Split/Second

Split/Second is a racing game built on a single great idea: you're not just competing against other cars, but against an entire city that can be blown up. The whole experience is framed as a reality TV show, where routes are booby-trapped and the player has to earn the right to trigger them. By drifting, jumping, and drafting, you fill up an energy meter, which you then use to set off an explosion at the exact moment an opponent is passing through. A bus flies into the air, scaffolding collapses, or a section of bridge tears away, and the pack of racers is instantly thrown into chaos.

The strongest moments are the so-called big hits, which not only wipe out opponents but permanently change the shape of the track. A collapsed airport control tower opens up an entirely new shortcut; a dam explosion floods a section with water. So the race looks different in the final lap than in the first, and the player has to adapt. Besides the classic races, the game also offers disciplines where you flee from a helicopter dropping explosive barrels or weave between trucks spilling explosive drums. The driving model is purely arcade, fast and easy to read, without weapons and without damage meters.

On Xbox 360 it was an impressive spectacle. Explosions, smoke, flying debris, and blur when using the turbo keep things smooth even in the middle of total chaos, and a camera positioned low behind the car gives the speed real weight. The audio side relies on cinematic orchestral motifs and the announcer's voice, which holds the whole show together. Critics welcomed the game warmly and especially praised the originality and purity of the idea, but commercially it didn't do as well as it deserved, and a sequel never came. Today Split/Second stands as one of the most inventive arcade racers of its generation, and it plays just as immediately as ever. It belongs to those games it's a shame fell by the wayside, because nobody has properly developed its central idea since, and the concept of a race that keeps rebuilding itself remains appealing even today.