SRS: Street Racing Syndicate

Codemasters have brought Namco's late-night racer to European shores. We take a look under the bonnet.

Chavved-up late night illicit racing titles are two-a-penny and there’s a lot of chaff in amongst the wheat.

Since Need For Speed first went Underground we’ve been inundated with this import tuning genre, and many of the games have been lousy.

The formats are very similar, with career modes that involve taking on challenges for financial rewards and upgrades, allowing you to customise your ride in thousands of different ways.

SRS follows the same path, although there are one or two twists en route. In addition to competing in races, you can make side bets with the opposition, allowing you to rack up extra cash to fork out on your motor.

If you opt to race for pink slips you put your car on the line. Lose the race and lose your wheels!

The same materialistic logic applies to the scattering of girls in the game. Drive like a demon to impress and win girls, but be careful not to crash out because the fickle ladies will switch allegiance at the drop of a hat.

There are 50 licensed cars in the game, from the likes of Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Lexus and Volkswagen. These are all damageable, although you won’t find your motor crunched up like you do in Burnout 3 - damage appears to be restricted to smashed lights, shattered windscreens and dented bonnets.

Graphics are nice, with shimmering road surfaces, neon lighting and a cool blurring effect when you hit the nitro, while audio ticks all the right boxes without particularly excelling.

Don’t expect an in-depth racing sim, but if arcade racing is your scene then SRS will be right up your street.

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