Back in the day, Speed Devils was one of those games I completely ignored. I only bought select Dreamcast titles in the early days and besides, I didn't think much of the Speed Devils Online (SDO) demo I had from a cover disc. Fast forward a decade where I found said disc again in an old plastic bag and having nothing else to do, I played the demo again. I actually enjoyed it this time around, leading me to buy a copy of SDO from a retro game shop. However after a few plays I got bored of the unresponsive handling but was always curious about the Championship Mode and the New York track that could only be accessed when the SDO server was working. After learning that both these missing features could be found on the original Speed Devils, I bought the game from EBAY two weeks ago. And while Speed Devils is no racing classic, it has enough features to keep you interested and its superior controls blow SDO out the water!
Speed Devils is an updated version of an old PC title called Speed Busters: American Highways released in late '98. I guess Ubisoft were not sure about Dreamcast and decided to port or improve existing games to keep down development costs. While I have never played Speed Busters, research shows that various control and framerate issues were resolved for Speed Devils and Championship Mode was modified to include betting on race outcomes. Sadly the peer-to-peer online option found on Speed Busters is not present in this game.
First I'll discuss the good points and surprisingly there are quite a few. They are mostly found in Championship Mode where you race against various oddballs who seem to resemble guests from The Jerry Springer show ("My mother hates my man for sleeping with a chimpanzee" kinda episode). Although it's best to finish first in each race, you can also gain cash by breaking the speed limit within radar zones dotted throughout a course. Some of these zones are in areas where you have to slow down so you need to work out a racing strategy for carrying the best speed (until you get nitrous). As well as breaking speed limits, you also earn extra cash by getting the fastest lap, staying in the lead for longest and managing the highest top speed. But that's not all because you can also make bets with other racers when the opportunity arises. These are mainly challenges where you have to finish in the top 3 or break the speed limit within a certain radar zone. Win these and you'll earn extra money; lose and you'll be delayed from buying that faster car or necessary upgrade. Finally there are "vendettas", a one-on-one race where you and your opponent put the car on the line! Win and it's a nice new vehicle free of charge; lose and you'll either have to buy another car, or get lumbered with the broken down default car if you're broke. If it's the latter you'll probably better off starting the game from scratch....unless you save the game before taking on the bet (ha ha take that Ubisoft)! All in all these features make Speed Devils a lot more interesting than it otherwise would be. Think of them as an early version of "Achievements" (even pre-dating MSR's Kudos system) that is now the norm with most current-gen titles.
Moving onto the courses and Ubisoft have done a very good job at producing some interesting and varied tracks. There are 7 locations in total (Aspen, Canada, Hollywood, Louisiana, Mexico, New York and Nevada) with variations on weather and time of day. Throughout each course there are various shortcuts that can make or break the race. For example on Aspen Winter, you have a frozen lake you can skid across instead of following the road, Nevada has a underground mining tunnel you can dip though and Canada has a risky set of planks suspended by cranes across the water. There also some various obstacles and animations that try to hinder your progress like the T-Rex on Hollywood, the flying saucers on Nevada and the luggage-throwing coach on Mexico. Make it to the end and we also have an insane Tornado on the Louisiana course that lifts cars high up into the air before crashing them back down. It's all great fun and make Speed Devils a really unique Dreamcast racer.
Graphically speaking Speed Devils is unspectacular due to its origins but the courses are well done and the framerate is smooth, albeit with occasional minor slowdown. The game looks best in either VGA or standard CRT via RGB SCART (Europe). I should also mention the various colour schemes for each car as they really add to the sense of fun this game has. You can choose eyeballs, leopard skin, flower power and even rainbow colours; a million miles away from the sniffy world of 'realistic racers'. The cars themselves are make-believe models and thus unlicensed which means they're allowed to sustain damage in Championship mode if you're too reckless. As you have to pay to get the car repaired, this gives you an incentive to become a better driver and learn the track accordingly. The models range from slower vehicles like the Belray and Orion to faster cars like the Montana pick-up, Solaris and Firebug and finally Driver X's mighty Mystere. Sound and music are fairly average but don't annoy....with the sole exception of that parping saxophone on Louisiana!
Now although Speed Devils is mainly good there is one big problem and a few minor niggles that spoil an otherwise great title. The big problem is the physics system; although the controls are very responsive, the whole thing feels very basic and most turns can simply be taken by holding the brake throughout the turn while accelerating. While this is great for beginners, a lack of a decent drift dynamic for expert players (a la Sega Rally) really hurts the replay value. Once you have finished Championship mode and are left with the infinite recurring Class S races, things get boring very quickly. A drift dynamic would have had added a great deal of longevity to the game and may have even made Speed Devils a classic racer. Granted you do some kind of crude skid using the handbrake and nitro options but it's hardly worth it. In its defence, Speed Devils was never intended to be a Time Attack racer but Ubisoft could've extended the replay value another way...and the answer lies in Multiplayer mode. Here there are various modes like Defend and Attack (fighting your opponent to stop them overtaking) and Special Challenge (least nitrous used, fastest lap, most radars busted etc). These should have been incorporated within the final Class S races along with the ability to choose each course. I would have also included rewards for knocking your opponents into the tornado on Louisiana or sending them into the lava pit on Mexico! The other minor niggles are the lack of autosave on Championship mode, no real advantage to using manual gears and lack of reward for clean racing.
All in all Speed Devils is a fun racer that doesn't take itself too seriously. I'm glad I gave it a try; it's just a shame it lacks a good physics engine that would've made it something really special! Even if you don't like racing it's still worth picking up and can be bought very cheaply. BUT REMEMBER BUY SPEED DEVILS, DO NOT BUY SPEED DEVILS ONLINE! Want to know why....see the next post.
Final Score: 7/10
Strange, but again I put it down to it being part of simplifying the mechanics of the game to get it running smoothly over dial-up. This is only speculation though, don't quote me on it 
Unfortunately it seems the rights are owned by GameLoft who originally ran the server for SDO. They seemed to have turned into a mobile gaming company about 8/9 years ago, and have released this rather odd Speed Devils game which resembles an Outrun clone:
