Powerslide

A racing game where your car handles like a bar of soap on a wet floor.

Another experimental racing gem from the late ’90s. I really like how developers back then were constantly trying new ideas. I think this one came out a few years before Need for Speed: Underground, the game that really made drifting mainstream.

Powerslide was released in 1998 and, unsurprisingly, it’s a 3DFX Glide title. It looks gorgeous and runs very smoothly on the PC I played it on, though that system was probably a bit too powerful for a game from this era.

The single player modes are the classics: Single Race, Championship, Time Trial, and Custom Cup. I tried the Championship mode, which turned out to be only three races long. The content is a bit limited, but that wasn’t unusual at the time. I tested a couple of cars and didn’t notice any major handling differences. There’s also a driver selection screen, but as far as I can tell, it doesn’t affect gameplay.

The defining feature of Powerslide is, well, sliding; hence the name. The first track is a wide, sandy area that’s really fun to drift around, and the rest of the game follows the same formula, just with tighter turns and trickier handling.

Overall, Powerslide is a fun and interesting racing game that’s definitely worth a try. I just wish it had a bit more content—maybe a few extra maps and cars. I also wish I could’ve tried the multiplayer mode to see how it played.

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Hardware:

Compaq Garcia
Intel Pentium III 1133S Tualatin
256MB SDRAM
3DFX Voodoo 3 3000
Creative Sound Live!
10GB HDD (IDE)

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Patches: