Sega Extreme Sports is a sports game developed by Norwegian video game development company Innerloop Studios. It was released under a variety of many names and published by many companies.
The Dreamcast version features a soundtrack licensed from the electronic music label Ninja Tunes and includes tracks from artists such as Amon Tobin, Coldcut, and DJ Food.
Gameplay
In the Dreamcast version, there are six extreme sports including bungee jumping and skysurfing. Players will have the opportunity to skirt down the side of mountain vistas and surf through the air on a snowboard, barrel over rocky trails on an all-terrain vehicle (ATV), hurtle off bridges on a bungee cord, hang glide through canyons and crevices, and race on a mountain bike.
Unlike other multi-sport games, which often has each event as a separate component, Xtreme Sports utilizes multi-event tracks, where players might snowboard down the side of a mountain and then get on an ATV that will take them to a cliff which they will sail off of on a hang-glider. There are 12 different tracks, each having a different order in which the various events take place, some incorporating each of the different sports. These tracks are situated in environments that seek to emulate real-life locations, such as Mount Kilimanjaro, Maui, Scotland, Stryn and the Himalayas.
Development and release
The game was going to be a launch title for the European release of the game for Dreamcast but was delayed. It's a common myth the game was also planned for release on Nintendo 64, but this is false. In an interview dreamcast junkyard conducted with Henning Rokling, then-CEO of Innerloop Studios, he clarified the game was never planned for N64 in any capacity. He cited the vast large levels as something that was not possible to run on the Nintendo 64's hardware. The game was only ever in development for PC Initially and then Sega Dreamcast. The original publisher of the game was to be Eidos Interactive but didn't work out, and Innerloop Studios were still looking for a publisher for the game. Infogrames chose to publish the game along with other games for Dreamcast. Laddie Ervin commented, "Xtreme Sports is a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants virtual thrill-ride [...] Whether a player is hang gliding, snowboarding or bungee jumping, they will feel totally alive -- and totally out of control!" The game had official licenses for the gear worn by the main characters and for the soundtrack of the game. It was to have a list of online options for players to upload and download high scores through a global server. It was also to have ghost riders and bonus tracks and was set for an October 2000 release. The game was released under the name of Xtreme Sports in the United States.
The European version was published by Sega instead of Infogrames and the title was renamed as Sega Extreme Sports, featuring prominent "Sega Sports" branding.
The European PC release was released under the name of Pepsi Max Extreme Sports with Pepsi Max branding and was published by Empire Interactive. Infogrames, Inc. remained as publisher for the US release, which was known as Maximum Sports Extreme.
Reception
The Dreamcast version received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.