Over the years, arcade racers have always tried to capture the attention of gamers by promising some kind of new concept over their competitors.

Whether you’re firing funny coloured shells at opponents, rewinding time, finding hidden short cuts or just laying down the rubber, they're all typically entertaining in their own way, however the occasional title has a more lasting appeal than others. The newest contender, Split/Second, has been developed by Black Rock Studios. You may remember them as the team behind the quad bike racing title Pure, which enjoyed moderate success and was received quite well by reviewers and gamers alike.

Split/Second's premise is that the player is competing in a reality television series, trying to qualify for the next episode as they work their way towards the season finale. That’s all good of course, but like most reality television shows it needs something special to keep you interested. This is where Split/Second goes out of its way, adding explosions, destruction, debris - pretty much everything you would expect from a Hollywood action scene.

The game takes Burnout and the movie Death Race, shoves them into a blender, and creates an action packed racer. You have a power bar split into three segments. This power bar can be filled by drifting, drafting other racers, getting air time and experiencing close calls from the destruction around you. Each segment on it’s own forms a usable ‘Power Play’ which can be activated any time you see a blue icon appear above a car. More often than not, the icon will appear over a few opponents, and the corresponding power plays can be anything from exploding parked cars to a crane on a construction site swinging manically across the racing line.

There are shortcuts too, however they only open for a few seconds at a time. Sometimes you can draft behind someone and sneak through, but every so often the person behind will miss that opening and come to a crashing halt.

Filling up these three segments will give you up to three power plays, or you can combine all three and trigger off something special. These can range from a control tower falling across the road thereby making another route on the course, or a ship on a dry dock sliding across the road and taking opponents with it, to the whole track just falling away revealing an underground car park to race through.

The game is spread over twelve tracks, and although that is only a small handful compared to some racers out there, Black Rock have certainly made them memorable. Each time you see a track for the first time, you'll be more than surprised by some of the destructible environments in front of you. For example, you may witness a building explode and start to fall on one lap. On the next lap, the AI may trigger the building again, crushing following drivers and creating a small ramp to jump out the other side. On the third lap, the building may transform even further resulting in nothing but rubble and a minor route change. This is the sort of thing you can expect in almost all the courses. Some tracks can have up to three possible route changes - some minor and some very impressive - but each of them can really surprise you, particularly if you weren’t the one who triggered them off.

Longevity may be of concern if you’ve seen all the destruction on each track. There are races that won't show everything the first few times, and most of the power plays are avoidable if you know what is coming, so it really comes down to the management of the power plays at hand. You also have a select few other modes of racing throughout the season.

First up you have Elimination, where the last car is eliminated each time the counter expires until you have won or been eliminated yourself. There is Air Strike and Air Strike Revenge, which both put you against a Apache helicopter which tries to destroy you by firing homing missiles. The Revenge component allows you to build up your power play meter and send missiles back at the Apache. Destruction puts you on the track trying to get the fastest time of the eight competitors while the world around you is destroyed. Lastly there is Survival which sees a convey of truck and trailers dropping exploding barrels onto the track and into your path with the idea being to survive long enough to beat your competitors score.

One problem with most arcade racers is the AI, some being excruciatingly difficult, and some driving like an elderly relative to church. A lot of titles in the past have compensated by using "rubber band AI" - that is, the AI will artificially be moved into a more favourable position in order to keep the racing exciting. Well this game suffers from rubber band AI, but it's hard to see how the game would work without it. The races are always close in Split/Second, because if they weren’t then the game would probably be called ‘A Few Seconds Ahead’ which in all honesty, isn’t exactly catchy. Most of the time though, you can look back on the race and realize it was your fault you lost, not the rubber banding.

There are some problems with the game. For a game based on a television reality show, you really have to question where the replays are. I’ve experienced many exciting races, narrow escapes, even drifting between two cars as they roll down the track in flames but there is no option to view any of this once the race is over. Instead you just get a tally of the positions and move on. It would’ve been nice even just to have a highlight reel.

Another problem is the car selection when playing online relies on your progress through the offline game. It’s not a massive issue but it is frustrating that you only have a choice of what you’ve unlocked whereas the wisest move would be to allow online play to choose cars up to the same rating at the host. It is possible to unlock everything from the start of the game by purchasing the unlock code for $10 from either the Xbox Live Marketplace or PSN Store, but this just separates the gamers online and can become frustrating when you don’t see half the pack ahead because they have better cars than you have available. That said, the online play is stable and when you do get a good match up, it's enjoyable.

Aside from those problems there isn’t really too much else wrong with the game. The sound is excellent with appropriate music to accompany the racing - it’s more orchestral than rock or techno style music, but it works really well. The framerate is stable but the speed of the game doesn’t pick up till near the end. In addition, because the game is only 30 frames per second, the sensation of speed suffers when playing in third person.

If you’re looking for something a little new in the racing genre then you can't go wrong picking this little gem up. I really hope that Black Rock look at expanding on this game and produce a sequel, because with a little bit more polish they could have a hit franchise on their hands.