Universal Goes Freakin' Fast

Universal Interactive, developer of Disruptor, is up to something that's freakin' innovative. A game that breaks ties with normal racing games, Freakin' Fast gets rid of the cars and turns it into a good, old-fashioned footrace.

The game has six characters, each of whom believes he is the fastest in the world. The racers aren't human - they're from the animal kingdom. From a super-charged rhino to the ever-fast rabbit, these characters are built for speed and ready to go. There are a total of six different environments, each with an end level boss. Players must run, jump, and fly through the game's tracks. Lots of power-ups are scattered throughout the tracks, including turbo boosts, which turn the player into an obstacle-smashing giant, and power-ups that allow the player to change the track conditions to fire or ice. There are also some hidden shortcuts for those who have fallen way behind.

The designers of the game focused on the competitive and speed aspects of the game. The two-player head-to-head and race modes can be played in a variety of different split-screen formats. There's the standard vertical split, which actually condenses the full-screen image just a bit so that more of the screen is viewable. Then there's a horizontal split-screen view, and a "letterbox" view, which scales the full-screen view down to take up half the screen. In all of the two-player modes, the animation and onscreen action move incredibly quickly (60 frames a second!).

There are five modes of play. In competition mode, gamers play a one-player game against all the computer-controlled opponents. Placing first moves the player to the next race. Explore mode allows the player to roam around the track without opponents and time limits. The timed mode puts gamers on an empty track with all the power-ups. Phantom mode pits the player against the phantom of himself. Ego challenge opens it up to the two-player split-screen competition, either with or without power-ups.