Midnight Club: Street Racing
Midnight Club: Street Racing
Sorti le 26 octobre 2000, Midnight Club: Street Racing est un jeu de course développé par Angel Studios et Rebellion Developments, et édité par Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar Games et Destination Software. Le titre est disponible sur PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance et PlayStation 3, et tourne sur le moteur Angel (AGE).
Le jeu s'inspire des courses de rue illégales organisées par le mystérieux « Midnight Club ». Le joueur y incarne un pilote participant à des rassemblements secrets à travers des versions stylisées de New York et de Londres, où l'objectif est de gagner les véhicules des adversaires — les « pink slips » — en parcourant des cités ouvertes au trafic dense. La progression repose sur une conduite agressive : franchir les feux rouges, rouler sur les trottoirs, semer la police et slalomer entre les piétons pour s'imposer dans la hiérarchie du club.
La version Game Boy Advance, en particulier, transpose cette formule de monde ouvert sur portable, proposant un arsenal de véhicules à débloquer et une gestion de la vitesse au cœur de l'expérience. L'ensemble repose sur le moteur propriétaire Angel (AGE).
Côté réception, le jeu obtient une note agrégée de 74,09. La presse de l'époque a salué une approche rafraîchissante du genre ; Core Magazine souligne ainsi un « twist frais sur le modèle de course traditionnel » qui permet au titre de se démarquer, tandis que Daily Radar met en avant des graphismes impressionnants et une sensation de vitesse « franchement effrayante », surtout en vue cockpit. Rétrospectivement, les joueurs reconnaissent ses qualités pour l'époque — l'un d'eves notant qu'il « se démarquait » malgré une intelligence artificielle parfois agaçante —, mais la plupart s'accordent à dire que l'expérience paraît aujourd'hui dépassée, l'un d'eux la jugeant « datée de presque 23 ans » face à la concurrence actuelle.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« Its fresh twist on the traditional racing model and creative gameplay make this one of the few titles in a flooded genre that really stands out. »
« The graphics are very impressive, the sense of speed is downright frightening (especially when played from the cockpit of the car) and the graphics are an amazing amalgam of detail and functionality. »
« Instead of flying over hills and sometimes jumping into buildings, as you do in "Rush," MC keeps the racing more down-to-earth. »
« In addition to the litany of cars, the huge cities are riddled with secrets and original ways to make shortcuts, which makes single player gameplay and two-player games extremely fun. »
« An extremely fun arcade-style racer. »
« Midnight Club is "Driver" with ten times the graphics and one half the fun. »
« They've definitely provided you with huge maps on which to race and some tough opponents to race against, but the whole city looks drab and plain. »
« The score gets dragged down just a bit by the short length and some AI problems, but this is still a fun game. »
Avis des Joueurs (Metacritic)
« It's obviously a bit dated now but looking back at what was available at the time this game stood out to me. While the AI could get aggravating at times the atmosphere is what got me. You have full maps of New York and London which are surprisingly detailed at the time with many landmarks sprinkled throughout. Since you are able to control the weather and pedestrian/car traffic it lead to creating a nice driving experience in free mode. Turning on rain with crowded streets in New York was a vibe with it's slick roads and shiny cars. There's over 40 cars to unlock and lots of challenges to do in the arcade mode. Career mode has you racing 3 racers per map multiple times to unlock the champ on each map. In doing so you unlock new cars to use against them. Overall I really liked this game even if the AI and controls annoyed me at time. If you're curious to see what Rockstar was cooking before GTA 3 with it's maps then I'd say check it out as it's cool to see what was before. »
« good racing game but way other games are in the market now and feels outdated almost 23 years later »
« Very challenging racing game, a bit chaotic but Emilio's quotes raise the level of the game! " Yo, what? Your momma teach you to drive? Ehh?" »
« Where the great Midnight Club series began. It's now available on the PS Store. For a game that was released in 2000, this game looks great. Races can, however, be a pain to beat, and this seem to carry over in each iteration of MC. If you want to see where it all began, or just want to collect all MC games, then buy this. I should warn you though, that customization-wise, it isn't deep as the later games. »
