This is an ongoing list where I review every game ever made and tell you, "the reader", where it ranks all time. Feel free to view my older entries for the other games reviewed.

I need to start by getting something off my chest early, Speed Devils broke how I think about racing games. Now this isn't some kind of endorsement like "its so different its cool", but rather "is this really how someone expects you to play this." Now to be very evident, the racing genre is not my bread and butter. I dabble and maybe play 1 - 2 racing games a year. I'm not a car guy, and I really just want a "fun" racing game that doesn't take itself too seriously. That is what Speed Devils promised me, but sadly did not deliver.

For those unfamiliar with this Dreamcast game, Speed Devils is a racing game that is an arcade-y racer that has a gambling aspect to the races. Every so often you will be asked if you want to bet on whether or not you can achieve special challenges during the race. For example, can you hit a certain top speed during a race, or can you prevent a rival from finishing in the top three. Gamble and win, and you will get some money that can be used to repair or upgrade your car. Lose and you may not only be out some cash, but in some instances your actual car. Its a clever concept that challenges you to think about more than just winning the race. (Word to the wise, never accept the challenge where you are preventing someone else from coming in the top 3).

Your opponents are all characters that all drive their own cars and have personalities, which is a step up from faceless racers that dont matter. Each opponent probably has their own driving style, but you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between "risky" and "reckless" for attributes they give themselves. Win enough races and challenges and you may even be challenged to a one on one race against an opponent for their car. Lose however, and you lose yours.

Finally, levels range from the boring (highway driving with pedestrian cars) to the more absurd (Driving through a movie lot, with jaws and a t-rex). There are shortcuts, some obvious, and some that involve driving through "false" walls. Get enough points through racing and you can "level-up" to the next class where you face new courses and tougher opponents. Do it enough and reach S class where you compete endlessly against the hardest racer in the best car.

That all seems like a lengthy back of the box description of how the game plays, but I need it all to get out there to explain how at every turn this game takes a good idea, and then ruins it, because on paper, this is a racing game that sounds interesting and fun to play.

In the beginning the game lures you in to thinking this will be a fun romp. The first 3? levels of your circuit are interesting levels that make the game seem wacky and something you would show your friends (dude I just drove under a T-Rex). Your starter car is just good enough that you can place first against your opponents and start raking in cash early on to think about upgrading your car or buying a new one. Before you know it the game will ask you to rank up and move from D class to C class. If this was any other racing game, that would be the smart move. You already have a car fast enough to place first in every match (you might have even upgraded it), you are bored of playing the same three courses against the same AI. However, you couldn't make a worse choice. If you take the obvious choice, like I did. You will be greeted with AI that can't be beat with your current setup. Your starting car can no longer keep up with the other drivers, you will not be able to gamble and win in any challenges and you will be making buttons for finishing near last every race. Your first thought will be to buy a new car and realistically you can probably afford a car that is two levels up from your current one. Well bad news, the car you just bought actually probably isn't going to cut it for C class, and now you don't have a lot of money. So you can either, memorize the levels and where all the secrets are hoping for some 3rd place finishes to start saving up for better cars, OR you can start the game over and make a "better" decision in the early game where you refuse to rank up from D to C class until you can afford a much better car.

This is where the game broke me. I played it like it was supposed to be played. I won races, leveled up when the challenge was gone in the early stages only to be met with a foe that would require me to grind money to be competitive again. We are also talking about a serious grind here, not like 5 races but like 20-25 races. This was only the first level up! I would have to do this again in B class and A class. So instead I had to use logic that is counter to how the game wants me to play. I spent hours grinding out money in races in D class (ones I could easily win) until I could afford the best car in the game. Then I could level up and know that I could still compete in the races. In a game that has lets say a dozen cars, I used 2 to beat the game (starter and best). I should WANT to collect all the cars, I should WANT to make incremental upgrades and changes, but any money spent not saved for the top car is money wasted.

I had to break the game to beat it within a reasonable amount of time, because the alternative was to lose races repeatedly so that I could scrape and claw for one more upgrade to go from 5th to 4th place.

What was surprising to me is that there were people who defended how Speed Devils wanted you to advance. While most comments I received were of the "Git Gud' variety, there were people who were earnest that I was playing it wrong, because I needed to learn and memorize where all the shortcuts were for each level so that if I drive the perfect race, I could compete for 2nd or 3rd with a non-supped up car. Now I know shortcuts exist in racing games, however I can not recall a game that would REQUIRE you to discover and use all the shortcuts in a race just to have a fighting chance at competing. Because if you imagine that you are not using the internet to look up videos of where shortcuts are, then you are driving through a race at 20mph bumping into every wall in hopes that you find one that you can use when you play the course for real. This is as much of a time sink as grinding through 4th place finishes until you can upgrade again.

I could honestly talk about this game for much more (levels go from absurd and interesting, to just uninspired and boring, your garage can only hold 3 cars, etc.) but this is already getting long in the tooth. I will leave it at this: Speed Devils is a bad game with an interesting concept. It is not difficult in the "learn and get better" variety, but in the "keep pumping in quarters" variety, and no matter how good a first impression it might leave, the more you play the worse the game gets.

Thanks for listening,

-Phil

Is it the Greatest game of all time: Absolutely not

Where does it rank: It is the 12th greatest game of all time. Worse than #11 When Vikings Attack. It is at the bottom of the list.

Next games to be reviewed: World Series of Poker (Xbox) and Harms Way (Xbox 360)