Ahh Wipeout on the PS1, those were the days, when not every other game on the shelf was a racer and something new and innovative was out and proud. Sorry, I had to make the connection here because System Rush made me feel all those lovely PS1 moments all over again, because it’s more than a little bit Wipeout like despite the Tron like setting.

You essentially play a Hacker who has to save her (or his) ass before being framed for letting loose one nasty virus that could bring down corporations. Sounds like this is sure to be a puzzle title but it isn’t, you race to hack, that’s essentially the upshot of it, if you win you stop the hack, if you lose it’s game over, there can be no second place. ‘Hacking’ occurs over numerous continents including North America, South America, Asia and Europe each with their own ‘theme’. Controlling your vehicle is simple enough, but that’s not to say this is a simple game by any means. Staying alive means draining off your enemies power and keeping yours topped up, as mentioned you also need to win, it’s win or restart.

Graphically this isn’t too shabby, it’s a very vectored affair given you’re clearly meant to be inside the machine you’re trying to hack. I like the way it suggests in its comic book style lead in that you’re character is using an N-Gage QD to hack the system, putting you directly into the game. The comic book styled cut pieces are nicely done and not too long that they remove you from the action. The ‘theme’ of each level is done by use of color more than anything else but it works well enough to let you know what continent you’re playing in. Ship detailing too is well done.

Sound is good, more so if you’re a fan of techno junkit styled tunes because that’s what you have here, you’ll feel like you should be waving around a neon glowstick and jumping up and down to much of it. There’s no speech with detaining done in text, this is great for the deaf or hard of hearing gamer as it means they don’t miss out on any aspect of the storyline, and let’s face it unless you’re a fan of the techno style you’re not going to miss the music.
Female Gamer angle, yes you get the choice between male and female hacker. The female hacker is called Megumi noe (Ikko) and she specializes in cyber security, she’s pretty cool and it was nice to have the choice. Gameplay wise it doesn’t sem to make much difference, whichever you choose the other becomes their helper, a nice setup.

The single-player Story has over 50 individual races across several tracks. Races take place in groups of three (first is one lap, second is two laps, third is three with a boss). While you’ll only race on one track in each group (three consecutive races on the same track), the tracks are configured differently. Aside from Story, there is also Free Hack (choose a single-player race), GP Mode (play multiple races and earn points), Bluetooth multi-player, Shadow Races online, and Multiplayer GP.

System Rush has a surprisingly steady frame rate with little choppiness to speak of. I was hard-pressed to find anything wrong with the graphics. The tracks are beautifully rendered with this virtual computer world look to them, a nice variety of tracks and vehicles, and solid comic-book cut-scenes. My biggest complaint isn’t with the graphics, but with the story. Aside from the cut-scene visuals, the story as a whole is an abysmal failure.

If you’re a fan of the F-Zero franchise, System Rush will be a welcome addition to your N-Gage collection of games. It doesn’t have the annoying deaths like F-Zero did in the SNES days, but be prepared for difficult races against the advanced AI. Combined with its impressive gameplay, real sense of speed on a portable device, and a steady frame rate, System Rush is the killer-app that N-Gage has needed.