By:
Ratbag

What do you call a 3D racer with a wide variety of cars, a large number of tracks, absolutely addicting play control and handling, stunning visuals and level design that would embarrass most first person shooters? You call it Powerslide, and you call it the Winner of the Sharky Extreme - Extreme Game Award. 1998 was characterized by many landmark titles across the entire genre spectrum; Half-Life for FPS's, Starcraft for RTS's, Falcon 4.0 for flight sims, Grand Prix Legends for driving sims, Grim Fandango for adventures and Madden '99 for sports. Powerslide joins this very exclusive list as a benchmark title, as it's easily the best arcade racer of 1998.

Even more noteworthy is the fact that Powerslide is the first title to be developed by Australian-based Ratbag. So much for growing pains; Powerslide looks, sounds, feels and plays like a game produced by the most senior of industry veterans. But these new kids on the block have accomplished in their first try what some never achieve in their entire careers, and that's put out a quality and complete game which will leave you with a good old fashioned grin stretching from ear to ear.

Not only does Powerslide compete with the other arcade racers of 1998, it outright beats them in almost every aspect. Sound? Yes. Graphics? Oh ya. Physics? You betcha. Gameplay? Unequivocally. Level Design? You better believe it. Story? Actually… yes. Powerslide even has a sizeable back-story. Let's take a closer look.