In order to claim said fruit, players will have to race a variety of cars across wind swept plains, icy glaciers and deserted cities. There are 12 beautifully designed tracks all in all, 4 of which are strictly multiplayer. More on those later. Initially, players can select one of four cars; 2 from the underground corporations and 2 used by the surface tribes. Each car has a distinct set of characteristics which define its handling properties, weight, speed, acceleration, grip etc. Players will need to choose wisely among the vehicles available to them. A car with a lot of grip would be the prime choice under snowy conditions, while one with a lot of acceleration would fit the bill nicely for the wide open courses. As more tracks are completed, players will be able to choose from a 3rd corporation and a 3rd surface tribe car as well. Those skilled in the Powerslide ways will have access to a 7th Supercar, developed jointly by both groups.

The cars themselves are superbly modeled. Polygon shocks and springs expand and contract while hugging the terrain's surface. Wheel's kick up dirt while taking a hard corner, or coming off of the starting line. Even the rims are fully modeled with polygons. The car's surface reflects the general lighting of the surroundings. While Powerslide doesn't use real-time lighting, the reflections and hues off of the cars mimic their surrounding beautifully. Nothing has been skimped on in the car models, and the same can be said about the cars' handling. We'll be honest; we were a little frustrated with the car control at first. We found ourselves slipping and sliding all over the tracks. Powerslide exaggerates the physics by a hair to simulate an environment with a little less friction than normal. The end result is cars with a healthy appetite for oversteering, and oversteer they do. Anyone with an analog joystick who goes a few rounds with Powerslide, though, will emerge with the driving technique down pat in no time.

Visually, the game is a treat for the eyes. Despite taking place in a world reminiscent of Mad Max, Powerslide still shows numerous signs of vibrant colors which range from graffiti on a street wall, to a mine's eerie lighting to the glow of an underground city's neon lights. Structures throughout the game lie in ruins or show signs of extreme weather damage. Street signs and billboards announce messages long faded. Whole towns sit underneath feet of sand, mud and snow. Roads and bridges are now impassable, as sections of them lay scattered across a ravine. Even the sun worn cars show signs of cracked and chipped paint, rusted metal and shoddy maintenance. Powerslide is filled with unorthodox texture sizes that represent different rock quarries, road conditions, cave walls and random machinery. You'll be hard pressed to find texture tiling in any of the tracks. While by no means are they Unreal quality, the textures are crisp, sharp and colorful. Powerslide's object and terrain textures hold depict more detail than most games we've come across, not just racers.

What makes Powerslide truly memorable, however, isn't the handling, or the car models or even the great visual quality of the game. Powerslide's levels are what make it stand apart from the crowd. Levels have often been called the foundation, or building blocks of a game, and Powerslide's are no exception. Each one of the game's 12 levels is beautifully modeled, and is more befitting an adventure game or a first person shooter than an arcade racer. Let's take a quick look at each level and see what it has to offer… we might even sneak in a tip or two for those tougher courses.