Gameplay: 8/10
The gameplay in trickstlye is easy and quite fun. It is basically a futuristic racing game where you propel yourself forward on a rocket-powered hoverboard which is 2 feet off the ground. The aim is to go over all the boosters, steer carefully and make it to the finish line in first place. The only problem with this is that it becomes pretty difficult after you’ve completed the first four races or so. None the less the controls are nice and responsive and easy to master, r-trigger is accelerate l-trigger is brake and you use the digital stick to steer your board. There are a few annoying niggles in the game that I have to point out: you can easily get knocked off your board if you collide with another racer, which loses you valuable time. Also the slightly slow loading times on stages, at least they are not as bad as soldier of fortune. But these small flaws can be overlooked when you consider what an original racing game you have.

Graphics: 7/10
The game is slightly let down in this department. Because this game is old and came out a couple of years ago it doesn’t make the best use of the drawing powers that the dreamcast has. The characters are mildly detailed with smooth textures but have no really noticeable small details. The same with the courses you race in, the graphics are clear and crisp but have no complicated textures on the surface of the road or ramps you jump up. The visuals are not bad, they are very acceptable, but they are not truly amazing. When you start off a race the camera pans around which shows a good view of all the contestants, it then comes round to be behind you for the third person perspective that the games is set in. This little intro to the race is ok, I just wish I could skip it when I want to restart the race quickly. You see the words go and you r off, you’ll notice the basic but crisp graphics showing trees as you race through a futuristic London. The level designs are clever with a hi and low route on some sections of the race. What I don’t like is there is not a great difference with the tracks in the same city.

Replayability: 7/10
Overall the game doesn’t have too much replay value because to complete the whole game you will have played it a lot. But in single races in the cities you will have to try them several times to figure out what the track is like so you can memorize where all the boosters and ramps are. You might want to come back later to the game and play through the training missions, the later ones are bit hard when you first start playing but are really fun after you get the hang of how the game plays. I’d say it has some replay value but not as much as a game like house of the dead 2 where there are multiple paths to take.

Overall: 7/10
An early dreamcast game for the collection, with good graphics, fun game play and a weird idea for a game Trickstyle is a cheap game for many hours of entertainment. The graphics are clear and not blotchy, and the overall game play is pretty well done.

Rent or Buy?
I would say buy this game. It is good enough to add to you dc collection and will provide you with hours of good old fashioned dc entertainment, just make sure you don’t delete you save by accident like I did. It can be annoying playing through to get to where you were before. You should definitely buy this game, you will find it for about £3.99 as a used copy.