There have been a slew of racing games on the loose for the PSP since its release, all with many of the same features; dealing with street racing, being able to upgrade your car’s performance, adding all the pimp-o-liscious details you want, but each game has had it’s own inherent features that set them apart from the rest. Need for Speed: Most wanted had police cars that chased you, Burnout Legends lets you smash and crash your opponents and now, Street Supremacy from Konami and Genki, adds a tactical and strategic game play feature as well as the illegal black top racing. Not only do you just race against other cars, you need to try and take over other car club territories and at the same time, prevent yours from being taken over as well.

Based on Tokyo Xtreme Racing, the console racer for the Ps2, Street Supremacy lets you scale the action down and carry it with you wherever you go. There are three modes to test your racing fortitude which include Team Rumble, Time Attack and Vs. Mode. Team Rumble is where you’ll spend the majority of your time playing as you try to take over the other territories of rival crews that surround you. Time attack is a basic time trial around a track to see who can get the fastest score and vs. lets you take on an opponent over the PSP’s ad-hoc mode. When you jump in the game, Team Rumble will be your first stop to earn some coin, called cp, which will allow you to upgrade your car and even purchase a new one out of the 25 available. The cars range from very low end, like a Mazda Miata, up to the high end street racer, the Skyline GT. Not only can you buy fancy new cars, but just about every aspect of them is upgradeable. For those that want go over show, you can upgrade the engine, exhaust and nitrous boosts, as well as more detailed parts such as clutches, brakes and suspension. For those that like the customization of aesthetics, there are plenty of choices there as well. Body kits, paint colors, rims and tires can all be tailored to meet your needs.

Whether you want to race against your own team to gain rank and eventually become leader, or race against other teams in different zones, you will need to race to earn the cash. When you do go race other teams, you can select which racer you want to challenge but you won’t be able to take over their zone unless you are team leader. To get the rank of team leader, you first need to start working your way up through the ranks of your team. You will be able to challenge the first few without too much competition but once you get to the higher ranked individuals, you’ll need to go out and find other racers more your level to earn higher levels and the coin to upgrade your ride. Unlike the Ps2 version, there is no free roaming to go out and find racers to challenge. You pick your challengers from the area select screen and scroll through each racer by names and stats. Once you have the area you want to race in, you choose your opponent and off you go. When you finally reach team leader, you and your crew can then go and challenge other teams and take over their territories. There are times that your territory will get challenged as well. When this happens, you will race against 5 of the invading teams racers and if you lose all five races then your team will be disbanded, likewise to the to the challengers, if they are defeated, and if it’s the only region they own, then their team will get disbanded.

The racing side of Street Supremacy is definitely not your typical racing game style. When you enter another zone and challenge a racer, the race will begin while you are already moving. You don’t start off the line unless you are in a ranking battle or a zone challenge, and even then it’s a little tricky to get a good jump on the clock. If your RPM’s are too high, you will end up sitting at the line for too long and if they aren’t high enough, you will take too long getting going and you can kiss the race goodbye. Once the battle is going, it’s not a race to the finish line. Each racer has a bar at the top of the screen called a Spirit Bar that will decrease with each bump and crash as well it will quickly start to drain if you and your opponent have too large of a distance between each other. If the racer you are facing is too high of a level above you, the race will be over in the blink of an eye as he zooms away into the horizon.

The handling of the cars as you compete is another aspect of the game that differs from many other racing games. Turning around corners can be a treacherous feat since you have no emergency brake to use like most racing games, and need to use regular brakes which will slow you down considerably, only to have you chugging along to get back up to speed and back into the race. The rear view is another feature that is a down side. The default setting to look behind you is the button above the accelerator, so if you want to look behind and see where your opponent is coming up from, you need to take your finger off the gas. Also, even though you can’t technically flip or even get turned around in the game, you can ruin your race by rear ending another car or hitting a divider, which will bring you to a screaming halt and blow any chance you had of winning. It can get quite frustrating at times since the handling of cars is so poor and losing a race because you couldn’t avoid smashing into a barrier two hundred feet away makes you wonder why you are even bothering. Once you start to get higher in levels and your cars get faster, it does tend to get a little better, but it does take a while to get up there and even then it’s not that great.

Street Supremacy does have some features to it that makes it stand out from the rest of the racing games on the market, namely the territory control strategies and the replay theater that you can choose from the main menu to watch rerun’s of previous races, but the racing side of the game, unfortunately leaves plenty to be desired. The idea of turf wars between street racers is a unique feature that would have made this game a great one, if only the racing physics had been done much better. If you’re looking for some racing action on the go, you can get a much better, less frustrating experience from one of the many other street racing titles available.