Midnight Outlaw Illegal Street Drag Nitro Edition, besides being the most long-winded stereotypical title for any racing game ever is an “upgraded” version of last years underwhelming Midnight Outlaw Illegal Street Drag.  It is identical in nearly every respect to its predecessor except for the “Nitro” part, which simply means you can now speed ahead in short bursts after you purchase the nitro kit.  Does a single small addition that should have been included in the original anyways justify an entirely new release?  For the answer to that pressing question you’ll need to read the rest of the review.  Either that or put one and one together.  Of course it doesn’t justify a re-release.  If the game had been vaguely enjoyable in its first iteration, or if there were more to the gameplay than brief 10-second drag races that entail slamming on the gas and shifting gears at precisely the right moment, then yah, VALU Soft might have adequate reason to put the game out on the market again.  But as it stands Midnight Outlaw Illegal Street Drag Nitro Edition (phew!) is simply an unfortunate rehash of an already-unfortunate game.

I know it may sound a little harsh to say so, and the game’s publisher probably won’t like to hear it either, but MOISDNE is just a un-fun experience that will turn off even diehard fans of The Fast and the Furious to illegal street racing forever.  You begin the game with a trashy car that you can’t even drive until you figure out that you need to buy wheels.  It would have been an obvious course of action had the dull texture-less visuals not made it impossible to tell whether you have tires or not.  As it stands I watched dumbfounded three or four times as my car simply remained stationary as I jammed on the acceleration.  Was the input configuration wrong?  Was I pushing the wrong button?  No.  I had to buy tires.  That was the introduction to the nightmarish experience that awaited me.  Shortly after I got my car road-worthy and revved the engine at the starting line as a poorly-polygoned babe counted down, I realized that the “Drag” part of the game’s seven-word title was to be taken quite literally. 

Surely, there must be more to the game than simply driving down a perfectly straight block of road, I thought.  As I beat each and every drag race and in turn was afforded the measly sum of 30-80 per victory bucks it became quite evident that outside of accumulating enough cash to buy the next incremental upgrade that allows you to go just a little faster while racing against the same opponent over and over again .. this game was laughing at me.  Enraged, I downloaded a trainer program that unlocked every upgrade.  Haha, suckers!  Now I’d be able to rip right through the competition at even the highest difficulty.  But then I started laughing at myself as it became clear that no amount of cheating would make the game even marginally fun to play. 

From a visual standpoint Nitro Edition features a few nifty effects, like the trail of fire left behind your car when you initiate a nitro boost, but for the most part it looks like a first generation PSX game.  There are a few different car models and an assortment of paint jobs, but they are all composed with a minimal amount of polygons.  Collision detection issues abound; I can’t count how many times mine and the opponent’s car fused together at the finishing line.  There are a few different environments to race through, from dark alleyways to city landscapes, though the textures draped on the background buildings are dull and simplistic.  The sound presentation is equally drab.  The starting line chick that begins every race saying “car one car two ready go” has a way of working your nerves after the 50^th time you’ve heard it.  The engine sounds as you rev your car or speed down the straightaway are merely generic representations of their real-life counterpart, and regardless of what sort of upgrades you purchase they always sound the same.  Since every race is over within ten seconds you won’t have much of a chance to notice the utterly forgettable music, but that’s probably for the best.

Overall, Midnight Outlaw Illegal Street Drag Nitro Edition is probably the worst racing game I’ve ever played.  The fact that you’ll be staring at a loading screen longer than you’ll actually be playing the game doesn’t help matters, especially since when the race finally does load you’ll wish you were staring at the loading screen anyway.   

Gameplay: 2.3
Jam on the acceleration and gear up, 10 seconds later it’s over.

Graphics: 4.7
Mediocre at best.  The nitro effects are kind of cool and the developers implemented a primitive lighting system.

Sound: 3.8
All the cars sound the same regardless of configuration, starting line call makes you want to smash something.

Difficulty: Medium
It’s not difficult per se’, just time consuming.  You’ll need to beat the same guy over and over again until you’ve earned enough cash to buy the upgrade required to beat the next opponent, then repeat, about 30 times.

Concept: 2.1
This is the most derivative concept for a game possible.

Multiplayer: 5

You can play over the GameSpy network or directly against an opponent over a LAN, though no new modes open up and the races are equally as frustrating even when playing against live opponents.

Overall: 3.6

With a name like Midnight Outlaw Illegal Street Drag Nitro Edition you’d expect the game to be full of action-packed visceral street racing, but once you install the game and begin to “play” it you’re in for a rude awakening.  Steer clear.