You know, people always ask about your favorite console.
They never ask what your least favorite console is.
In my case, it�s more like my least favorite generation.
When games went 3D, they lost me, for the most part.
It took a lot of time for me to come back, too.
And in retrospect...it wasn�t me.
It was the first 3D generation.
The Nintendo 64 and the original PlayStation.
Sure, they had some masterpieces.
Some of my favorite games, in fact.
But in between those games?
A whole lot of games like 1Xtreme.
So this game was sent to us by our friend Chris...from Woodland, California.
And I was confused at first, because this game wasn�t originally called 1Xtreme.
It was released as ESPN Extreme Games.
Eventually, the ESPN license ran out, and so the game�s name had to be changed.
To 1Xtreme.
Because it was the nineties.
Hence a video game about f*cking rollerblades.
So anyway, I obviously tend to be kind of apathetic toward early 3D games that haven�t
aged well.
But I looked into it, and it turns out...nope.
A lot of critics thought this game sucked, even in 1996.
And that was the year Load was released, so they knew all about suck in 1996.
So obviously, this is a racing game.
An extreme racing game.
Probably had a Mt.
Dew sponsorship, too.
I don�t know.
Anyway, there are six tracks...like, in total.
And you can play either single races or a racing season, with rankings and stuff.
You can race on either rollerblades, bikes, skateboards...or street luge.
Which evidently is a thing.
So problem one, uh...there�s not a whole lot here.
I mean...six courses.
And not only that, they�re, like, the worst six courses ever.
The two big problems from a gameplay perspective are that...one, everything�s so blurry and
pixelated, you can�t even see anything.
And two, the courses are just a constant string of tight turns, which are stupidly hard to
steer through because the controls are so bad.
Oh, and by the way, you can�t see anything.
If there�s anything interesting about 1Xtreme, it�s all the different things you can race,
and the fact that it rips off Road Rash.
But whether you�re riding a bike or...luging on a luge, it all plays about the same.
There doesn�t seem to be much difference between them.
And as for the Road Rash stuff...I mean, you can punch other racers.
Thrilling, right?
And eventually pointless, once you notice that the ridiculous rubberbanding brings them
back five seconds later, anyway.
The game does support split-screen multiplayer, which is always a good thing.
Then again, I can�t see anything with a full screen.
Playing on half a screen?
You can just go ahead and keep that one, 1Xtreme.
The best thing about you is that one of the guys is named Mo Howard, you knucklehead.
I don�t know, maybe this game was better during its time.
That�s often the excuse with early 3D games, though.
Sometimes, you just have to concede that awful games were always awful games, and we were
just so excited about 3D that we didn�t notice.
The little 12-year-old you might�ve dug this in 1996, but believe me.
No matter what it�s called, you won�t dig it now.