In the 2000s, racing games were making strides like never seen before, with games like Need for Speed: Underground, Burnout, Tokyo Xtreme Racer, and Midnight Club, we were given not only quality but quantity all at the same time. These games took full advantage of the hardware available back them on not only consoles but PC as well.
There is a reason that the PS2 era was regarded as the golden age of gaming, with newly available online functionality, a plethora of games to choose from, and the games shipped complete without any day-one patches or DLC that occurred due to lax quality standards.
The focus today will be the legendary Midnight Club series which was made by Rockstar Games. Midnight Club was a racing video game that had the player step into a sweet ride and take to the streets to compete in races for first place while trying to outrun the cops with the goal of becoming a street racing kingpin.
The first installment featured real-life locations and featured arcade-like driving mechanics that engaged players in checkpoint races across the map. While the game did experience growing pains like most new games back then, it was well-received by fans and gained relatively positive scores. Soon, how a sequel got released would be a no-brainer to anybody who was familiar with videogames.
Second time’s the charm?
The second installment in the series, appropriately titled Midnight Club 2 featured a darker-tone, a more refined arcade-style driving mechanic that sort of inched closer to a realistic model and three locations to emerge victorious which were Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo. The game featured rendered cutscenes featuring the characters, more cars, and added online functionality. It even featured licensed songs. The game went on to become exceedingly popular among fans and thus, started to rack in even more fame. What do you expect? After all, it’s Rockstar games.
Real Big
Then came along Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition that took things a step further and would be the first installment to feature fully licensed vehicles. This time, it had dropped the globe-trotting feel in exchange for taking you to different cities across the United States. Also, the game featured a partnership with DUB magazine and featured customization in the same vein as Need for Speed: Underground.
That was not all, Midnight Club: DUB Edition Remix would allow players to travel to Tokyo and race even more cars, to the beat of even more licensed songs. The theme song of the third installment of the franchise would go on to become the national anthem of car guys of the Midnight Club generation alongside the theme song of Need for Speed: Underground.
Running on all cylinders for another generation of consoles.
The hype train would not stop there, Midnight Club: Los Angeles would release on the Xbox 360 and PS3 to welcome gamers into another generation of video games. The game did well despite some claims that it did not live up to previous installments. Rockstar released Complete and Remix editions to keep gamers entertained with even more expansions to optimize their experiences. This would sadly go on to be the last installment in the franchise with the series mysteriously disappearing afterward without an official word from Rockstar Games.
Down (and probably out?)
One thing that can baffle anyone about the disappearance of Midnight Club is that the game was performing well, it had a loyal fanbase and many are still hoping for another installment till this day, yet it disappeared off the grid without a trace. What could have caused the demise of such a great franchise? Licensing issues? Lack of funds? Not enough demand? That can be anyone’s guess but the team that had worked on the Midnight Club had been silently disbanded by Rockstar, perhaps to focus on different and more profitable projects (cough Shark Cards) such as GTA V and Red Dead Redemption.
Maybe even L.A Noire? That’s another great game that Rockstar has not given us another installment for. There were also reports of terrible working conditions that included 12 hour working days, working on weekends as well as shrinking benefits which made for enraged and dissatisfied employees. The very well could have been the most likely reason that the Midnight Club franchise is history, with no new installment in the series insight. One can only hope that Rockstar surprises us in the same way that they surprised us with Red Dead Redemption 2 regarding Midnight Club.
I hate to break it but with a very heavy heart it looks like there might not be a new “Midnight Club” game but hey never say never!
