Super Charged
Power-ups are available in select racing modes (we noted their presence in Keepaway and Free For All Capture the Flag, but more on modes in a minute). There are a whole bunch of power-ups; in fact, we had a tough time distinguishing which were which when running into their glowing medallion icons. Fortunately, these power-ups mostly come in fire-and-forget flavors like Stop which freezes an opponent, Disruptor which distorts your rivals' view, Ice which causes other vehicles to slide uncontrollably, and Reverse Steering (you can probably guess what that one does). Some power-ups, however, bequeath special powers on you like Stealth, Mirror (which reflects others' projectiles) or Shield.
The effect of these power-ups on the multiplayer can be pretty spectacular and races are won or lost and flags captured or stolen depending on who can best utilize their special tricks. It is incredibly satisfying to drop a Disruptor on a flag carrier and watch as they careen into a solid wall. It feels even better to blast that Disruptor action back on someone with a well-timed Reflect. These power-ups serve to change the gameplay significantly, turning run-of-the-mill events into maelstroms of twisted steel and flying power-ups.
Mode Overload
Beyond the usual load-out of modes you'd find in multiplayer racing (like Ordered Race, which features a series of checkpoints, and standard Circuit Races), Midnight Club: Los Angeles also boasts several alternatives. Some of these are especially amenable to playing with power-ups and we found that Keep Away was one of the more exciting power-up-assisted race modes.
In Keep Away, you and up to fifteen other racers attempt to secure a flag by running into it. Once you've got the flag, you will accumulate Flag Time and the player with the most Flag Time at the end of a set time limit wins the event. The thing is that other racers can steal the flag by ramming into you, so this event rapidly devolves into an inescapable tangle of vehicles... until someone lucks out and breaks away with the flag, of course. It's so different from your average racing event that it's almost totally inaccurate to call it "racing" at all.
Many of the modes have been seen in previous iterations of Midnight Club, but a few are brand-new (and certainly the addition of power-ups have surprising ramifications on the classics). Landmark Races require you to sprint to a specific landmark checkpoint. Unordered Races offer a set of checkpoints scattered around the city that you can hit in any order you choose. Stockpile places a bunch of flags at a location and racers must simply grab as many as they can (one at a time, of course) and bring them back to their home base. Basewar Capture the Flag places a flag at each teams' home base, demanding that you play both an offensive and defensive game in order to win.
