Score
Gameplay:	7
Graphics:	9
Sound:	6
FunFactor:	7
PlasmaFactor:	7
Overall:	7.2

Street Racing Syndicate Review
November 20, 2004 by Jason

by Jason - September 20, 2004

On the heels of EA's "Need For Speed: Underground" comes a number of street racing titles. One of these titles is Namco's Street Racing Syndicate. I�ll confess that in the beginning I was thinking the game would turn out to be a �me-too,� but am glad that, for the most part, about the only thing that SRS does the same as NFSU is racing. Read on to see how it fared.

Zoom-Zoom...or not.

In the gameplay arena, SRS finds itself kind of slow. I mean this quite literally, as seeing 200 miles-per-hour on your speedometer, while scenery goes by at the speed of a bicycle is kind of disappointing. On the bright side, the cars promptly react to your every input, perfectly willing to hang the tail out with proper throttle application in corners or to plow obligingly into a wall if you try to hotdog a FWD car improperly. This lends the game a feel of realism that the seemingly slow speeds do not.

Bright, shiny objects

As with most things coming out of the Namco house, Street Racing Syndicate is pretty. Really pretty. Really pretty, and really SHINY. To the point that I find myself wondering if the cities that the races take place in rest under an ongoing thunderstorm. The cars look wonderful, and there�s plenty of them to choose from. And if you don�t like solid colored cars, SRS offers a myriad of vinyl and stickers to cover your brand new paint with. They also get the award for having some of the most detailed cars I�ve seen yet: from under the hood, to the tire tread, to the ribbing on the some car�s intercooler piping

Be quick on the Volume button

Street Racing Syndicate�s sound is good�not excellent, but simply good. It makes all the right noise for engine revving, tire spinning, and crashing into walls (which is stupidly fun at times), but some of the voice-over and music that the �girlfriends� dance to seem to have been done too �hot�, as it usually ends up four times louder than the rest of the game, causing you to dive for the remote every time you run into a voice or video.

Women make everything enjoyable

Due to the aforementioned slow feel of the game, the fun factor suffers. However, the unbelievably attractive women, the couple billion ways to upgrade your car, and just the overall large amount of different things to do, like winning the attentions of import models, the street and arcade style racing options and their multiple categories, and marvelous looks make the game enjoyable overall.

PlasmaFactor

Ahhh�the Plasma Factor. The great equalizer. I�m a domestic car guy. I drive a Firebird. So, games like SRS are as close as I�d prefer to get to driving a loud, buzzing, high-revving import. And for this, I�m glad that Namco put out Street Racing Syndicate. Now I too, can drive an Evo VIII with NOS. Yeehaw.

 

The Finish Line

In conclusion, it�s safe to say that Street Racing Syndicate falls in the �better-than-average� or �good� category, with just enough little things to keep it out of top billing. If you like racing games with lots of options, attractive women, or both, then SRS is a safe bet for your video game library.