Aggrogate

Split/Second: A kart racer in a car racer’s body

There are two types of racing games: simulation racers and arcade racers. Simulation racers commit to getting every single detail of the driving experience accurate, from driving physics that make your Acura RSX perform just like a real Acura RSX to massive amounts of fine-tuning using brand-name after-market parts to change the most minute aspects of your vehicle. Arcade racers let you drive around really fast and do stuff.

If you're looking for an accurate driving simulation, then pass right on by Disney Interactive's Split/Second. If you want to drive around really fast and watch things blow up, you're going to like this game.

Split/Second takes crash-happy arcade racers like Flatout and Burnout to their logical conclusion. Instead of just using your car to make your opponents wreck, you use everything around you. By drifting, drafting, and jumping you build up a power gauge that lets you activate "Power Plays" strewn throughout the game's 11 tracks. Power plays are explosions and events that, if timed correctly, can wreck the cars ahead of you and give you the edge you need to win.

The power plays are many and varied, ranging from simple truck explosions to demolishing a nuclear power plant cooling tower. In their most direct application, they can cause opponents to crash. In their most complex and impressive manifestations, they can change the layout of the tracks themselves. One memorable path-altering Power Play sinks an aircraft carrier under which the track runs, forcing cars to jump up onto the carrier's deck to continue, dodging slowly falling jets as they slide down the deck.

Racing is satisfyingly fast, and more frantic and forgiving than most car-based racers. It's arcade racing to an extreme, with wild drifts and jumps that feel like they belong more in Mario Kart or F-Zero than Need For Speed or Gran Turismo. Some of the slides you can pull off to build up the power play meter take so long you can imagine blue sparks gathering behind your car. Combine the racing action with the fact that every well-timed power play can kill or save your race like a blue koopa shell, and you have a very strange and entertaining amalgam between a playful kart racer and a speed freak arcade car racer.

A myriad of game modes keep Split/Second fresh. Besides the standard race mode, there's Eliminator, Detonator, Survival, Air Attack, and Air Revenge. Eliminator is a racing variant where the last car in the race drops out after a set amount of time, until only one racer is left. Detonator is a time attack mode in which the track's power plays automatically trigger as you drive, forcing you to avoid explosions and debris. Survival has you racing to overtake tractor trailers that hurl explosive barrels at you. Air Attack and Air Revenge pit you against a missile launching helicopter; Air Attack has you simply avoiding missile attacks to keep driving as long as possible, and Air Revenge tasks you with taking down the helicopter by deflecting its missiles back at it with power plays.

The game looks very polished, both figuratively and literally. The cars are attractive, the explosions are impressive, the tracks are detailed, and the framerate is consistently smooth. The cars are also very very shiny, as is the game's interface. Split/Second uses the premise of a reality show to keep the game simple and accessible, and that means splash screens and menus that they're introducing a contestant in Top Chef.

Through the game's 12 episodes (each with 6 events), you can earn several cars ranging from beefy SUVs to sleek Italian supercars. The cars are all fictitious, but they look unique and fast, and they all perform differently. You can't customize the cars in any way besides the color scheme, but there's a wide enough selection that customization isn't missed.

Split/Second is a fun racer, easily worth a rental at the least. The unique power play mechanic and consistently fast and satisfying racing makes it one of the more entertaining arcade racers to appear in the last few years.