Midnight Club 3 DUB Edition PSP Review

Written by Ian W. on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

As I eagerly await the release of Need for Speed: Shift on the PSP, I thought I would take this blast from a past for a spin. Everyone knows that the Midnight Club series and the Need for Speed Underground series have been rivals since Underground pulled onto the scene, but Midnight Club came first and still holds a dedicated crowd of fans. Why is this?

To start, Midnight Club 3 is the sequel to Midnight Club 2 that appeared on the PS2. Unlike Need for Speed Underground, the Midnight Club series has never been really nice to look at. At times the game looks like a PSX game, and in these times Midnight Club 3 really should step up and improve its graphics, but sadly it does not. In fact Midnight Club 3 on the PSP and Midnight Club 2 on the PS2 look strikingly similar, and I am sure many people may put down Midnight Club 3 before they even try it.

What MC3 lacks in visuals it certainly makes up for in gameplay. I was never a real fan of the whole underground racing scene in Need for Speed, and I always thought that Midnight Club pulled it off far better. The experience was more free-roaming and the races felt more exhilarating, so I was pleased that Rockstar gave up graphics for gameplay, because it proved that good graphics does not a good game make.

MC3 features the same gameplay style as the original. In the main Career mode you cruise around a living, breathing city and participate in races and challenge rivals. As you challenge and beat rivals the storyline progresses; you earn more money and you use that money to buy faster cars or upgrade your current one. As you cruise around you will realise that MC3 is purely an arcade game and never takes itself too seriously. The cities are populated by citizens who you can run over but never kill and it adds a certain comical element to the game.

As you partake in races the game shows various different styles. The game offers the classic checkpoint races, as well as point-to-point races where you have to pass through all the checkpoints in any given order and the fastest is the winner. As you race against the CPU, you also have to battle against the police, and in order to evade them you soon come to realise that anything goes in a Midnight Club race. Each race features shortcuts that often offer exhilarating consequences (such as using a rollercoaster as a jump to the next checkpoint) and because each car features nitros the speed at times really does get a little crazy.

The game still features a somewhat tired mechanic though, in the form of requiring you to win every single race in order to progress. This means that you have to win every race in a tournament or beat every time trial. When you fail in a time trial tournament and want to restart, you must start from the beginning again and not the current race. This may get frustrating for some players. MC3 is the first title in the series to offer licensed cars and licensed music.

The game also features motorbikes which handle radically different to the cars, and open up a whole new meaning to race shortcuts. Obviously the downside to using bikes when you race against cars is that you can get knocked off. The AI overall can be tough at times, and also can be known to cheat. For example you can be in first place with the finish in sight and one car will magically use a nitro boost to beat you.

This means that you often have to repeat races to learn the course layout and the best shortcuts. Musically the game features songs from the likes of The Game, Sean Paul and Twista. It also covers a large variety of genres from rap and R’n’B to drum and bass, and the music can be cycled through as you play which is a nice touch. The music actually suits the action also which is also a nice touch. Each car or bike that you gain in career mode can be upgraded. The upgrades available range from the look of the car to engine and other performance upgrades. Luckily though the game features an auto tune option if you just want to upgrade your vehicle with the minimum amount of fuss.

Arcade mode allows you to pick any unlocked city and just drive around. The cities in this mode feature plenty of jumps and obstacles and you can also add traffic to the mix. The Quick Race mode is simply what it says and the multiplayer mode allows you to play against a friend using the wireless connection which is standard fare now in every PSP racing game.

The loading screens in MC3 are sadly too plentiful and too long for a game of this nature. Sometimes you have to sit through three loading screens to get to the next objective, which can get quite tedious. But luckily the overall racing experience is a strong one. Sure the game is not the prettiest but it more than makes up for that by offering a street racing experience that makes the Need for Speed Underground titles pale in comparison.