Ordinarily, a new SEGA racer – particularly one that hails from the arcades – is our cue to get very excited indeed.
With the unrivalled abilities of SEGA’s AM teams to craft deep, yet accessible coin-op titles and the company’s expertise in bringing these to console, any home port is usually worth keeping an eye on.
Which is why we were rather looking forward to Initial D Extreme Stage. Based on Initial D Arcade Stage 4, the PS3 exclusive racer launched in Japan a few weeks ago – and given how good the previous two console ports were, our hopes were high.
Unfortunately, it seems that SEGA’s usual top form has deserted it on this occasion, as our exclusive screenshot gallery shows.
Although there are no obvious faults with the game’s graphics, it must be said that – between the flat textures, the lack of detail and the primitive special effects – there’s not a lot right with it, either.
Indeed, we’d go so far as to say it looks like little more than a high-res PS2 title.
Unfortunately, the gameplay doesn’t help much either, with ‘floaty’ handling and iffy collision detection aplenty.
To check out the full gallery, click here. Or here, if you want to read our import review of the game.
Still, no loss - we doubt it'll ever be released over here anyway.
