People have had a fascination with futuristic racers for a long, long time. Whether in Tron, DeathTrack, F-Zero, or Wipeout, many games have given players a chance to race in the future, a future in which high speeds and violence go hand in hand on the track. The latest game to go back to the future is SCEAs Kinetica which combines huge level, big tricks, and high speeds into one sleek package.

Kinetica bucks the usual hovercraft or speedercycle, and goes for a unique approach to its vehicles. The vehicles are actually the racers themselves, who are all wearing a Kinetic Suits which allow them to reach high speeds, ignore the law of gravity, and do insane stunts against 11 other participants. The suit places a wheel between the hands and a rear wheel between the legs of each person, and they race in a crouched position. If its hard to imagine, check out some of these pictures in the review for a better idea, or just pretend youre a motorcycle - youll figure it out.

Most of Kineticas environments are set in large futuristic cityscapes, and this is where the game shines. The tracks wind up, down, over, under and through the cities at breakneck speeds and dizzying heights. Providing a sense of speed is obviously a key for this game, and one that it does very well for the most part. In general, the framerate is fast, and the game moves along at a brisk pace. However, when there are several riders on screen and theyre going around a curve, the framerate stutters until there are less people on-screen or the track straightens out. There are lots of bright lights pulsing throughout the course, and some nice water effects here and there as well. The environments that take place in more natural environments, such as a forest, dont look quite as good as the others, as they display a lots of jagged edges and an all-around sparse look.

Since the characters themselves are the mode of transportation, a lot of detail was put into the look of each character. While they each have a unique look, the same racing stereotypes found in any racing game are found here. Big characters that are slow and hard to maneuver, small, quick and curvaceous females - youve seen it before.

Since it takes place in the future, Kinetica is bound by videogame ordinance 1875.43.22bx to have a techno soundtrack. The soundtrack features music from Way Out West, Derek Hilland, Juno Reactor, Meeker, and several others. Most of these artists are on SCEAs own record label, or some other small label, but they arent bad. Synthesizers, lots of bass, and pulsing drumbeats are the norm here.

The rest of the audio is filled with engine noise, or exoskeleton noise, or whatever powers these guys. They sound like a cross between a jet engine and a vacuum cleaner when theyre on the ground, and when theyre in the air doing tricks, appropriate whooshes and whirs fill the air. Theres a robotic announcer who counts down to race time, informs you what powerups youve acquired, and quite frequently tells you that youre going the wrong way.

Simple menus detail the different modes of play offered in Kinetica. Practice, Single Race, Season, and Two-Player are all of the self-explanatory options. The meat of the gameplay lies in the Season mode, where you must guide a racer through a series, which consists of four individual races. To move on you have to place third or better, until you get to the third series, where you must place first. This is a rude awakening when youve breezed through the first eight races, only to find out in the latter stages that you arent as good as you thought. It ends up being a good thing that these races are so tough, or else the game would be over in an hour.

The racing is fairly standard fare, you can get boost, powerslide, and unleash attacks on opponents via the numerous crystals that are scattered throughout the tracks. The controls are little loose, but they are plenty adequate. Where the game is unique, at least as far as futuristic racers are concerned, is its trick system. Very similar to SSX, Kineticas trick system rewards difficult stunts with boost, which is necessary to win the later races. Stunts can be performed on the ground as well as in the air by holding down the R1 button, and then moving the left analog stick in a predetermined pattern. There are a number of tricks that can be pulled off, but its just as effective to hold down the R1 button and wiggle the analog like a madman to do tricks.

Theres a big emphasis on finding shortcuts in order to win races, especially in the latter stages. Some of these are as simple as making big jumps, or taking a quick turn that appears only for a second, and of course the waterfall shortcut is present. For anyone who doesnt know, anytime you see a waterfall in a videogame you go investigate. Nine times out of ten, there a powerup or shortcut behind it, just waiting to be discovered.

Kineticas a short game that doesnt provide much in the way of extras to increase its replay value. While there are stunts and shortcuts like in SSX, the stunts arent as rewarding, and the exploration isnt as interesting as it was in EAs snowboarding extravaganza. Theres a split-screen two-player mode thats very solid, but its smaller view can make some jumps very frustrating. Its easy enough to screw up and end up the wrong way when youve got the full-screen, half-screen makes it much worse, but its still a very playable mode.

Kinetica sports some above-average visuals, an interesting theme, and unique track design, but its difficult to recommend as a purchase due to its shortness. While it lasts, it provides a non-stop rush and some excellent gameplay, but its over all too quickly. In this day and age where its becoming more common for a $50 game to last five hours, some people may not have a problem with the lack of depth. For most people, Kinetica will prove to be a fantastic weekend rental and little more.