx-xx), page 54
  25. ↑ Next Generation, "January 2001" (US; 2000-12-21), page 96
  26. ↑ Official Dreamcast Magazine, "October 2000" (UK; 2000-09-07), page 8
  27. ↑ Official Dreamcast Magazine, "Holiday 2000" (US; 2000-11-28), page 86
  28. ↑ Playbox, "Décembre 2000" (FR; 2000-1x-xx), page 41
  29. ↑ Play, "Luty 2001" (PL; 2001-xx-xx), page 30
  30. ↑ PSX Extreme, "03/2001" (PL; 2001-0x-xx), page 38
  31. ↑ Power Unlimited, "Jaargang 9, Nummer 1, Januari 2001" (NL; 200x-xx-xx), page 42
  32. ↑ Sega Magazin, "Dezember 2000" (DE; 2000-1x-xx), page 12
  33. ↑ Strana Igr, "Dekabr 2000 1/2" (RU; 2000-xx-xx), page 48
  34. ↑ Video Games, "12/2000" (DE; 2000-11-02), page 102
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