Imagineer is revving up a wild ride with their PS2 racing game fittingly titled Wild Wild Racing. From what I've seen so far, this looks like a very promising racer because as you'll discover in the following paragraphs that it contains some original racing modes, has superb graphics and fast paced gameplay that are coming together to create a great little racing game.

Wild Wild Racing features off-road courses to race on with an arcade style physics engine for quick acceleration, jumps and for riding on two wheels with ease. Even if you flip your vehicle over you still have a good chance of landing right side up! Unlike other racing games, Wild has a few new twists on the genre in the form of original game modes. They include downhill races, mountain climbing races, adventure races, challenge, championship, quick race and time trial. In the downhill races players start at the top of a mountain or hill then have to race all the way to the bottom while avoiding flying off the edge of precarious drop offs. And you'll especially have to watch out for those turns without guardrails! Sounds like a heart pounding experience to me. The other unique mode is up hill racing which is the opposite of downhill only this time players must avoid obstacles during their climb and driving on the track isn't the only option. You can freely drive wherever you please, whichever path gets you to the top the fastest is the best one. The cool thing about this game is that there are many obstacles, jumps and even beach balls all over the track that you must also compete with which should add some interesting spills and thrills during the course of the race.

Another real high point of this racer is the magnificent graphics! I am really impressed with what the developers have accomplished so far with this game. Well mostly it's the vehicles that look really good, the background scenery is quite bland at this stage of the game's development but I just can't get over how great the cars look. It looks like players will be able to race in many different types as well. Everything from pickup trucks, to dune buggies, it's all there and beautifully rendered. The models are very well made and detailed, the textures are equally impressive and even show mud build-up on the sides of them. The first word that popped into my head when I saw the pics was "vivid". That is, the graphics look crisp and sharp and the vehicles seem to almost pop out of the screen at you.

Now, I probably should have told you this at the beginning of the preview but I forgot so I think I'll mention it now. There is a chance the game won't come out in the U.S. But I think it would be stupid for the company not to release it here because it looks like a game with a lot of potential. If it does well in Japan we shouldn't have to worry about it not coming out here anyway. Yeah, Japanese taste for games are a bit different than ours but racing is universal.