Super Street: The Game Review – A super disappointment

I’ve been playing racing games since I was about three years old, and I’m now 20. Within that time frame, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a racing title more infuriating than Super Street: The Game. In fact, this has proven to be the most unenjoyable experience I’ve had with a game ever.

Interestingly enough, you start off with a junk car that has zero stats. As you progress through the races, you earn money to put work into your car in order to make it look better and increase its performance. Why is this interesting? Well, while I was able to make my car look pretty good and upgrade all of its stats to the max, it still controlled just as terribly as it did as a junk car. The only real difference was a speed increase. That actually made things worse, because going fast in this game will only get you into trouble. That’s because the physics and driving mechanics are a total mess.

Once your car gets up to speed, it feels more like a bar of soap let loose in a bathtub. It just zips and slides all over the place. So many times I found myself crashing into walls, other vehicles, and unbreakable scenery objects, all because I lost total control over my car. This is usually accompanied by the car vaulting into the air like a plastic toy, flipping and spiraling all over the place. Just tapping a wall or knocking into another vehicle can cause this to happen. On top of that, the brakes simply don’t work and turning feels like you’ve attached wheels to a cinder block. No matter what, the car just refuses to turn a corner normally.

The game constantly reminds you to “master the handbrake” to help with this. Well, that’s a mess too. Using the handbrake will immediately send the car into a deep powerslide. On very rare occasions, this works and actually allows you to corner “properly.” But most of the time the powerslide just ends up driving you straight into a wall, object, or other vehicles. Really, just expect to spend a whole lot of time crashing rather than driving.

Neat, my car matches the whole experience — incredibly broken.

The worst ride ever

I’ve put seven hours into the game so far, and crashing has made up the bulk of the experience. Honestly, this playtime wasn’t racked up due to there being a plethora of content either. It simply has to do with me having to constantly restart the majority of races due to something just going completely wrong—usually within the first 10 seconds. I wish I was kidding, but I’m not.

In fact, my complaints don’t stop here. The course design also happens to be mostly deplorable. A lot of the courses have very sharp turns, thus making the poor cornering mechanics even more egregious. As mentioned, there are walls and indestructible objects aplenty. But the biggest track-based annoyance usually ended up being the traffic cars. They’re usually a pain in any street racing game, but here they’re enough to make you throw the controller away. With the rest of the game being broken, having yet another obstacle to avoid only adds to the stress level.

Super Street’s terrible driving mechanics and physics are complemented by an equally terrible AI system. Like I just said, usually, something would go wrong within a race within the first few seconds of it starting. That mostly ends up having to do with the AI opponents crashing into each other (and usually you). And, once you end up far back in a race, that’s usually where you’ll be staying.

I’ve seen some of the most absurd crashes occur with the AI drivers, yet they’d often just reset and speed away. Typically, there are even one or two opponents that actually can drive competently (far better than you can due to the terrible controls), thus making a lot of races flat-out unfair. In fact, I haven’t completed the final two cups simply because the AI opponents can navigate the course “properly.” Meanwhile, I can’t stop my vehicle from getting wrecked and/or flying away. It got so asinine, I decided it’s a waste of time to try and get through the whole career. I already know that the remaining races will be just as bad, if not worse, than the ones I’ve completed. This game just simply isn’t worth the trouble for anyone, really.

Beyond the horrible gameplay, there’s the near pointless upgrading system. Buying better parts does enhance your car’s stats. However, the most expensive parts typically don’t yield any higher result than the least expensive ones, which makes no sense.

You’ll also gain crew members as you complete more and more races, totaling five members in all. They’re all women dressed in tight, near-revealing outfits. This may be responsible for the game’s T-rating, although its description seems kind of extreme since I didn’t spot anything off-the-wall that matches its description. Regardless, the crew members are ultimately pointless, despite their bios insisting that having them in your garage will enhance your car. Thus, the entire upgrade and progression systems are just as broken as the gameplay.

You’re better off stopping the car and admiring the okay visuals.

Take this one to the scrap heap

Just about the only good point about Super Street that I can make mention of are specific aspects of the presentation. Being powered by Unreal Engine 4, Super Street does have some nice visuals. They’re certainly nothing mind-blowing, but they’re decent enough. The car models are, surprisingly, quite detailed. The engine sounds of the vehicles also sound moderately decent.

But, the praise ends there. Aside from some of the sound effects being far too quiet (like tire skids), it ultimately doesn’t even matter that these “pros” of the game’s presentation are present. The game still plays like a nightmare, so what good is it that the visuals are decent? Well, you can just try not driving at all and simply look at the scenery details. Actually, that’s probably more fun than playing the game.

I really wish I was exaggerating, but I can say without a doubt that outright avoiding Super Street is pretty much a must. This has no redeeming qualities at all. It’s frankly laughable that the developers were bold enough to launch this at a whopping $50. I find it hard to even justify paying $5 for this. I’ve tried free-to-play mobile racers that have been leaps and bounds more enjoyable than this dumpster fire. So, by all means, take your money and your time elsewhere. Super Street is, at best, shovelware to the fullest degree.