Street Duel: Underground Racing By: Pixelogic Price: $19.99
Reviewed September 2004 By: Marc Morgan

Street Duel: Underground Racing is a racing game from Pixelogic, the company that brought you The Italian Job for Playstation. Street Duel is their first Pocket PC game. Street Duel is similar to the Playstation 2 game Midnight Club: Street Racing.

The object of the game is to complete 32 missions, each one with a different objective. Objectives range from racing other cars to racing through checkpoints against the clock to knocking over pylons. Sometimes, when you complete a race against another car, you unlock the player’s car. Unfortunately, you can only use that car on certain missions. There is no time trial mode.

Since the game is played in a landscape view, the D-pad of your device is on the left. You use the D-pad to control the direction of the device. If you have a jog dial/switch on the side of the device, you can use that to steer too. Because the left side of the device is used for steering, it would be impractical for you to have to use the hardware buttons to accelerate the car or brake. Pixelogic has put in three virtual buttons to use on the left side of the screen. One problem I found was that using the virtual buttons leaves fingerprints on the right side of the screen. I decided to use the hardware buttons to accelerate and steer, and the jog switch to steer. The game was comfortable to play this way.

Street Duel has 3D cars, buildings, and other objects. The graphics are crisp and everything is easy to see on the Pocket PC screen. The car itself has brake lights that light up when you press the brake button and skid marks are left when you turn at high speeds. Also street lights that are lit up when standing go out when they fall. Also, the game offers a slider to control the drawing distance, the further the distance, the more realistic the game seems, but if you have a slower device, a closer distance improves speed.

There are four different audio tracks in the game, and I found them to be catchy. They do get somewhat repetitive, but for a Pocket PC game, they’re good. There are also sound effects if you crash, your tires squeal, the engine revs, or if you win a race. In the menus, if you select something it makes a “blip” sound. You can also control the volume in the game.

Overall, this game is worth the $19.99. It’s a great racing title with the theme of street racing, has good music and sound effects, and is really fun. If you like titles such as Midnight club, you will love this game. Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines!

Tips and Hints

On tight turns, slow down.

Usually competing cars have a set route of where they drive.

Look in every corner for objects.