4.5 stars rounded up
I want to give this game 4 stars, but the style is so awesome and I feel many gamers will be over to over look the things I didnt like about this game. The style of this game is so cool. From the music, sound effects, weapons, cars, menus. It made me enjoy the game more than I normally would have. The game starts off nice and easy and is really intense. I enjoyed the first 23 of the game. The last 1/3 felt cheap and overly difficult. I play a lot of racers, and I was okay at this game, but I felt the last couple brackets of races were not hard, but cheap. I felt like no matter what I did I could never get 1st place in all these races. It required your best drivins skills and FAR FAR too much luck to win. For example for the first 4 or 5 brackets, after a little practice I could get 1st place in all the races. The last bracket was nearly impossible to finish 3rd. So I felt the game lost steam, coolness and the intesnsity the the first 2/3 of the game had. Other players might not have this problem and will ace every race no problem, or put in the extra effort it takes to get 1st place in the harder(cheaper) races... I don't mind hard, I mind cheap...
This game did feel fresh in a mostly stale racing scene. I recommend it for any arcade racing fan. If you like Burnout or Need for Speed then you will surely enjoy (most of) this game. Be aware this game has car combat. It is like Wipeout with BMWs. (this is the part that can make the game cheap btw in the later levels)