Rollcage

by Dan Elektro
January 01, 2000 00:00 AM PST

You could call Rollcage "Wipeout on Wheels," and it wouldn't be an insult. The whiplash gameplay and intense combat feel familiar, but confortably so. With so much style and substance, Rollcage ranks among the PlayStation's best fantasy racers

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After taking the PlayStation pole position with Wipeout, Destruction Derby, and Formula 1, Psygnosis returns to the racetrack with Rollcage, a futuristic romp filled with chills, thrills, and plenty of nasty spills.

Wacky Races
The cars in Rollcage bring new meaning to the word "extreme." Not only are they compact and wickedly fast (picture a futuristic Ferrari with monster-truck tires), but they're also built for major abuse and crazy stunts, like driving on the ceiling or pulling a corkscrew flip off a curved wall. Land the car upside down? No problem--as with those "unstoppable" remote control cars, you can just gun it and go. Each vehicle is armed to the teeth, too; if you can't beat your opponent, you can clobber them into a gnarled mess with rockets or just blow up nearby buildings and litter the track with some deadly debris.

While combat racers are nothing new, Rollcage earns special mention for the sheer inventiveness of its power-ups. One missile targets only the leader for elimination, while another special weapon sends a portable black hole ahead to suck one unlucky opponent to the back of the pack. Obstacles like boulders, wrecked buildings, and incoming meteors don't make things any easier.

Which Way Is Up?
Rollcage suffers from one main problem: confusion. It's thrilling to be able to zoom up a wall at blinding speeds, but once you wreck, it's hard to get your bearings and drive forward instead of looping in place. You'll get good mileage out of an analog controller, however, which offers finer accuracy than the standard directional pad. The weapons triggers are a joy to use. As for the game's visuals, though the super-fast graphics avoid both slowdown and pop-up (no mean feat), they still have a bit-mapped checkerboard look to them that can be distracting--even in two-player mode. Luckily, the sample-riddled dance soundtrack sounds zippier than most.

Rollcage = Road Rage
You could call Rollcage "Wipeout on Wheels," and it wouldn't be an insult. The whiplash gameplay and intense combat feel familiar, but comfortably so. With so much style and substance, Rollcage ranks among the PlayStation's best fantasy racers.