Publisher: Sony
Developer: Sony/989 Sports
Release Date: 10/31/1996
Date Played: 3/9/2020
Region: USA
Time Played: 18 minutes
What’d you think?: This is a racing game dressed up in a 90s extreme sports aesthetic. As a racing game, it’s bad. There’s narrow gates that give inscrutable points but slow you down if you clip them and it’s punishingly difficult. Hitting just one or two obstacles is enough to leave you too far behind to ever catch up. As an extreme sports game it’s also really disappointing. The hopeful prospect of snowboarding and BMX and inline skates and skateboarding all in the same game is dashed when they all seem to be similarly-controlling vehicles for the same racing mechanics. There’s slightly different trick animations, but the tricks only give you extra “points” at the end of a race, similar to the colored gates. There’s powerups to briefly increase your speed or punching power (to attack the other racers) but these, too, feel half-assed compared to proper kart racing games. Extreme sports are supposed to be about Pushing To The Limit; but 2Xtreme is about Phoning It In.
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQg8Qsrjoo0
