Mini-review! Street Rod 2 is more of a casual game with some replay value so no need to wait till next week.
I like playing this game because I'm a sucker for games that include an in-game money system. Even something as simple as in the original Off-road arcade game (remember playing that with 3 other people all on the steering wheels?).
In Street Rod 2, you start off with a small bank of money, and must buy a used car from the classifieds. Depending on the quality of car you start with, you may or may not be able to upgrade a number of parts including the engine, manifold, exhaust, muffler, differential, transmission, and tires. You can also make modifications to your car like chopping down the roof, removing those pointless bumpers, and changing the color. Once you're satisfied with the performance and look of your mean machine, you can hit the streets and head to Burger's Bungalow and find some competition.
You have the choice of 3 different races: Drag, Mulholland, and Aqueduct. Drag is by far the easiest to beat in the beginning for cash, aqueduct (once you learn the race and can avoid crashing) is best for taking pink slips from people, and Mulholland is pretty difficult. I recommend avoiding Mulholland until you have to do it. Before you choose to race anyone, you have the option of looking under their hood to see if there's any crazy hardware hidden. The types of cars you face get progressively faster as your own car gets better, so trying to race people for pink slips earlier in the game before your car gets upgraded can be good, because you may not get any chances to race those people again. Either way, if you miss some racers, you almost always have the option of buying all the cars through the classifieds.
Every Wednesday in the game you can participate in a multi-round drag race, where the prize is a nice car. After winning all of the races several times, The King will start talking to you and will give you a chance to race him. He can be tough depending what car you like using because he basically has the fastest of everything. If you have trouble beating him by just speed and maneuvering, try running him off the road early in a race so he can't catch back up.
Street Rod 2 can be downloaded HERE. Street Rod 1 is also available on the same site. No special setup or options needed for this one, just go with whatever recommended settings it tells you. There is a copy protection when the game is started, but D-Fend bypasses it so it doesn't matter what you type in. Enjoy and check back early next week for the next full game review!
