19 out of 19 people found this review helpful.
Updated: The Free For All Driver
Date of Review: May 21, 2000
The Bottom Line: Microsoft's racer is very innovative and is a good game to add to your collection. But after a couple of days play, you may grow tired of it.
Microsoft released Midtown Madness 2 in 2000. It includes London as its main city and provides better graphics. But its basically the same thing
Midtown Madness is a car driving game which allows you to drive in a mapped out area of Chicago. Unlike other racers, you can turn corners, attempt to knock down people, hit signs and traffic light and even drive through shops with glass windows. You can also run away from the violent police.
The game offers a few cars, but you have to win the races to unlock them. The races make you reach a certain point before your opponents, about 5 other cars. This is a bit tedious actually because many times I unlocked all the cars but then I uninstalled and re-installed the game only to find out there was no cheat inplace so I had to do over all the races.
You can also Multiplay over a lan, phone line or on the MSN Gaming Zone. Lan multiplay is the fastest of the three, because network speeds are higher. Direct phone line is limited to the speed of the line in your area. Msn gaming zone is rather dependable, and even though a newer version of this game is out, people are still there to play. On 56k, speeds a less than satisfactory though so ISDN owners and up I would suggest try using this internet play.
The game driving controls are very touchy, while making a corner make sure not to turn too hard or you will spin out of control. Sometime it makes it feel more like a simulation rather than an Arcade racer. You have good control over your car, you can turn on headlights, indicators and even windshield wipers.
The bad thing about this game is that it gets really boring after a while. You only have 1 course to drive on. And the selection of cars is limited. You get really tired of driving on the same course over and over and over. That is my main problem with this game, but it is still fun, and I can still go back and play it now and then but you get really tired of it after a while.
If you enjoyed this game alot, then pick up the new version. Otherwise, its basically the same thing with slightly better graphics.
