0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - 3Xtreme

     

3Xtreme is the third game in the Xtreme series of sports/racing games released on the Playstation 1 developed and published by 989 Studios the game unlike the previous entries would only release in North America the game cam out on the 21^st of April 1999

Like the games two predecessors is an action sports game where the player races again either human or AI controlled opponents while passing through gates and doing tricks to gain points, as in the other games in the series you can take out your opponents with kicks and punches.

The game features three different vehicles for the player skateboards, Inline Skates and BMX Bikes these are chosen at the beginning of the race or season in addition grind rails can be found throughout the courses, and which will gain the player additional points.

Season mode is made up of three stages or circuits the first circuit is made up of 6 races, the second is made up of 8 races and the final circuit is made up of a 10 race competition, each of the circuit races will put five opponents against you, with the races being ranked by their finishing position with the goal to come out on top by the end of the season, additional note during the season the course select is predetermined and you are unable to change characters.

By winning circuits you unlock new characters, tracks and equipment if you beat all three circuits with each type of player, the inline skates, BMX bike and Skateboard you will unlock everything, the game also has three additional modes exhibition, time trials and freestyle.

Sports/racing game no story present

Reviews are mostly on the negative side for 3Xtreme, but lets start with most non negative scores PSX Nation gave the game a fairly decent 75/100 while Digital Sports were not far behind that with their 70/100 for the game, Electric Playground were less lenient on the title giving it a very average 6/10.

This however is where the decent and average reviews end GameSpot offered up a 2.7/10 for the game, the reviews sub headline reads After playing the game for 30 minutes you'll be wishing you had rented something else, while IGN lead with Bringing the series to a screeching halt, 3Xtreme does not make three the charm awarding the game just a 3/10.

These are not the worst scores 3Xtreme received, EGM giving the game just 2.25/10, GamePen and PSM Magazine (rest in peace psm) giving the game just a 2/5, while Next Generation and Gamecenter could only scrape up a 1/5.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit five online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com,  eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific but from a podcast I listen to and  I have heard they have a huge stock of older games, I will also be including Ebay.com as well

So lets get down to business with Gamedude as you would expect with this being a North America only title Gamedude stock this game, a copy of this would set you back $9, if you are in the market to trade in your copy of the game then Gamedude would pay you $4 for your copy.

Uk based Retrogames as you would expect don’t stock this North American only title, moving quickly on to eStarland.com who have two used versions on sale, a used complete copy of the game will set you back $6.50, while a used copy without the case or manual will cost you $3.25, you can also trade in your copy with eStarland offering $2.25.

Amazon.com has a plentiful supply of Used copies on sale with prices starting around $1.40 once you have added In shipping you are looking at around the $5.50 mark which is £4.22 in the UK, in the Euro Zone you are looking at €4.66, at the upper end of the used copy market on Amazon you are looking at anything from $14.99 up to the $45 market.

New copies of the game on Amazon are harder to come by with only four copies on the market at the time of writing, with a minimum outlay of around $30 for a new copy of the game which is €25.39 in the Euro Zone, or £23.02 in the UK.

Moving onto Ebay.com with prices starting at $3.39 however the shipping costs from Ebay are on the extreme side the $3.39 copy has a shipping cost of $12.99 another copy on sale for the disc only is up for sale for $1 however has a $20 shipping cost which is beyond stupid.

Written by

P J Gibbon