Powerslide

Back in either 1997 or 1998, Dad downloaded the demo of a computer game called Powerslide, a racing game by the now-defunct Australian company Ratbag Games. Normally, we were not into racing games, as we found almost all the ones we had played to be very dull and similar to each other (we already had Monster Truck Madness 2, and that game was good enough for us); however, Dad had read positive reviews about Powerslide and wanted to try it out.

Despite containing one track, we found the demo of Powerslide to be far more interesting and a bigger challenge than all the other racing games we had played. For example, in Powerslide, all of the vehicles the player could control had different strengths and weaknesses (such as one type being light with good traction but poor acceleration; and another having a bigger body and fast acceleration, but low stability), as opposed to all the car choices being different in appearance only. Another aspect of the game we found fascinating was the storyline behind the "powersliding", and the bizarre names and "bios" of each character. As well as having good gameplay, Powerslide's graphics were highly advanced for the time, with the various landscapes in the game being smooth rather than blocky.

We decided to buy the full version of Powerslide, and we were not disappointed. It was great to have the full allotment of tracks, vehicles, and characters (although all these, along with the higher difficulty levels, had to be earned by winning "championships"); plus the game turned out to be so much of a challenge that it was years before any of us "finished" it. Powerslide became further fun to play when Dad installed a network in the house and we were then able to play it against each other rather than just against the computer.

As for the Ratbag Games themselves, they were going to release a sequel titled Powerslide: Slipstream. However, they were unable to find a publisher for the game; and Ratbag itself was bought out by another company in August of 2005, then closed down by the new parent company at the end of the year.

Ratbag Games may be gone, but from what I understand, Powerslide is still being played...I even play it from time to time. It may be ancient by software standards, but it was groundbreaking for that era, and it still holds up pretty well. Powerslide also works on Windows 7, so I do not envision the game going away while operating systems can still run the program